In 2013, the U.S. scored below the PISA’s (Program for International Student Assessment) average math score and ranked 26th out of the 34 countries involved in the OECD, or Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD is a group set on promoting the social and economic well-being of the world. The U.S. math score is not statistically different than other similar, like-minded countries like Norway, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Lithuania, Sweden, and Hungary. On average, 13 percent of students scored at the highest or second highest level on the PISA test, making them “top performers.” Fifty-five percent of students in Shanghai-Chinaware  were considered top performers. In comparison to China, the U.S. is like an annoying fly that has only nine percent of students in the “top performer” range.

Also, twenty-five percent of United States students could not meet the PISA baseline level 2 of mathematics proficiency. At this level, “students begin to demonstrate the skills that will enable them to participate effectively and productively in life,”. With only three-quarters of the American population ready to use the required skills to succeed in life, our society will become worse than the country of China which we self-centered American people have labeled as a developing country.

Twenty-eight percent of Americans think that the U.S. is the greatest country in the world,while fifty-eight percent say it is one of the greatest countries in the world. Only twelve percent think that there are countries better than the U.S. Even with all the statistics saying that we are all inferior to many countries in many areas, we still believe that America is one of the greatest, if not the best country in the world.

Even though three out of ten people would say America is the greatest country in the world, it continues to fall behind other countries in terms of education and most other areas. Some of the few areas where the U.S. is unbeatable, are making cheese, denying new parents paid leave, and spending lots of government money that shows littles effect. If Americans think so highly of themselves, then they will be content with the state of the nation, preventing people from wanting to improve the U.S. This therefore leads to the poorly taught students being unable to figure out for themselves that America is not the greatest, as some history classes tell. This demonstration of extreme patriotism could possibly be the reason why America is so self-centered.

Michael Horn from Forbes says that students from South Korea “spend long hours in self-study after school, which helps undoubtedly, but for many, they tend to excel because their parents spend huge sums to send them to hagwons after the self-studying, in which students do their “real” learning.”

Students in Korea are encouraged by their parents to join hagwons, after-school educational facilities accessible by paying a modest sum of money. With one to two hours of self-study and also attending various hagwons until very late at night, it seems like the parents are forcing their children to work too much with no room to pursue their own interests. This isn’t very true, because in there are many different kinds of hagwons which lets you explore your interests. This shows that American parents are not as involved as other countries around the world, which contributes to the fact that we have a lower score in general compared to other countries.

In America, parents are not as involved with the students work, research shows. “Time spent in the classroom is simply not enough for teachers to instruct every student, to teach them what they need to know. There must, inevitably, be some interaction outside school hours.” American parents undoubtedly spend less time and money on education than other countries, resulting in a lower standard of education.

People in the U.S. are mostly satisfied with their their way of living, and so they do not want to change their way of living. When parents are brought up without any good education and a poor educational mindset, their children will not be any better off than them. Parents cannot be reeducated to focus on doing better, but the students still have time to learn. America must be reeducated as a whole to promote competition and gain a place on the global stage.

The America we know now may be worse off than it was years ago, even with all the new technology. We are falling behind in terms of education and most areas of concern. Uneducated people teaching uneducated students will only lead to an uneducated society. Now you should strive to do better and explore more things in order to make America great.