[originaltext] [26] Americans who remember "the good old days" are not alone

[26] Americans who remember "the good old days" are not alone in complaining about the educational System in this country. Immigrants complain, too. Lately a German friend was filled with anger when he learned that the first mathematics test given to his son as a college freshman included multiplication and division. Japanese businessmen in Los Angeles send their children to private schools staffed by teachers imported from Japan who teach mathematics at more advanced level.
     [27] But I wonder: If American education is so poor, why is it that this is still the country of innovation? When I was 12 in Indonesia, I had to memorize the name of all the world’s major cities. At the same age, my son, who was brought up a Californian, thought that Buenos Aires was Spanish for good food. However, unlike children of his age in Asia and Europe, my son had studied creative geography. When he was only 6, he drew a map of the route that he traveled to get to school, including the streets, the traffic signs and the houses that he passed. Dissatisfied American parents forget that in this country their children are able to experiment freely with ideas; without this they will not be able to think or to believe in themselves. Critics of American education cannot grasp one thing: freedom. [28] America, I think, is the only country that extends even to children the license to freely speak, write and be creative. Our public education is not perfect, but it is better than any other.