Do they follow the same book?

That was the question that my friend asked the class when she was wondering why undergrad students in the United States lack of basic knowledge when they start college. To be honest, I did not understand why she was asking that. I was thinking, what’s the matter with the books? I am saying this because, in Colombia, the books that we follow in high school depend on the professor. Sometimes, in public schools’ students are not required to buy books because these are expensive. Even, each private high school uses different books. My face expression was the same than that of most of the American students in that room. What are you talking about? Of course, “we do not follow the same book during high school”. That was the answer that she got from the room.

Interesting! that was what I heard from her. It turns out that in Iran all high school students follow the same book. When I am saying “all students”, I am referring to the entire country. Can you believe that? I am still in shock! I just never imagine that something like that could ever happen. In that way, all students including those who live in rural areas have the same opportunities to be admitted to college than those who live in urban areas, even students from public and private schools. According to her, the education system is very unfair if we do not follow the same book. I have never taught that following the same books could make a difference. That makes total sense to me.  I always thought that only the difference in the level of education provided by private and public high schools could affect students’ performance.

It is very predictable that each professor will teach in a different way. However, just the fact that all students will learn the same contents makes the competition a little bit fair. At that point, it will depend on student’s motivation to master that knowledge. They would do not have to start from scratch as sometimes happen when you do not learn a specific topic in high school.

Do you think that by following the same books during high school we are making the competition fairer? Would you like to have something like in today’s education system?