Confidence or competence?

"In Spain, even if you are good at something, you are made to feel like you're terrible," said a Spanish ex-pat client who had recently moved to the Netherlands. "But here in the Netherlands, it seems like even if someone is completely incompetent, there is a certain confidence in the people."

I smiled at his observation because this was a conversation that my husband and I had had many times. And more so, when we discussed the many possibilities our children have in terms of the education system they will choose later in life. Our children are fortunate enough to have a choice between the Dutch, American, Indian, and Spanish education systems thanks to our various residence statuses and citizenships.

And from our observation, while the American and Dutch systems inculcate a certain confidence and optimism in students while building know-how, the Spanish and Indian systems are heavily focused on perfection on the one hand, which leads to rigidity (in the case of the Spanish system) and discipline and hard work in the case of the Indian system, which often leads to burnout.

So what is better? Well, Spaniards and Indians tend to be technically very sound. But what is the point of having sound theoretical knowledge when you don't have the confidence to implement it?

There's obviously no one better system. And that is why multiculturalism in companies works so beautifully when managed well.

As for our kids, well, the jury is yet to be out on that one - but one thing is for certain, they gain much more from the multicultural exposure than if they were stuck in one system or the other!

What does the education system in your culture focus most on?

#mondaymorningmusing #interculturalliving