American's and Our Values

Last week as a class we read the Values Americans Live By. I found it interesting, and very true, how we have many odd but fairly important values to us that differs in many other societies. For example, when we read how time is possibly one of the most valued things by us, Americans, I didn't want to believe it since that would make the person seem like a "control freak" because those are usually the people who do everything by the book. They take a certain amount of time to eat in order to make sure they have enough time to get somewhere, with time to spare. When ironically, in a previous article Social Time, many other countries aren't so scheduled around time as we are. Our entire day revolves around it, when really we are the ones who make it so scheduled. An example of that is when classes are five minutes from being over, majority of the class begins to pack up. It doesn't surprise me that everyone packs up, it surprises me only because I realize that everyone, whether it's the teacher, or the students, must glance at the clock at least 5 times during class. This shows that we do value time, and where our time is spent. Another value that I found only strongly valued in America was competition. Around here, everyone is competitive, whether it's in a job, at a sport meet, in school, it's all around us. An example of that is our school. Everyone is strongly competitive in big things- grades, athletics, tests, etc that it shows when competition really doesn't matter. For example when running the mile in gym a girl in the class must run and follow behind the fastest runner in the class or else she feels as if "she didn't give it her best". I found this shocking because little things such as a gym mile time become such large factors into our lives. Partially because we have been accustomed to these social norms ever since starting high school, however, it becomes so valued we don't take the time to just relax and take things as they are. During tests, teachers have to always remind the class that this isn't a "who can finish first test" which incorporates time and competition as well; and the ACT isn't designed to see which friends can out beat others- yet we have been formed to act in competitive ways.