America. The best country in the world, as most from here would say. While the country does have many good things, we do lack in some areas. Our general community and life, schooling, and morals are considerably different than other countries.

          In many countries, communities are much closer. They don’t spend nearly as much time in school or work, they have closer knit families, and work together more as communities. For example, in the Netherlands the average work week is only 27 hours. In France, 30 hours. American work weeks are generally 40 or more hours. In Finland, school days are between 5 and 6 hours with a 15 minute break for every 45 minutes of work. Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, according to research, have the closest knit families. While researching these things, I didn’t see the US in any of the top lists for these things.

           While talking to a friend of mine from Finland, I learned that they only go to general schooling (elementary and high school) until they’re about 15 years old. They’re also required to learn Finnish and English. While talking to our foreign exchange student Giacomo from Italy, I learned they’re also required to learn English and Italian. Most other countries require their students to learn English as well as their national language and the students only go to school until 15-16 years old. Countries like Germany, Finland, and France also have free college. America generally only requires English and students go to school until about 18 without free college. 

          From a moral standpoint, America is lacking. In places like Iceland, the crime rate is so low that people will leave their babies outside while they go into a restaurant to eat dinner (the babies are supervised of course). The police in Iceland are also completely unarmed. According to multiple sources, Germany has the highest morals. The Netherlands has the highest tolerance for LGBTQ+ and the most gender acceptance and equality. America lacks most of these qualities and didn’t show up on many of the top lists.

           All in all, America isn’t a bad country. We have decent community and family lives, decent schooling, and half decent morals. While we aren’t the worst country to live in, we have plenty of room for improvement. If we truly want to be the best and freest country in the world, we have a lot of work to do. A lot of this work could start with you. Even if you’re only 12, your actions and opinions could impact the future of this country. America. Lots of room for improvement, as I would say.