Why Is a Poor Nation Like Cuba Kicking America's Ass at Education?
Hint: It’s Not About Money. It’s About Classroom Management.
You ever try being 12 years old in the U.S. school system?
First period, Mr. Jones gives you detention for popping an Altoid in class. Second period, Miss Lane gives you a Jolly Rancher for answering a question. By third period, you're getting yelled at by Mrs. Smith for having a Jolly Rancher at all. By the end of the day, you're not learning math, or history, or English — you're too busy training to be a contestant on "Survivor: Middle School Teacher Inconsistency Edition."
By seventh period, that kid isn’t just tired. She isn’t just confused.
She doesn’t trust a single adult in that building anymore. The main thing she’s learned? Public institutions and the people who run them are dysfunctional and shall not be taken seriously.
As I complete my teacher education and internship to embark upon a third career, as a high school English teacher, I’m starting to see something I never noticed before. American education is failing, but it isn’t failing because we don’t have nice enough computers, or the right curriculum, or because we aren’t teaching to the test enough.
American education is failing because our culture is too highly individualistic to appreciate the value of uniformity in classroom management.
What Is Classroom Management, Really?
Let’s clear something up right now:
Classroom management is not curriculum. It’s not discipline. It’s not vibes. It’s not yelling. It’s not STUDENT management.
It’s protocol and systems. Classroom management is the invisible script that tells kids:
How to enter a room without causing a scene
When to sit down
Where to sit
What to do as soon as they sit down
What to do before the tardy bell rings
What to do after the tardy bell rings
When to charge their devices
What devices to have on them, and when
When to eat or drink something
When and how to get to the bathroom
How to transition from one activity to another without starting a war
How to leave class at the end of the period or day
How to move through the hall without disturbing other classes
How to sharpen a pencil without turning it into a hostage situation
How to ask a question without needing a full spiritual awakening first
How homework gets turned in without a scavenger hunt
It's the operating system behind the learning.
Good classroom management is predictable and uniform. But in the United States, classroom management varies from teacher to teacher, classroom to classroom. In other words, we’ve standardized the curriculum and the tests, but liberated the classroom management.
The secret good school systems know?
It should be the other way around.
Standardized classroom management and liberated the learning.
Meanwhile, In Cuba (and Elsewhere...)
Let’s take a field trip to countries that are casually wiping the floor with us in education:
In Cuba:
Every teacher is called Profe in Cuba. They’ve done away with gendered honorifics and the need to say the teacher’s individual name. Of course, students know the names of their teachers. But the uniformity and security of knowing you can call your teacher “teacher” the way Americans call their doctors “Doctor” lends the profession gravitas while removing the social stress placed upon young children to get the “Miss, Mrs. or Ms. or Mr” right.
The same group of kids stays together from age 4 to 18.
Teachers rotate, kids stay put. No chaotic hallway passing periods, just a consistent home classroom that is your forever place.
Classroom management rules are the same nationwide. Predictable, like your grandma’s Sunday dinners.
Finland, Japan, South Korea take a similar approach.
And here’s where Paulo Freire comes in.
Paulo Freire, the Brazilian philosopher every social studies major has tattooed on their soul, would have looked at modern American classrooms and said, “Ah, structural violence. Of course.”
“Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift.” —Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Translation? Freedom comes from building real systems within which learners can be creative, not from every adult doing karaoke versions of “My Way” all day while kids learn to do multiple-choice tests like trained parrots.
In Cuba, Freire’s ideas stuck:
The community matters.
The teacher is a guide, not a Vegas headliner.
Predictability builds trust.
Meanwhile, the U.S. looked at Freire, said, "Cool story, bro," and chose instead to build schools around B.F. Skinner’s dream of token economies and emotional whiplash.
Where Freire taught trust, Skinner taught "press button, get pellet."
Sound familiar?
The truth is, American classroom culture has absorbed the same sickness that infects our broader society: the cult of personality. In too many U.S. schools, the teacher isn’t simply a guide — they are expected to be a schoolwide celebrity, an entertainer, a brand, the star of their own show.
When the adult’s self-expression outweighs the child’s need for consistency, we’re not doing education anymore.
We’re doing open mic night. And the kids know it.
Educational Outcomes at a Glance
Let’s break it down country by country:
Cuba
📚 Literacy Rate: ~99.8%
📏 Avg. Class Size: ~20
🧠 Global Rank in Math: Not in PISA, but ranked #1 in Latin America by UNESCO
✅ National Classroom Norms: Yes
✅ Teacher Consistency: Yes
Finland
📚 Literacy Rate: 100%
📏 Avg. Class Size: ~20
🧠 Global Rank in Math: Top 10 (PISA)
✅ National Classroom Norms: Yes
✅ Teacher Consistency: Yes
South Korea
📚 Literacy Rate: 100%
📏 Avg. Class Size: ~30
🧠 Global Rank in Math: Top 5 (PISA)
✅ National Classroom Norms: Yes
✅ Teacher Consistency: Yes
USA
📚 Literacy Rate: ~88–92%
📏 Avg. Class Size: ~24
🧠 Global Rank in Math: 25th–35th (PISA)
❌ National Classroom Norms: No
❌ Teacher Consistency: No
Note: PISA = Programme for International Student Assessment, testing 15-year-olds in reading, math, and science.Note: PISA = Programme for International Student Assessment, testing 15-year-olds in reading, math, and science.
Notice how this chart isn't about who spent the most money. It's about who created the most consistency in classroom management.
The Freedom Myth
In America, we love "teacher autonomy" around classroom decor, management and rules, but expect uniformity of outcome on standardized tests. The adults can express themselves, but the kids can’t.
Translation: eight different survival manuals before lunchtime.
Freedom for teachers often means chaos for students, especially the ones already juggling trauma, language barriers, ADHD, or simply the Herculean task of being 13 years old.
It’s not "freedom" if it feels like emotional dodgeball.
That’s not education. That’s executive dysfunction bootcamp with a side of existential dread.
And it puts the onus of consistency and competency upon the child.
The Research Is Clear
A Review of Educational Research meta-analysis found classroom management mattered more for achievement than changing the curriculum or adding iPads.
OECD’s PISA data: countries with nationally consistent classroom norms beat countries where the motto is "wing it and hope."
A 2022 study in Education Sciences showed inconsistent expectations are top-tier stress monsters for kids, especially the ones who already feel like outsiders.
The problem is that in a highly individualistic society like the U.S., “expectations” are understood as “what we expect kids to learn” rather than “how we foster learning for kids.”
Predictable environments lower cortisol. Cortisol is what makes kids daydream about living alone in the woods by age nine. Of course our kids just want to hide under their hoodies by grade 6.
Lower cortisol = more learning. Wild concept, I know.
What Could We Do Instead?
Not suggesting we clone Cuba.
But maybe—just maybe—we could stop turning classrooms into teacher talent shows and start building actual systems kids can trust.
Imagine:
Everyone called “Profe” or whatever universal title you like
The same class management rules, every room, every teacher - not just the same curriculum. You always know where to find paper. You always know where to find the homework you missed. You always know where to find your backpack.
Teachers switching classrooms instead of kids doing the Olympic 400m sprint with backpacks
Kids growing up with the same cohort of friends
Not flashy. Not expensive. Just basic respect.
Final Bell
We’re not going to test our way out of this mess. We’re not going to worksheet our way out. We’re not even going to vibe our way out.
Until we fix the basic systems students live inside— until we offer predictability, clarity, and shared culture— we will keep setting kids up to fail.
Want American students to succeed?
Start with how they sharpen a pencil. Start with "Profe." Start by treating classroom management not as a cute Pinterest board or a reason for teachers to have their own YouTube channel to brag about “what works for the Magnificent Me,” but as the foundation it’s always needed to be.
And for God’s sake, someone just pick a gum policy already.
And the most important thing that you didn't mention is students in all those other countries don't have to worry about mass school shootings. No mater how good the education system is, when kids are practicing active shooter drills from kindergarten on they aren't going to do their best. Excellent post.
This is such an important piece. "Class room management" once upon a time was just a set of agreed upon operating rules, which were the critical cornerstone for academic success. It's heart breaking for both students and teachers that these foundational guidelines have been all but abandoned in U.S. public schools.