I (an American) was discussing science education with my colleague Lesley (a Kiwi) at work (in Scotland) one day. I mentioned that the definition of osmosis had been so thouroughly drilled into me half a lifetime ago by my manic biology teacher that I could probably still recite it. She looked doubtful, so I started off:
"The movement of a substance from an area of greater concentration... (Lesley joined in)
... to an area of lesser concentration... (Alison, educated in
South Africa, looked up from her desk and chimed in)
... through a semi-permeable membrane... (Sandy, passing by, added the benefit of his Scottish education)
... to reach a state of equilibrium!" We finished triumphantly, in
unison.
Our educational experience spanned four continents, but only one rote memorized definition of osmosis. The existence of the global village may be debatable, but we clearly all went to the global village school.