Home
Back to the Czech schooling system
Crazy/Absurd/Funny – if it's said in shortI've been going to the Czech school since 1st September again. I knew that my point of view about it will change after a year in Canada. Let's have a look at what has happened so far.
The first crazy/funny thing happened on the very first day. After our TA teacher read the ... I'd translate it as "students' rights and duties" ... she told us that the headmaster wanted to add something to it. The content of his message was as follows: "Please don't eat snacks of your classmates, because there were some cases of jaundice (hope it is the right word ... it's supposed to be some sort of disease) and we don't want you to get sick as well. The next day a stuff member happened to come to our classroom for some reason and she saw a kettle next to the window. My classmates used it for making coffee during the breaks. As soon as she realised we had such a thing in the classroom she told us we had to put it away, because it is dangerous to have it there. "However, if you have a written certificate that this particular kettle is safe you can keep it." I suggested making up "the confirmation", printing it and signing it ourselves. However, my classmates didn't realise that idea. Thus, they have no kettle now and they have to buy the coffee in the coffee machine. Well, maybe it was a coffee machine owner lobby :) ... and if you're wondering, I don't drink coffee ... yet :)
In order to contine in the same year of high school with my former classmates, I have to pass overall exams from the previous year from all the subjects ... including physed :). Almost all of them are done by now, but geography and math is still waiting. I'm happy that our headmaster has given me this chance, so I don't have to repeat one high school year. However, I think those overall exams are kind of funny. So far I've passed all of them which means either it's possible to learn all the stuff my classmates were studying the whole year in couple of days which suggests .... ehm ... that the whole year was just a waste of time or the exam is easy and that raises a question what is the purpose of writting it. Well, still two more exams to go and I'm looking forward when the whole thing is over ... and then we'll have a party!
Rouhly after a week of a regular shedule I started to have a strange feeling. For example, during history the teacher talks for 45 minutes and the students take notes. Well, what is the point of being there if you can study it yourself in 5 minutes? But ... no way of missing this class despite the fact I'm not going to have a final high school exam from history. However, I still need to be there ... to listen and to take notes ... I hate wasting time. In fact, I lot more prefer the Canadian way of teaching when students actively do something in the class. Instead of that the teacher tells you everything about WW2 and you take the notes, learn them, write the test and forget everything soon after, the teacher asks you to make a presentation about that topic for the whole class. That's lot more fun and I guess one remembers more. However, the students need to willing to do that. And this is in my opinion closely connected with the fact that the students have to take all the subjects while at high school in my country. Yes, I agree with the idea of the general education, but I think that one roughly knows what one likes to do and in which direction one wants to go in the last two year of high school. Thus, one should have the chance to pick up just a couple of subjects and not to be obligated to take them all. It'll be more fun for both the students and the teachers, because the students will be more interested and I bet it's awful trying to teach students who don't want to learn anything
So that's the situation. And what to do with it? It's not fun to feel like a university student who still has to go to high school. Moreover, I feel like we are playing some sort of an absurd game with the teachers. They pretend the stuff they teach us is important and we pretend we're learning it. However, I don't feel like geting bored during the classes and there are still many useful things one can do. Besides, why worry if it's just a game? Thus, I decided to make the most of my last high school year ... and who says it can't be fun? :)
I'm going to keep writting ... in English. So stay tunned!
P.S.: I have nothing against history – it just happened to be the example. In fact, I really like the modern history ... it's pity one finishes with the WWII and doesn't go further in most of the cases.
P.P.S: We passed the last overall exam! Officially in the last high school year again! I've got to say that most of the teachers were really friendly to us during the tests. I have a feeling that they didn't really care about the marks we were going to get, but they rather wanted to make sure we have learned and understood everything from the year we missed. I appreciate that. Thanks. In addition, the final high school exams look similar to those we just passed. It was nice that we can sort of try the final ones in advance.