Showing posts with label comparisons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comparisons. Show all posts
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Spanish School System
One of the most common questions I get asked here is if I'm going to have to repeat the academic year when I return. For some unknown reason the Spaniards are very concerned by my study habits, probably because it makes up quite a large part of their schooling. They see me doodling during Greek and get worried that I'm ruining my future or something. Their eyebrows go up and wrinkle and they ask in worried voices why I'm not studying. I explain to them that there is quite a difference between Spanish schools and American ones. Most of the time they don't understand, and I go back to drawing aliens between my scattered notes.
I frequently get a similar question from back home. They ask me what my schedule's like, if I'm taking any electives, if I've been put in the easy classes, if I have a lot of classes with anyone in specific. Again, I have to explain that there is quite a difference between Spanish and American schools.
So, I'm here to explain to you whatever knowledge I have about the Spanish school system. Most of what I know is fairly hazy and based on whatever I've seen in my own school, so it may not be entirely accurate.
There are three basic levels of schooling, like elementary/middle/high school in America. They are primary, secondary, and bachillerato. Primary is like elementary school, and children are taught up to when they turn twelve. The secondary is four years of mandatory schooling. Bachillerato is two years of optional education that most students opt into taking.
The age cut-off to get into a certain grade is also different. Instead of being at the beginning of the school year, each grade is defined by the year in which everyone is born. Because I'm born in '94 and in the class of '95, which is the equivalent of the junior year, a lot of people think I've been held back. That's another thing- being held back, especially in the final years of secondary school and bachillerato, is exceptionally common. In my school in Malaga I had classmates as old as 22, who still needed to finish two more years to graduate!
One of the things about their school system that Spain is proudest of is the curriculum. Unlike in America, where curriculum varies from state to state and even from school to school, the curriculum is universal. The same subject is taught to the same grade all across the country. What I'm learning about in Philosophy is the same as what my friends in the north of Spain are learning about at any given time of the year. Another part of this set curriculum is that the credit system doesn't exist. Instead, each year has a designated list of classes that each student must take. It's not just one math class this year, one literary class this year, etc. There are no class choices. You don't get to decide what you're going to study. In bachillerato and, to some degree, in secondary, however, you get to choose to take one of three courses: science, social sciences, and humanities. Science, for my year at least, is biology OR technical drawing, math, and chemistry/physics. Social sciences is economics, history, and math. Humanities is history, Latin, and Greek. You choose one of those three choices and that's what you study. That is all the choice you get. All your other classes are mandatory and standard level for your grade, except in languages in certain schools or, if the school offers bilingual, in certain classes like Integrated Projects and Science of the Contemporary World.
School here is also just that- school. For the most part it's purely academic, so sports and most certainly student clubs and activities don't exist through the school. School spirit doesn't really exist, either, as there are no games or matches that students can go to and cheer their classmates on in.
So yeah, that's about it I think. It's astoundingly different from American schools, especially Summit, which is full of school spirit and different levels of classes, but there you have it. Just another thing here that's a change from back home!
I frequently get a similar question from back home. They ask me what my schedule's like, if I'm taking any electives, if I've been put in the easy classes, if I have a lot of classes with anyone in specific. Again, I have to explain that there is quite a difference between Spanish and American schools.
So, I'm here to explain to you whatever knowledge I have about the Spanish school system. Most of what I know is fairly hazy and based on whatever I've seen in my own school, so it may not be entirely accurate.
There are three basic levels of schooling, like elementary/middle/high school in America. They are primary, secondary, and bachillerato. Primary is like elementary school, and children are taught up to when they turn twelve. The secondary is four years of mandatory schooling. Bachillerato is two years of optional education that most students opt into taking.
The age cut-off to get into a certain grade is also different. Instead of being at the beginning of the school year, each grade is defined by the year in which everyone is born. Because I'm born in '94 and in the class of '95, which is the equivalent of the junior year, a lot of people think I've been held back. That's another thing- being held back, especially in the final years of secondary school and bachillerato, is exceptionally common. In my school in Malaga I had classmates as old as 22, who still needed to finish two more years to graduate!
One of the things about their school system that Spain is proudest of is the curriculum. Unlike in America, where curriculum varies from state to state and even from school to school, the curriculum is universal. The same subject is taught to the same grade all across the country. What I'm learning about in Philosophy is the same as what my friends in the north of Spain are learning about at any given time of the year. Another part of this set curriculum is that the credit system doesn't exist. Instead, each year has a designated list of classes that each student must take. It's not just one math class this year, one literary class this year, etc. There are no class choices. You don't get to decide what you're going to study. In bachillerato and, to some degree, in secondary, however, you get to choose to take one of three courses: science, social sciences, and humanities. Science, for my year at least, is biology OR technical drawing, math, and chemistry/physics. Social sciences is economics, history, and math. Humanities is history, Latin, and Greek. You choose one of those three choices and that's what you study. That is all the choice you get. All your other classes are mandatory and standard level for your grade, except in languages in certain schools or, if the school offers bilingual, in certain classes like Integrated Projects and Science of the Contemporary World.
School here is also just that- school. For the most part it's purely academic, so sports and most certainly student clubs and activities don't exist through the school. School spirit doesn't really exist, either, as there are no games or matches that students can go to and cheer their classmates on in.
So yeah, that's about it I think. It's astoundingly different from American schools, especially Summit, which is full of school spirit and different levels of classes, but there you have it. Just another thing here that's a change from back home!
Monday, October 24, 2011
To Be Honest...
Quite often I feel like my entire life is composed of comparisons. It's like instead of seeing colors, I see only black and white- new and old. For the most part I'm excited by all the differences. I love taking the bus from the beach to the beautiful architecture of the Centro, buying two fresh baked baguettes with a 1 euro coin from my coin purse, and the sheer honesty here. I'm approaching these changes with optimism. I'm keeping my mind open.
But, as those of you who know me well know, I struggle with optimism. Recently I've had a hard time finding anything but negativity in this foreign country. I feel like a news anchor for the international news- only focusing on the bad when there is so much good in the world around me. To be honest, the mindset I'm in right now disgusts me and I force myself to smile and say I love it here. I force myself to think I'm happy when really, I'm frustrated by the slurry Spanish and the unspoken social rules that I'm just expected to know.
Remember when I mentioned how much I love the pure honesty here? Well, even in this pessimistic state of mind I still appreciate it. One of my favorite things I've heard here was said by my friend Sandra after she asked me how I was one day and I answered "good!". She said, "You don't always need to be good. You don't always need to smile. If you're having a bad day you can glare at people and not talk because it means you get to wake up in the morning with the bad mood out of your system. Just act how you feel because keeping it bottled up just makes it worse."
She's right. One part of being honest is being honest in how you feel, not just in what you're telling people. It's OK to have a bad day as long as you don't take those emotions out on others in a harmful way. It's OK to want to go home and just watch 50 First Dates with your little sister, more than you want to see a world-famous piece of architecture. It's OK to frown all through school because it isn't something you wanted to do. It's even OK to complain to your mom for nearly an hour about how much you hate your professors and how all the girls are gossiping about you as an American and you don't know why because you thought they were your friends (thank you for that, by the way). Having a bad day is OK. Pretending you're not having it is not.
I'm learning how to stop cowboying up when I don't need to, which is hard considering I've been raised on that motto. If there's one thing that's different about Spain that I can enjoy through the good and the bad, it's the honesty- it allows me to be myself. And that is something I can live with.
But, as those of you who know me well know, I struggle with optimism. Recently I've had a hard time finding anything but negativity in this foreign country. I feel like a news anchor for the international news- only focusing on the bad when there is so much good in the world around me. To be honest, the mindset I'm in right now disgusts me and I force myself to smile and say I love it here. I force myself to think I'm happy when really, I'm frustrated by the slurry Spanish and the unspoken social rules that I'm just expected to know.
Remember when I mentioned how much I love the pure honesty here? Well, even in this pessimistic state of mind I still appreciate it. One of my favorite things I've heard here was said by my friend Sandra after she asked me how I was one day and I answered "good!". She said, "You don't always need to be good. You don't always need to smile. If you're having a bad day you can glare at people and not talk because it means you get to wake up in the morning with the bad mood out of your system. Just act how you feel because keeping it bottled up just makes it worse."
She's right. One part of being honest is being honest in how you feel, not just in what you're telling people. It's OK to have a bad day as long as you don't take those emotions out on others in a harmful way. It's OK to want to go home and just watch 50 First Dates with your little sister, more than you want to see a world-famous piece of architecture. It's OK to frown all through school because it isn't something you wanted to do. It's even OK to complain to your mom for nearly an hour about how much you hate your professors and how all the girls are gossiping about you as an American and you don't know why because you thought they were your friends (thank you for that, by the way). Having a bad day is OK. Pretending you're not having it is not.
I'm learning how to stop cowboying up when I don't need to, which is hard considering I've been raised on that motto. If there's one thing that's different about Spain that I can enjoy through the good and the bad, it's the honesty- it allows me to be myself. And that is something I can live with.
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