As the school year in Switzerland winds down, it is time for me to start blogging again about homeschool and education. For a while it has been difficult to write, because we were "guests" in another country and (apart from Zeus) new to the educational system. We wanted to give the Swiss school system a chance, and even when things were not turning out as we had hoped, it was hard to comment publicly on them. I suppose because my parents taught me that when you are a guest and you don't care for what is served on your plate, you don't make a fuss and you do your best to eat it anyway.
So much of what we have found that we didn't care for would be true of public school anywhere, although since my first-hand experience with American public schools is over twenty years old and I have to rely on the statistics I read and the results I see around me. In Switzerland, where the public educational system has historically had a good reputation, we hoped things might be different. It's taken me the good part of this academic year to ferment my thoughts, but in the end, I believe that the problems inherent in a system of compulsory education are just as evident here as in the United States.
1) A system of compulsory education kills the desire on the part of the student to learn through the boredom of long hours in the classroom and the busywork of worksheets and exercises meant to occupy an entire classroom.
2) A public school system has an assembly line approach, with the end goal of a predictable and similar-looking product. With this approach comes the loss of the ability to discover and train the unique interests and capabilities of individual students.
3) A compulsory public school system teaches dependence on a social structure instead of teaching independence and self-reliance.
Of all the challenges of this year, one of the hardest for me was to watch my children lose their joy of learning and discovery. We had made such progress the past three years, and to watch that flame get smothered under busy work and logistical back and forth was really hard.
About a million times this year they begged us to let them homeschool. But being the Mean Parents that we are, we said, "No," and told them they had to stick it out until the end of the schoolyear. Our goal for this year was for them to learn French and that goal is being met. In spite of themselves, their paternal language cometh forth out of their mouths.
One instance which illustrates my second point was the matter of English class. Our eldest daughter, Artemis, is, at fourteen, in the first year of secondary school in the nearby market town. At the start of second semester the question arose whether or not her grades in French class could again be waived from her transcript since she is an integration student. To answer this simple question, it was required to have a meeting of eight people: two parents, four teachers and one administrators, and a cantonal pedagogical counselor. We sat around a big table and discussed.
Each teacher gave a report on her progress and successes, and then the conversation veered off wildly into the problems of the German curriculum used in primary schools and philosophical arguments against private tutoring paid for by the state. We sat there quietly and stunned, wondering if we could perhaps just get back to the question of the French grade.
On the way, we came to the topic of English class. In her grade and level, Artemis takes beginning English class two times a week. Her teacher likes having her in the class to demonstrate American pronunciation, but has said that two hours a week would be too much (since she already knows how to count to twenty). Now while she is able to use one of those hours for French tutoring, if the tutoring stops, then she must return to English class. To meet the required number of hours, her body must be present there, whether or not she already knows the subject matter. There was never any question of testing out of English and spending the time learning something else. In order to pass the year, she must take the English tests with the rest of the class.
What all this demonstrated to me was that it really wasn't about learning English. If that were the case, she would be excused to spend her time on some other worthy pursuit. It was about meeting a quota of hours and subjects, of checking a box. It was about keeping the system running. It was about perceived fairness to other students so that everybody gets the same deal, no matter what talents or hindrances they may arrive with.
Somewhere in the discussion about whether it was the duty of the school to provide tutoring, the director of the school said, "Our duty is to make sure that each student is enabled to learn to his or her academic potential." Hmmmm, thought I. It's a good quote, and I'm swiping it.
Our goal was for our children to complete one year of Swiss schools. Our intention was to return to homeschooling after that. As it turns out, we will be staying in the country another year, and while we were willing to change our plans if they fell in love with School, they didn't and so we aren't. Because we know it is "our duty to make sure each student is enabled to learn to his or her academic potential," next year we will take them out of school and homeschool again. And that will begin a whole new adventure.
