About General Knowledge

When I was working with students, I often tended to hear their questions or incorrect answer to various questions. That was no surprise – the kids were learning, gaining their knowledge and had a lot to process.

These days , meeting with various people (who are mature, often with college degrees, who have traveled to many places in the world, and, in many cases, held important position at their work places), I am repeatedly stunned with “thunders” our interlocutors throw from time to time. 

Here are some examples: 

- The word "Colombian" relates to a coffee brand (no clue that Colombia is a country?).
- There is no such city in Mississippi as Greenville – from a person who originates in that state and lived in Mississippi for many decades (well, I checked, Greenville is the county seat of Washington County, MS) .
- Yuma? – from a person who has lived in Arizona for some years and still lives there – they did not know what we were talking about – they had never heard of Yuma, AZ.
- A song in English which lyrics mention “Zulu” and “Africa” is a Polish song and relates to Polish traditions – according to a native American-English speaker.
- Chianti? Is it a dance? (no, it is a type of wine)
- “I did not know you have corn in Poland.” (???)

I am aware that no human is all-knowing and I am no different in that matter. No judgment here – I do not write about it to criticize anybody, simply do not know what to think about such peculiarities considering those persons experiences and education.

Talking about general knowledge - I am aware I have forgotten a lot of information we were expected to memorize when I was going to school. In the school system I have experienced, all the school subjects were mandatory – there were no optional ones. Most of them were purely theoretical. Even at Chemistry classes it was all about learning by heart, no practical experiments at all. Although I did not complain about that then, the level of knowledge expected to be digested by us, students, was often beyond general. Since I was not going to become a chemist, I did not have the heart to fill my mind with all the atomic numbers of each end every chemical element  (which was required by our Chemistry teacher). I remembered only a few, the most useful ones regarding solving chemical equations. 

I must admit that my approach brought me some difficulties during written tests - when we were to solve given chemical problems and were not allowed to use any reference resources beside our brains. Anyhow, nowadays, of all the atomic numbers, I can only recall 1 - the atomic number of Hydrogen.

Another example - in Physics, we needed to memorize not only the SI units terminology. The older system of units was preferred by our teacher. Why? Nobody knew. The lady just liked it better.

Within the years, a lot of what I was taught/learned has faded away. Not everything, though. Occasionally, I exercise my gray cells trying to remind myself this and that. An example here are the names of the countries and their capital cities which we also had to memorize when we studied a particular continent. Then, we were expected to recite the names and show those countries and cities on the map. I did not like that part - any hesitation was disapproved by the teacher. Besides that, during tests, we were given a diagram of the continent we currently studied and was told to complete it with the names – countries and capital cities again. 

As I said before, the knowledge that has not been used fades away. However, it does not disappear completely. When I look up the names of capitals cities I cannot recall, they seem obvious and come back again.

Every day, no matter how old we are, learning opportunities come to us. Whether we are or we are not open to them is a totally different matter.

T for Tertiary Education Level

Not long ago, I wrote about the elementary school/education level I have gone through in Poland.
Today, more about tertiary education (post-high school/technical school) which I experienced there. By the way, in Poland, high school is not the only option for elementary school graduates. However, I will write about it another time.

In socialist Poland, there were no private schools and education was a state matter only. Studying at state universities was free, but not everybody could be a student. All the high school and technical school graduates who wanted to become university students had to follow certain requirements. First of all, their final secondary school exam results needed to be good. Secondly, candidates applying to a university had to pass a set of written and oral admission tests organized by their chosen institute. Passing those tests was not enough, though. Both the results of the secondary school and admission exams were then added up. Since a limited number of first-year students were admitted to every university, only those with the highest scores succeeded. However, there was one more, big thing taken into consideration as well, and it changed the final results a lot. The candidates/applicants whose parents were laborers were given extra points for their social background. 

The number of points was quite significant and was enough to push others down the admission list. Anyhow, it was quite common that someone passed the university entrance exams, but was not admitted due to the lack of "places". 

The ones who did not want to study for 5 years at a university/needed to start their professional career earlier + the unsuccessful university applicants tried their luck at a two-year studium of their choice (a sort of US college equivalent). The admission exams at those schools were usually organized a bit later, after the university ones. The rules were the same - pass the exams. If I remember correctly, the extra points for social background did not apply at the studium level.

A studium graduate was a qualified professional in their field without a formal degree. That was my education path. Sometime after I started working as a teacher, I decided to continue studying. The pedagogical university I applied to, recognized my studium diploma as an equivalent of a bachelor's degree. Nevertheless, like all other candidates, to be able to pursue a master's degree, I had to pass the admission test first.

The curriculum subjects (see below) at the teachers' studium and pedagogical university were the same (small differences only). However, the previous one provided much more practical training time than the latter.

FYK
You need to know a major difference between the American and Polish programs of university studies.
In Poland, from the first day at a university or polytechnic, you study subjects closely related to your future degree. All the subjects are mandatory, students do not choose anything. That is why, before you apply to a university, you have to decide in what field your dream degree is to be. Not every tertiary school offers courses leading to all degrees.
If it happens that, during your studies, you change your mind, regarding your pursued degree, and for example, instead of a teacher you want to become an accountant/doctor/lawyer/engineer/etc, most often you have to apply to a different tertiary school/university, pass the admission exams and start again.

At my time, all teachers to be, besides degree-related subjects, had to do one-year-long courses in ethics, philosophy, politics, and logic. From the course in politics, I still remember the name "Front Fremlino in Mozambique". I do not know why we had to learn about political parties from around the globe. Very useful indeed, regarding teaching kids. 

 

Besides that, the program of my studies included the theory of upbringing, history of upbringing, didactics, general psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, general pedagogy, early school pedagogy, playing a musical instrument, Russian (the only then available option, regarding a foreign language), and methodology of teaching the chosen school subjects (+ music at the studium level).

Anyway, each course finished with a final exam (rarely a written one/most often it was an oral exam).

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My final university "paper" was a size of a telephone directory. That was an expected size, I did not overdo it. In the case of the studium (teachers' college) I attended, the final book size followed the school standards as well (which was only a third of a telephone book size).

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The graduation ceremony was not a big thing (well, at least then) as it is in the States. No special outfits, no parents or other invited guests. Since graduates are no longer little kids, parents' presence would have been regarded as embarrassing. No graduation parties or presents either. You just took your diploma, which was a kind of hard-cover booklet, showed it at home, and put it in a drawer (there is no custom of displaying it on a wall). 

"You did well? Good for you. Go and look for a job* now." That was all more or less.

These days state universities, academies, and polytechnics still keep similar standards - you need to pass the admission exams, and the socialist-time extra points for the social background are history.
Private colleges and universities most often admit everybody who is willing/able to pay for their studies, no entrance exams are required.

In more modern times, I also did an IT studium (private school), no admission exams there. 

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* In socialism, manual laborers made more money/were paid better than degree holders.

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PS
The studium I attended had no canteen, cafeteria, or vending machine. It was a place of study, not eating. The latter was not forbidden, though. During the breaks between classes, we usually ate sandwiches brought from home.
Perhaps we had to do politics because (as the Internet says) there is a connection between pedagogy and ideologies.

 

More entries of "My Polish Alphabet" here.
 

P for Primary School

The end of school and graduation season makes me think about the state school system I have gone through.

In Poland, at least at my school time, the end of the school year/ graduation was not a big deal. Adults worked, kids studied and everybody was expected to do their part well. No end-of-school parties, or big graduation ceremonies. You just brought your school certificate/diploma home, and your parents were pleased if the final results were good, but nobody made a fuss about that. The school year simply ended and kids were happy. That was all.

My kindergarten graduation day

The exception was the high school prom, I will write about that another time, though. This time I am going to focus on the primary school level.

I need to explain the difference in the meaning of the word "class" regarding the school system. Here in the US, a class = all the students of the same year. In Poland, a class is a formally assigned group of students of the same age/born in the same year. In my school time, it was about 30/33 kids in class. Later, the number was lowered to about 23. Anyhow, the students of the same class/group do the mandatory curriculum subjects together throughout all the years at a particular school. There are many classes/groups of students at each level/year. They are labeled with a number (=school year) and a letter (=group name), eg. class 1A = group A/grade 1.

In the US, each town/city has its independent school district. In Poland, there is one Department of Education (the equivalent of a school district) in each voivodeship (region/the equivalent of a US state). The departments in the country follow the regulations set by the Ministry of Education.

The law defines that for students aged 7 to 18, studying at school is mandatory. They cannot leave school/drop out before the age of 18. If they do quit their schooling, parents are fined then.

The school year starts on 1 September. Two months of summer holidays time finish then. School gala dress worn by kids on the first/last day of school and on school holidays is/was a white shirt and dark (black or navy blue) skirts/ trousers.

The annual photo day - grade 6. At that time, each class in our school had an emblem (a badge sewn on the white shirt). In our case, the emblem (a boat) was sea related. On a regular school day, as all the school kids at that time, we wore blue school uniforms that parents bought at clothes stores. The lady in the photo was our "home teacher" (sea below), she also taught us Arts.

Grade O (preschool) - kids at the age of 6 - organized at schools and kindergartens. This grade is optional, most children attend it, though.

Grade 1-3
The same teacher teaches one group of children for three years. When I worked at the early primary education level, I taught kids all the subjects including Maths, Polish (reading and writing), Environment (elements of Botany, Biology, and Geography), Music (singing, musical notation, and playing percussion instruments), Crafts, Arts, and PE.
These days, from the first year at school, the little ones are also taught a foreign language, usually English.

Grade 4
Transitional year. Subject teachers take over. The norm is that the same teacher works with a group of students till grade 8 - the end of the school.
Maths (including Arithmetic, Algebra, and Geometry) are taught by the same Math teacher,
Polish (all language areas, reading, writing, grammar, and literature) is taught by one teacher also. Other subjects we had were Biology, Geography, History, Arts, Crafts, and PE. One of the teachers who works with a particular class/group is also their "home teacher" who controls attendance and stays in touch with kids' parents.

Grade 5
More subjects were added: Physics, Chemistry, and Russian. Nowadays, Russian is not part of the mandatory curriculum. Instead of that another Western European language is added.

Grade 8
We had one more subject - Citizenship Education (something like Civics). Among others, we learned a lot about the history of our city.

The modern curriculum is a bit different, there is also IT, of course. As I mentioned before, all the curriculum subjects are mandatory. When I was a student, we had to get positive grades in all of them to pass. It is different now. Whoever failed, repeated a year. However, there is/was no summer school. Nowadays, the ones who fail, in order to pass/get to the next grade, do an extra exam at the beginning of the next school year.

Another difference - there is no recess of the type it is in American schools. Instead of that, there are 5, 10, minute breaks between the classes/lessons. Usually, there is also one 20-minute break during which lunch is served in the school canteen. Kids whose parents decided to pay for the meal, have it in the canteen. The weekly menu is prepared by a school dietitian. The meal is usually the same for all kids and consists of a bowl of soup, a main course, a fruit drink (based on cooked fruits) + a dessert (yogurt or fresh fruit). Other kids bring their lunch from home and have them in the school halls.
When I was a student, there were no vending machines at schools and no cafeteria. I did not like the school meal so I always had my sandwiches/lunch prepared by my mom We had no lunch boxes, though.

School photo day - grade 8

Music classes include singing, learning about the history of music (listening to various music pieces), and basics regarding musical notation. No bands and no instruments playing in regular schools. If one wants to play the violin, for example, they go to a local state music school and have to pass an entry exam to study there. Schools of that type have classes in the afternoons two or three times a week.

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When I was a primary school student, all the learning was theoretical. In Chemistry and Physics classes we only observed science-related experiments done by the subject teacher. We had no labs, and no frogs cutting in Biology classes either.

There have always been Clubs (such as Sports or Choir) = optional classes that take place after school hours.

Oh, and one more thing. In Poland, there was/is no such thing as school detention time.
No school buses at least in city schools, either. Going on a field trip - a school rents a coach/paid by parents, using public transportation is also common.
No showers in older schools - you washed yourself at home.
No school mascots and no school sports gear that you get at school. The dark shorts and white T-shirts which we wore in PE classes were bought by parents in regular stores. Sometimes there was a problem with the white shirts, I do not know why they were not always available.

Instead of the yearbooks, there was an annual photo day. Class/group photos were taken then.
We had no school auditorium either. All gatherings were held at the gym.

Well, we did not have some things, but we did have fun and the quality of the school education was really good.

Any questions regarding the primary school level?

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This post is part of "My Polish Alphabet" which is about people, places, and things that come to my mind when I think about Poland.

Cherry Spring Country School

Not long ago, on 11 September, we visited the old Cherry Spring School, which was built in 1885. The school pavilion was constructed much later, in 1935. The latter was used for school performances/gatherings and classes were run there as well.

 

Visiting an old classroom makes us think about all those students and teachers who learned and worked there. Unfortunately, most often the teachers are not remembered and their names are gone with the wind. I have tried to find the names of the educators who worked at Cherry Spring. Well, at some point Miss Cora Petmecky taught there.

Once a teacher, always a teacher - a blessing or a curse?

 

 

The curtain (made of canvas) was purchased in the 1950s.

 

Best student in class

I know, teachers should like all the students equally. I did try to follow that rule in the past. These days, that best student is my favorite one. Rules do not apply here. 😊