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.

S for Sioux

Sioux in Poland? It was a restaurant chain and one of its places used to operate in the city where I lived. The food was great there. The menu included a variety of different types of dishes, however, its main part was the Pol-Mex meals. Pol-Mex = meaning Mexican food made in a Polish way. 

The names on the menu were typical for the Mexican type of food, but they had not much in common with the Tex-Mex cooking, besides the ingredients. As I said, it was all delicious.

Another thing that I liked there was the interior. The restaurant had two floors, with western-like furniture, lamps and other decorations. Booths that looked like wagons were downstairs and saloon-type furniture upstairs. The walls were decorated with murals and photograph of Native Americans. 

The restaurant waiters were friendly and helpful. It was a really nice place to be regarding all sorts of meetings, and simply to have good and not too expensive food.

There was another Sioux place in a nearby city, Sopot. The menu offer was equally tasty there, but the restaurant was much smaller than our favorite spot in Gdynia.

 

The chain headquarters used to be in Poznań, a city in central Poland. More than a decade ago, my mom and I happened to visit Poznań. Then, we also went to their local Sioux place. To our great disappointment, their food was awful. You could think it should have been the opposite, considering the fact that the chain executives were so close. Well, maybe that was a sign that something wrong was going on and that was why the chain did not last.

When we came back to Poland, regrettably, we learned that our favorite Sioux place in Gdynia (+ most of them in the country) had been closed.

 

 
PS

Google says that the restaurant still operates in only two cities in Poland.

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

November Memories

November 1963

Clipping source:  Frailey, F. W. & Woosley, Joe. The Daily News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 277, Ed. 1 Sunday, November 24, 1963, newspaper, November 24, 1963; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth824302/: accessed November 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.

The photo was taken a few days after the tragic death of President John F. Kennedy.

My Little Man is standing near the Memorial site in Dallas, TX.

My Polish Alphabet: R for "Red Belt"

 

 

"Red Belt" (Czerwony Pas) was one of the songs that we sang with my primary school girls' choir. One of the two I can recall.

The song about Hutsuls (Carpathian highlanders) living their happy and free lives in the Carpathian Mountains is quite old and known both in Poland and Ukraine. I like the changing tempo of the tune - from slow to a faster one. It is also one of the traditional songs that used to be sung by many generations on both sides of the Polish/Ukrainian border. The piece comes from a drama (published in 1843) written by Józef Korzeniowski, Polish writer who lived in the area that was part of Poland then. Nowadays, it is western Ukraine.

A traditional version of the Red Belt

 More modern version of the song by a contemporary folk group

Our choir director was also our Music teacher, a man in his early thirties.  As I have already mentioned in one of my previous posts, the Music curriculum in Polish educational system is related to general knowledge of music, its history, composers and their main pieces + basic understanding of notes and musical notation.  The choir was an extra/after classes activity, officially not mandatory. However, if the teacher said you had a good voice/musical ear, you had to participate in the choir activities to get an A in Music.

So we did sing at school assemblies and once even participated in a regional school choirs competition. I cannot remember what the outcome of the latter was, though. Our teacher was quite good at his profession, he played the piano during the Music classes and accompanied the girls' choir. We had the songs sheets, with lyrics only, as singing songs/notes was not part of the school subject curriculum. We simply followed the musical instructions given by the teacher and the melody played by him on the piano.

During the summer break, the teacher was part of the music band on the Stefan Batory passenger liner, that regularly cruised between Poland and the USA. At that time, traveling to the Western countries including the US was not a thing that everybody could do. Mainly those people whose jobs required crossing the border were allowed to do so. The man must have been a good piano player to get a job on that passenger cruiser and/or perhaps had some "connections" that helped him achieve that.

Stefan Batory

Somehow, my girlfriend and I did not see that particular side of it all and we were not impressed that the man managed to see the States every now and then. We found it rather funny and peculiar that an honorable teacher was also a band musician on a boat. These days, I look at it differently, but being kids, we found it weird and rather undignified.

Another thing that made us little girls laugh was the teacher's socks that he tended to wear quite often.

It was the time of the "Interkosmos" mission project, when the international astronauts crew made their first spaceflight. Our teacher seemed to like wearing colorful socks with the "Interkosmos" logo on them. I do not know whether anybody else noticed that, but we, silly girls, did.

Wherever the man is these days, I wish him all the best. I liked the choir days/time.

The other song I can recall we sang with the girls' choir was a Polish version of Joan Baez's song "Donna". The Polish lyrics made it an anti-war song. Somehow, I can still remember the song words.

(My free translation into English)

One life you have,
who will you give this flower to,
do not go across the river,
you will perish there.
One life you have,
who will you give this flower to,
when a shot will come from across the river.

People, people do not perish,
you will save the world.
People, people, I pity you,
It is the war that is to perish.

Dona, Dona...

PS
Years ago, when I was still working in Poland, one day, I happened to wear a t-shirt with the word "Texas" on it. During a class, some students of mine started giggling "O - Texas, Texas". I guess, my Texas t-shirt was in their eyes an equivalent of the Music teacher's Interkosmos socks.

Credits: 

Stephan Batory ship photo: By Wolfgang Fricke - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=103579976

K for Kashubia

Somebody has asked me what the creature on my T-shirt is.

It is a griffin, mythical animal - half-eagle, half-lion. It is also the crest of Kashubians, an ethnic (Slavic) minority group, who live in the Pomeranian region of Poland. 

Kashubians have their own language, a flag (black and yellow), and an anthem.
I have no family connection to Kashubians, but I lived in Kashubia all my Polish life. In that way, Kashubian music and traditions are part of me.

One of the cutting boards I have decorated, with Kashubian motifs, of course

 

 

And my hand-painted T-shirt (one of a few) with a Kashubian pattern. People tend to think it is an overprint.

However, in Poland, I never had and never wore a Kashubian folk outfit. If somebody had told me then that I would wear one in Texas, I would have taken it as a good joke.

 

At the State Fair of Texas in Dallas

 

Well, we both did wear Kashubian folk costumes when we were part of a Polish-American folk dance ensemble. 

 

At the Dallas International Festival

 

We enjoyed that and, at the same time, were quite proud of our outfits too. 

 

Me in Kashubia, years ago.

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

H for Hel and Hel Peninsula

H is for Hel and Hel Peninsula (in "My Polish Alphabet"). They are situated in the very north of Poland. 

(1)

Hel used to be a fisherman's village. These days, especially in the summer, the place is popular with tourists, amateurs of fresh fish, and sunbathing on the sandy beaches facing the open Baltic Sea.
During storms, the peninsula is often severely flooded by the sea waters, which temporarily turn it into an island.  

headland of Hel Peninsula (2)

 

The name of the place, "Hel" may make you think about those hellish type weather conditions. Considering etymology, it is related to the word "Valhalla" (Norse mythology).

Hel Peninsula - air view (3)

From the mainland, you can get to Hel by a small cruiser or by train. However, boats tend to be chosen more often. In the summertime, we did go there from time to time. I am not much of a beach-type person, but fried fish meals at local food places were quite enjoyable. On the other hand, I did not fancy the summer crowds of tourists there. Once, when we were coming back home by the last boat scheduled on that day, the ship was so overcrowded that its immersion was deeper than usual. The seawater was shaking the cruiser from one side to another. It all was a bit scary but we safely got to the harbor.

In 1938, my Grandfather was stationed there with his Military Gendarmerie unit (MP equivalent). Shortly before WW2 started in September 1939, he was transferred to the Gdynia city war port area, and his family (including my Mom) moved there from Hel as well. 

Photo taken in Hel, 1938 - Mom, with her parents and sister

In the above photo, you can see the Hel pier in the background. The picture was taken when Mom and her family were waiting for the arrival of a state/military official, his wife, and his entourage. Possibly, the state man was admiral Józef Unrug, but Mom cannot recall who exactly it was. Mom remembers, though that he wife of the official put candies into the pockets of her dress.

I have colorized and enhanced the copy of the original photo using the online MyHeritage tools. Its quality improved, but the colors are not completely true to life, close enough, though. The girls' vests were really red and their dresses (made by their Mom Irena) had red cherries on the white background.

 

More about Grandpa Józef and what happened to him after the war started in another post here.

More posts about Grandma Irena here and here.

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 "My Polish Alphabet" includes posts related to things, places, and people that come to my mind when I think about Poland. 

 

Sources:

1. Map of Poland - By Qqerim - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3835854

2. By Jg44.89 - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84888904

3. By Martin Hoffmann - Own work (Original text: self made), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57112944

Everybody for Everybody?

I was brought up with the idea that everybody works for everybody. It means we are all affected by the results of each other's work, that is why everybody should do their job well.

Let's say a tailor makes clothes for bricklayers, doctors, drivers, and you name it. The tailor should work well not only to stay in business but also because he depends on the work and service performed by other professionals - bricklayers, doctors, drivers, car mechanics, and many others. And he wants their service to be of a good standard too.

 

 

I have been thinking about that for some time. Is the idea of mutual dependence lost totally, or is it maybe just an old-fashioned and extinct approach?

Recently, I had two pieces of jewelry repaired at Baublit Jewelers in Kerrville, TX. The items were not only very well mended at a fair price, but the old and dull-looking pieces were also made shiny and attractive again. The jeweler did a wonderful job fixing and restoring the lost beauty of my items. It seems the idea of trade honor still exists. Well, at least somewhere, and in some cases. 

G for Gdańsk

One of the Gs in "My Polish Alphabet" is for Gdańsk. The city situated by the Baltic Bay, in the north of Poland, is over 1000 years old. Its prettiest part is the old town, I think.

 The old town was totally destroyed during WW2. It was rebuilt in the 1950s and 60s.

Golden Gate (1612/14)

Long Street and the old town hall in the background

Long Street

Hedwiga in the attic window

Every day at 1: 03 PM, a figure of a young lady appears in that attic window on Long Street. It is Hedwiga, a heroine of an old romance described in a novel in 1891. As a young girl, she had been rescued from Turkish captivity and now is to be married by her guardian Johann. However, Hedwiga is in love with somebody else. She is waiting for her sweetheart, Lieutenant Kazimierz.

Neptune's Fountain (1605/16) in front of Uphagen's House.

 The two lions holding a shield (see one of the photos below) are the Gdańsk coat of arms.

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

About Sports

When I once mentioned I used to play handball, people who I talked to had no clue what game I was talking about. They tended to associate the game with throwing a ball against a wall.

Well, the handball I used to play in high school was a team sport/game. We also played volleyball, but I preferred handball.

 

Elementary school level - we played basketball and sometimes rugby. The latter was awful, though. No, that game was not our choice. Our teacher must have liked rugby, so he made us play the game a few times.

What games/sports did you do at school?

In the Hill Country, TX

About Superstitions

In the book "Krasna Amerika" (Beautiful America), several superstitions popular among the Czech people are mentioned. It seems to me that some of the superstitions are quite "international" ones, as I have heard about them before. Here are a few examples. Are you familiar with any one of them? 

1. When four people shake hands crossing them, some of their relations will get married soon.

2. To save the bees when their owner dies, one should knock on the hive and tell them that their carer has died.

3. Rain on Good Friday is a sign of a very dry year coming.

4. When two sisters get married on the same day, one of them will be unlucky.

 

5. A swallow's nest between the roof beams brings good luck to the house dwellers.

6. If a girl wants to get married next year, she should not look in any mirror on the last day of the current year.

7. Cover the mirrors (for a few days) in the house when somebody dies in it and there is a coffin too. If anybody sees the reflection of the coffin in a mirror, they will die soon.

 

8. When somebody dies in a house, a window needs to be open to let the soul go out.

 

9. Do not start new projects on Friday - it brings bad luck. Friday - bad beginning.

 

10. Spiders are supposed to bring money.

11. Washing feet in a stream on Maundy Thursday is supposed to bring good health during the entire year.

12. Sweeping around somebody's feet is supposed to bring bad luck to that person.

13. A dream about teeth loss - you will learn about somebody's death soon. 

 

Texas Czech Culture and Heritage Center, La Grange, TX

 

Bad/good omens I have learnt about in my family:

• Shaking hands over a threshold brings parting of the two persons is coming soon. So shaking hands while standing in the doorway was always avoided.
  
• Finding a spider in your home is a sign of good luck. I used to have a neighbor who would have never killed a spider, even when it was found in a bathtub. He too believed that "lucky/happy is the home where the spiders are".
  
• Regarding superstition no. 13
  When I dream about loose teeth + blood = sometime later, I learn about a passing of a relative. Loose teeth and no blood in a dream = soon I am told about a death of an acquaintance. This actually runs in our family. My mom's dreams of that kind announce the same future facts.
  

Source: 

"Krasna Amerika: A Study of the Texas Czechs, 1851-1939" by Clinton Machann, James W. Mendl, Eakin Press, Austin, Texas, 1983

Rachel Loretta Gant Barrier

Cousin Rachel found me via an ancestry research-related website. We both were "investigating" the same ancestors and family names. The lady sent me an email in which she introduced herself (it appeared Rachel was the daughter of our uncle Leffel) and asked questions regarding our family connections. I was glad to hear from Rachel indeed! Due to various, unimportant these days circumstances, the two sides of our family had lost contact decades ago.

Sometime after the email exchange, we met Rachel and her husband Ellis at their home in Gunter, TX. Our Cousin treated us to a great lunch. Then, we talked about our ancestry research and exchanged folders with various genealogy files.

Cousin Rachel showed us the family heirlooms - the furniture pieces our ancestors brought to Texas on an oxen-pulled wagon. We had a great time talking and visiting together. When we were leaving, we received a wonderful gift from Mr. Ellis. It was a Texas-shaped wall decoration created by him. It was made of wood & barbed wire.

Texas board made by Ellis

I also wrote down the recipe for chicken spaghetti* served by Cousin Rachel. The meal was delicious!

After the visit, Rachel and I kept in touch via FB. At the end of 2021, she informed us that her health had deteriorated. Sadly, following that, the lady contracted pneumonia. Rachel passed on 26 November 2021.

In the folder given to me by Rachel, among others, she included some notes regarding herself, her husband Ellis, and her siblings. I used them in the following note dedicated to our Cousins.

Rachel Loretta Gant was born on 9 November 1840 at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas, TX.

The 1950 census recorded the family members in their Dallas home on 7 April (1). The household dwellers were 46-year-old Leffel, his 50-year-old wife Ollie, and their children: 16-year-old Rodney R, 12-year-old Mary L, and 9-year-old Rachel L. Ollie's mother, 81-year-old Mary E Standley (born in Louisiana) also lived with the family.

Mrs. Ollie, Rachel's mom

 

Rachel lived with her parents Leffel and Ollie (Olivia) Standley in their home in Dallas for 17 years. Then, the family moved to 3626 Oak Grove in the same city. Rachel lived at the parents' home until she got married.
She studied at Crozier Tech High School, which she graduated from in 1959. Later, Rachel attended two-year El Centro Junior College and worked at Republic National Bank in Dallas.

23 December 1960 - First Baptist Dallas Church - 23-year-old Rachel Loretta became the wife of 27-year-old Ellis Knight Barrier, the son of Morris Weldon Barrier and Arden Knight Pool.
Rachel and Ellis had four children.

In 1977, they moved to Gunter, Wood, Texas, where Rachel worked part-time at First Baptist Church.

More about Rachel in the note on Findagrave.

Ellis Knight Barrier was born on 28 October 1936. His father, Mr. Morris Weldon, was a teacher (2). Ellis and his parents lived in Cookville, Titus, TX. By 1950, Mr. Morris W Barrier had been promoted to school superintendent and Ellis had two younger siblings Elizabeth and Franklin (3).

Ellis Knight Barrier served in the Air Force Reserves, he also studied at UTA for three and a half years.
Then, the man worked at General Motors Parts Division for thirty years. After his retirement, Ellis started his own company. He made and sold Texas barbed wire plaques. 

The card was attached to the board we were given by Ellis

 Ellis K Barrier passed on 10 September 2022, not even a year after Rachel's departure.

More about Ellis - here.

As for Rachel's siblings

Leffel Last Jr. died in infancy. He was born on 22 December 1931. The baby developed an intolerance to baby formulas at the age of 6 months. Little Leffel was admitted to Bradford's Baby Hospital on 18 June 1932, where he died due to dehydration.

Rodney Ray was born on 24 April 1933 in Dallas, TX.
The man was drafted into the Army and then was stationed in Germany. Rodney got married on 29 December 1956 in Dallas, TX.
He took aviation training and worked as a private plane instructor and pilot for many years. Rodney also worked at Rebuilders Supply Company managed by his uncle Collins Standley, was employed by the Dallas Fire Department, and then worked part-time for Central Freight Lines.
Rodney Ray lived in Plano, TX. He died of a heart attack on 16 November 1997.

Mary Louise was born on 12 August 1937. She left this world a few months after Rachel's passing, on 29 July 2022. Mary Louise lived 84 years.

Rachel, Rodney, and Louise

 PS

*I make the chicken spaghetti from time to time. We call the dish "Rachel's spaghetti".

Credits: the photos of Ollie Standley and Rachel with her siblings I attained during our genealogy exchange with Rachel.

Sources:

1. "United States 1950 Census", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XGG-K8B8 : Tue Jul 11 10:02:09 UTC 2023), Entry for Leffel Gant and Ollie O Gant, 7 April 1950.
2. "United States Census, 1940", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K435-H3Y : Thu Jul 13 06:33:34 UTC 2023), Entry for Morris W Barrier and Arden Barrier, 1940.
"United States 1950 Census", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XG1-J91J : Thu Jul 27 09:38:37 UTC 2023), Entry for Morris Barrier and Arden Barrier, 1 April 1950.

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).

📖

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).

📘

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.

About Childhood Rhymes

When I was little, my mom tried to teach me the German language. Being a kid, I found some German words to sound funny then, but I still remember the rhyme she taught me.

"Eins, zwei, Polizei
Drei, vier, Offizier
Fünf, sechs, alte Hex
Sieben, acht, gute Nacht
Neun, zehn, schlafen gehen,
elf, zwelve, Gotthelf."

While playing in the yard, we often recited counting-out rhymes in Polish. My favorite one is perhaps the one in which words have no meaning in this language besides the word "tabaka" ("snuff"). However, the word is used here to give rhyme only, not to make any sense at all. 

"En-ten-tino,
Sa-ca-ra-ca-tino,
Sa-ca-ra-ca i ta-ba-ka,
en-ten-to.
Ranibusek, ranibusek,
en-ten-to."

On the words "ranibusek, ranibusek" [pronounced: rahneebooseck], the kid who was counting out stopped doing that, and with their hand, made two "air circles" in front of their belly. Then, continued counting out again.

Whilst reading the book "Krasna Amerika"* (Beautiful America), I came across this counting-out rhyme in Czech which words are more or less meaningless as well. I quite like it. 

"Angle, pangle, verkum, pek,
štaple, makle, šlaka, flek." 

šlaka = slag
štaple= staples
flek = stain
The words "angle" and "pangle" seem familiar in English, however, are pronounced differently [a:ngleh, pa:ngleh].

Can you remember any rhymes from your childhood?

Photo: Historic school in Kashubia, Poland.

*"Krasna Amerika: A Study of the Texas Czechs, 1851-1939" by Clinton Machann, James W. Mendl, Eakin Press, Austin, Texas, 1983"

X for Xylophone

 

Time for a little story.

There was a bunch of little girls. The girls lived in the same neighborhood and attended a local primary school. They were youth club members of a xylophone group that had its base at a district youth club. That type of youth club was called a "common room" then. It was a place where kids, supervised by an instructor/club employee, played games and did art projects, and it belonged to the city district housing administrators.

Ladybirds Performance - 12 January 1975

Anyway, "Ladybirds" was the name of the xylophone group, and my mom was our music director. She prepared the music arrangements for us and taught us to play the music pieces on the instruments provided by the club management.

We did play various tunes that we learned by heart: classical music, pop songs, and folk melodies, as well. From time to time, the Ladybirds performed at other culture-related places and city district clubs. Our xylophone career did not last long, but it was fun.

I can still remember some of the tunes we played. Here is one of them - can you tell what it is?

E,E,G E,E,G

E,G,C,H*,A,A,G 

D,E,F,D  D,E,F  D,F,H,A,G,H,C

C,C,c  A,F,G  E,C,F,G,A,G,

C,C,c  A,F,G  E,C,F,E,D,C

Ladybirds

Our performance dress code was white blouses, white tights, and navy-blue skirts. The red ribbon made a bow tie. At some point, at my mom's request, the club management provided a ladybird-like fabric: red velvet with black polka dots. Our moms made skirts out of it. Those skirts completed our Ladybird gear.

PS

*H is B in the English nomenclature.