I. Getting Left Behind. The Czechs are serious about their education, especially when one attends a Gymnázum. Afterall, this type of school is supposed to prepare one for university. So, what happens when a student fails a class for the year? They have to repeat the ENTIRE year, including all of the classes that they PASSED. In my view, it's a form of punishment. It tells the students that each and every course is important, even if you don't have passion for that discipline. Moreover, the student no longer has class with any of his/her friends, but is stuck with younger students. If the student fails the repeated year, they get kicked out of the Gymnázium and must attend a vocational or technical school instead. There's no time for horse-play here! In a way, I kind of like the idea. Often times, students get pushed along to the next grade even though they failed a class in America. Eventually, at least at the high school level, they will have to re-take the class they failed, but they don't suffer any true consequences. They still move up with all of their friends and take all of the other classes with them. If you ask me, it sends the wrong message. These failing students do not suffer any consequences or repercussions for their poor decisions. Are we truly preparing them for the real world?!
II. Secret Teacher Trip. Yup, you read that correctly. Gymnázium Strakonice organizes a "secret" teacher trip every year for their faculty and staff. It sounds suspenseful, intriguing, and exciting because it totally is all of those things and more! The administration organizes it with the geography teachers and they always take us somewhere different. The faculty and staff are simply told the date and then get on a coach bus-- no questions, no answers.
This year my colleague, Mira, was in charge and we could not get him to spill the beans or tell us any details at all! Ultimately, he arranged for us to go to his hometown, which is not too far from Strakonice. We visited the town of Štěkeň, which is also the hometown of Karel Klosterman, a famous Czech writer. Upon our visit, we saw the town's chateau, which is today run by nuns, and took a tour there. There's a beautiful room for concerts with great acoustics. It serves as a cheap accommodation for groups as well.
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| Štěkeň Chateau - Side View |
It's well-kept and was built in the baroque style. Much of the original decoration still remains, or has been redone since Communist times (as no religious symbols could be shown). There wasn't tons of money to create intricately detailed architecture, so painters were hired to make it the rooms look amazing instead. I thought they did a fantastic job. Here's one of the rooms:
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| Painted Ceiling |
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| Painted Wall |
We ended the tour with some tea and a cake baked by the nuns. Then, we went for a walk/hike along the river. We were able to see the spots where Klosterman pondered his thoughts and wrote his famous books. We also stopped for a drink at the pub along the river for a bit to enjoy the view and lovely weather.
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| Štěkeň |
Afterward, the teachers were invited to have drinks at a pub, which were all payed for by the Headmaster! It was a very nice evening and a great way to say thank you to the faculty and staff for their hard work all year long!
I. Vacation Time & Maternity Leave. Okay, so this isn't purely about the Czech education system, but more about Czech society in general. My Czech friends are always telling me: "Americans have the money to travel, but not the time. Czechs have the time to travel, but not the money." After some thought, it's so true! Many Americans have great jobs, and if they spend wisely while simultaneously saving some money each month, you'd think they would go travel all the time. The truth is that we're workaholics! There are always deadlines to meet or "emergencies" occurring that force us to either come into work early or stay late, sometimes both. Although some of my Czech friends do sometimes stay late at work, they usually go in and come home according to their hours. I've been told multiple times, "If you can't get to it today, it's fine. We can do it tomorrow." These two phrases are so unheard of, especially in New York, where it's all hustle and bustle. In stark contrast, most Czechs upon obtaining a full-time position get five weeks of vacation time a year-- right off the bat. FIVE WEEKS! The downside: Czechs have to save tons of money in order to travel outside of the country. The exchange rate compared to Euros, dollars, and pounds is currently... ehhh. Basically, my American friends would kill to get that much time off of work. Most Americans get 7-10 days of vacation a year, plus about five national holidays when starting a new full-time job. That's a total of two weeks, if they are lucky. You accrue another week of vacation time about every five to ten years, depending where you work. Most people max out at four weeks of vacation time.
Now let's talk Maternity Leave, you know, for pregnant women. This time we'll start with American women. Many jobs give women a whole 3 months off of work when they have a baby, some even get six months. If you are a teacher, you can extend it a little longer. We can take anywhere from one school year off up to five, but hey, that's only in New York City. Other teachers throughout the U.S. are not as "lucky". We do not get paid when we take maternity leave, so many women are forced to go back to work as soon as they are able, which is unfortunate. You have this cute little bundle of joy and just want to nurture him or her and be with them every second of every day, and here you are schlepping off to work and paying an arm and a leg for daycare (roughly $300-$600/month) for some stranger to watch your child. Greaaat! The Czechs? All women regardless of their full-time occupation can take up to four years off work to care for their babies. The majority take off for three years, and they receive state aid. There's a few options. You can take off only one year and get a larger per-month payment. The more years you take off, the less per-month payment you receive, but in the end all women receive the same amount of money. The women who take off for three years receive 7,000CZK/month = ~$350/month. Sure, it's not a huge amount, but it's something.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with this aspect of Czech society. It demonstrates how important it is not to overwork employees and stress them out, which can cause tons of health issues. It portrays the government's level of commitment to nurturing and caring for newborns and toddlers. I cannot stress how crucial those first few years are in a child's life, especially demonstrating a future love of learning and reading. Read your babies books, people! Books are worth investing money in, or go to the library and get them for FREE! Trust me, it helps us teachers out tremendously and your child will benefit from early intervention in terms of literacy skills.
