Differences in School

School starts earlier here. The doors open at 7:40 and they lock the front door at 7:55. The first class begins at 8:00. The high school begins around 7:30.

School gets out earlier here, though it depends on the day. Most days the boys get out at either 11:40 or 12:35. Most days P gets out at 11:40, but he does have one later day. G gets out at 12:35 several days and has one earlier and one later day. Of course, this can be a challenge if you have multiple children who get out at different times each day.

The teachers close their classroom door, which has no window.

Students bring their own hand towel that they hang on little hooks. This is to save on the use of paper towels.

Students must ask for the toilet paper if they need it. There is no toilet paper in the school bathrooms.

Students are supposed to use blue gel-like pens. We buy erasable pens for Gavin, which are quite expensive, but with all the mistakes any student his age invariably makes, we wanted to make sure he could make corrections. Peyton started out using pencil, but now they do their hand-writing in pen as well. He is not allowed to erase, so in order to get good grades he has to do it correctly the first time. No pressure!

Teachers generally have a joint office space where they each have a desk. This is where they keep their personal belongings and also where they go when they have a free period. Generally the teachers also stay here before school and only enter the classroom when the first bell rings. This is true even in the lower elementary grades.

Students typically sit by twos at a small wooden table (called a lavica). There is a small wire basket underneath for holding some books and a hook on the side to hand their backpack.

Children must provide an extra set of clothes and tennis shoes for gym class only. The entire class changes in their classroom at the elementary school. We have told our boys to go to a wall or corner, turn around, and keep their eyes to themselves. It's not a perfect solution, but we also didn't want them to change alone in the bathroom for safety reasons. It is not an issue to the parents here as they view them as children who all appear primarily the same from a physical viewpoint. We have other concerns about this, but it will take more than our opinion to change this practice.

Parents are not invited on field trips and may not even know about them very far in advance.

There are no big class parties as we think of in the States. There are various school events, but most are held outside of the normal school day.

At this time there is no hot water in the school, though they are hoping to install it this year with funds raised from the parents. They are also hoping to install drinking fountains.

Teachers are under-paid. As a result there is a high turn-over rate and some have a second job. They do not even make the median Slovak wage. According to one news article and other things we have heard, the average teacher wage is just under $950 (US dollars) a month. They recently went on strike and the government did award a 5% raise. They are still hoping for an additional 5% raise and may go on strike again in January. This is the first year that teachers have ever been on strike. As a part of the EU, the country has been required to give funds to bail out Greece and many teachers are upset by this. One teacher told me that they make less than those in Austria who work at McD's. Another teacher told me her school gave her two things - a grade book and one pen. She personally buys the other supplies that she needs.

There are parent and teacher meetings every couple months. You go to your child's classroom, sign a paper that you were there, and listen to various things the teacher talks about. One boy's teacher also uses this time to give a positive or negative report about each student in front of all the parents. This has been normal procedure here and many older teachers continue it even now. The other boys' teacher lets the parents stand in line at her desk and talks to each one individually. This one-on-one time (if you can call it that with parents behind you) is not required. This style is becoming more typical with younger teachers.

Teachers get different educations based on what level they plan to teach. I still have not determined exactly what each one requires, but the divisions are 1-4, 5-9, and then 4 years of high school.

Children can begin attending the kindergarten at age 3, which is when the majority of mothers end their maternity leave and go back to work. They attend this school for 3 years. Children attend the first class at the zakladná škola at age 6 and graduate when they are 19. If desired, they then attend five years of university.

Students are responsible for all their own school supplies, including art supplies. At the beginning of the year they bring in an art kit that has everything they need.

Instead of using loose leaf paper, they use small notebooks called zošity. They label the notebook with the subject and write in this until it is full.

Students must carry all their books, notebooks, and school supplies back and forth every day. They do not allow them to leave the supplies in the school, most likely so they are not responsible for loss or theft. This makes for some pretty heavy backpacks that they must also carry all the way to the after-school club, which is about 4 blocks away.

They have a small notebook called a zrkadielko in which the teacher will write or glue notes.

The children have a snack time between one of their classes. Our boys' snacks are pretty simple, but some students bring something that is more like a lunch. P's teacher even asked him if he didn't like bread because some of the kids eat a sandwich for snack. This may be why many of them don't finish their real lunches!

They have another booklet that has their grades. They can also put "naughty notes" in this. We got one this year because one of the boys didn't bring in a science project. The problem was that none of us knew he needed to do it! Typically the teachers only put 1's in this booklet, which is the highest grade. I'm not sure why the other grades are not included.

Students are responsible to know what they need to do for homework. They must write it down or mark it themselves, even in the first class. There are no assignment sheets or books. They typically have homework every day and this is often graded.

Students do not call their teachers by their names. They are Pani Učitelka (for a woman) or Pan Učitel (for a man). I was once in a class at the beginning of English class and the students said, "Good morning, Mrs. Teacher!" If you asked the boys what their teachers' names are they probably wouldn't even know.

The students must change into "slippers" before entering the school. These are typically Crocs, slip-on shoes, or sandals.

As mentioned above, the teachers use numbers rather than letter grades or percentages. A jednotka (or 1) is the highest grade and a pätka (a 5) is the lowest. Sometimes the teachers will put a star with the one which I guess would be like our A+.

They do not always have the same classes every day and some days they may have the same class twice. G sorts through his books and notebooks each night to have the ones he needs for the next day. Each day is divided up into 45 minute segments. So the first class is called prvá hodina.

Children begin English instruction in the first class. They have it two days each week. The older classes have it three times each week.

Each child has the option of choosing the religion class or the ethics class. They will only have a certain religion if there are enough students in each class requesting it. As a result, there are really only two options - Catholic religion class or ethics. Our family and families in our church all chose ethics because there are not enough students in each class for them to hire an Evangelical teacher.

School lunches consist of a soup and a main dish. Sometimes they get a small dessert or piece of fruit. They may have a fruity drink or a glass of milk. Some main dishes are sweet. Two examples of sweet main dishes are palacinky, which is their version of a pancake. It is more like a crepe filled with chocolate, jam, poppy seeds, or nuts. The other is buchta which is a white yeast bread with jam in the middle. They sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Most main dishes are chicken, meat with sauerkraut, spaghetti, or even fish. Some included sides are sauerkraut, knedla (a soft bready dumpling), rice, or potatoes. The lunches are always healthy and filling and only cost 97 Euro cents for each day ($1.22). Our boys love them!

As you can see, there is quite a bit to get used to! Thankfully it is all becoming more normal now, but until we reach the end of the school year, it is highly possible we still have more to experience and learn.