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The Polish school? What's it like. [26]
I remember reading an analysis of Polish literacy some years ago in wyborcza. Once past the headline hysteria (Poles are illiterate!) there was nothing very shocking. AFAICR the scores on different kinds of texts were mostly around European averages but Poles scored _very_ low when it came to understanding written instructions.
This should surprise no one who's worked in a Polish environment.
Back to schools. Some dirty little secrets of education:
- teaching is mostly easy, learning is hard,
- teachers can't learn for children, the children have to put in the work themselves,
- if the parents don't stress working hard in school, the kids won't,
- if the parents don't respect teachers the kids won't,
- if the kids don't respect the teachers or work very hard they mostly won't learn very much
The problems with Polish education in the past were:
Too much tracking too early - a lot of smart but undisciplined or unfocused kids (and smart and unfocused very often go together in kids) got put into the vocational track while some average but obedient children got put into the more academic track. Once put in a track it was very hard to break out (upwards at least).
Too much emphasis on memorization for memorization's sake. Memorization is good tool for some tasks and a handicap in others.
Finally, there's no such thing as a good school outside the context of the culture it appears in, what works in Britain won't necessarily work in Germany and neither will necessarily work in Poland (or vice versa). Any reforms of education have to take place within a framework of traditional cultural values.
