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Immigration in Poland and being surrounded by a monoculture? [134]
I know families are becoming smaller but with the right incentives, the right people would likely choose to have more children if they could.
The problem is that there exists a quite powerful lobby in Poland that represents "families" - and that lobby demands the same concessions for all families. You and I know that the best solution is to give high rate taxpayers tax rebates - but you would hear endless screaming from those who think that it's their Catholic right to have endless children that they can't actually afford to have.
I've always thought that the current situation in Poland where those with 4+ children are rewarded with all sorts of benefits to be a destructive policy. Why is it that the responsible family of 2+2 that chose to bring up children properly are punished, while those who were irresponsible and had 4+ are rewarded?
I think we'd all be surprised to find out how much the arrangement really benefits the student vs how much it benefits your cause. I would at least like to hear another side of the story other than just yours before I come to any conclusions.
I'll try and explain what the situation is :
In Poland, some degrees have compulsory job training - some universities offer it in house (for instance, picking fruit on a university farm, I kid you not...) - but others demand that you go outside and get it. In my field (education) - it's mandatory to do x amount of hours. So - schools all do it differently, some will just stamp the papers for you and tell you to get lost, others will hand you a class and say "here you are", and others will do it properly.
We do it properly - they start off with observing classes and discussing things with teachers, then they progress to assisting in a class, then they co-teach, then they teach while being observed, then they finally have the class by themselves without observation - just self evaluation. As part of it, they're expected to do all the duties that a normal teacher might have to do - for instance, setting up a hall for a play, or going to the shop to buy supplies, or going to the printers to pick up things - whatever. The idea is that it teaches them responsibility and it also lets them understand exactly how much preparation and work goes into teaching in a school. They don't do anything that I (or other teachers) don't have to do - but of course, it can be mundane rubbish like photocopying too. It's all structured so that they come out after their placement being able to go into a school and teach without needing to have their hand held.
What we also do is use that time to observe whether they would make a good fit - last year, we gave two jobs to students who had got their work practice with us rather than hiring externally - we knew them, they were good and they'd done a great job during their practice.
Utter nonsense again, you most likely made it all up or what "you" offer is some 700 zł a month crap, people in the city with lowest unemployment rate in Poland simply will not treat it seriously as it is not competitive on that market.
No Greggy, we offer people a proper job with the Karta Nauczyciela. Again, just because your own experiences are so bitter doesn't mean that everyone else is bitter as well. You also missed the point - I'm talking about people on work experience, not people looking for work.
Following on -
What we've found is that many students simply don't want to put the hard work in during the work practice. We've got something like 6-7 students at any one time, and what happens time and time again is that they are shocked that they're expected to work hard during the placement - as hard as the normal teachers. They're quite surprised that we just don't sit them down and tell them to observe, or that they have to take real responsibility for classes. It seems that (from talking to one of them) that many people have the papers stamped by schools that couldn't care less - and we do. If they're there to get trained, then we have to train them.
The whole course we design for them is designed to make sure that they are able to work. It's tough - we have a policy that if they can't take full responsibility for a class by the end of the practice, then we won't stamp their papers. But it also recognises that they're inexperienced teachers and that they make mistakes - it's more about being responsible than anything else.
When I ask myself how that's possible, the answer is clear: many Poles don't invest in their businesses. These guys haven't bought the tools to make custom cuts on site. They belong to that old attitude that Delphi you've alluded to still exists among a lot of people here. I wouldn't call it laziness in the physical sense but I think I have seen what you wrote about (to some extent).
Yep, it's very much alive and well. It's madness - these people have their own businesses, yet they seem incredibly reluctant to actually invest in themselves/the business. They then wonder why their business isn't succeeding - well - the lack of flexibility might have something to do with it?
I remember a friend of mine needed some plumbing work done in a dire emergency. They called their usual guy, who told them that he didn't work after 4pm and that was that - he wasn't interested in coming. They found another guy who was happy to come and get wet and filthy in the middle of the night - and from that, he got all the routine work from then on as a result of being willing to help out. What made the story so insane is that the first plumber knew that he was a good customer - yet he simply wasn't willing to get out of bed to fix a situation - even though he could have charged the moon.
What I've found in Poland is that people will pay a premium price for a good service quite happily - but finding that good service is much easier said than done.
