Polish gimnazjums - memoirs of a teacher

About myself I say little. I am in the profession for 10 years. Such as I said , that they are teachers appointed . I started working as an intern . I taught math - scrolled through my hands almost two hundred students. I was not even able to remember their names. Class had 30 students , shift work . Still finishing classes around 16:30, when there was no one in the school directorate , and teachers were left can two people. Anonymity of my students did not favor discipline.

The town in the north Polish , which I found immediately after graduation , had a population of approx. 10 thousand . residents. Deep province , far from the major cities. We all knew in school children with a mixture of town and the surrounding countryside. Reputation ? It's hard to say. The new high school , which was established only in 2000 . There was approx. 800 students .

Who want to say that polish schools/youth are better than in western countries let better wake up dreaming about neverland!

Polish middle schools are inefficient. They end up wasting teaching time - would be better to split education between grade school and high school. The liceum is where the true high-level education goes on.

In all honesty, the actual theoretical knowledge is probably higher than many Western countries.

But the level of practical skill and knowledge is almost zero - Polish children simply don't leave school equipped to go to work.

A little bit of a blanket statement either way.

"Polish schools" covers a pretty wide range of educational facilities. Similarly, Schools in "western countries" can be great, and they can be so bad that what is described in the article would seem like a paradise to teachers from areas such as The Bronx, NY, or South Brooklyn, NY.

Metal detectors at schools' entrances anybody? Police force full time on school grounds?

you're guys talking about schools but i thought i ask about przedszkole (pre-school)... i've heard that it's very hard to place a child in przedszkole now days... do you know why?

Of course Polish teenagers are not different that others but as to the problems in school-it all depends on the teacher.I had teachers that would never let kids to behave that way.

And as for the pre-school- we don't have enough kindergartens in Poland.After the fall of communism one after another was shut down.

There are lots of new pre-schools opening without proper facilities. One in my village just outside Warsaw. There's a concerted push to get grannies into work and outsource their erstwhile tasks.

Also, people are moving around more - it dislocates families badly.

As for schools, I find that many people who talk sagely about them have little relevant experience.

Compare the knowledge of an 8th grade graduate from Poland and the U.S, the Polish student knows much more Math, History and Science, American public schools are a joke, teaching is on a low level, kids do what they like, administration thinks more money will solve all problems. Polish grade and high schools teach on a much higher level, one problem is many unnecessarily homework assignments, they're crammed with hours and hours of homework some of which they simply don't need. This video compares American and European high schools.

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bx4pN-aiofw

Poland is doing a great job playing catchup. Our cheaper private educational institutes destroy the more expensive public counterparts.

Well, this is true.. and it's ultimately dangerous. Hence, the serious attention someone like Sarah Palin gets. However, Convex is right, there's a lot of great private institutions that more than hang with anything European. After all, a lot of Yanks end up teaching in the US universities that so many Europeans yearn to attend. <Shrugs> Someone had to train them.

I promised myself not to login anymore but I just can't read that nonsense.

PennBoy are you polish? have you gone through polish new education path (podstawówka-gimnazjum-szkoła średnia)? If not don't spread myths.

Theoretically polish pupils have really wide range of knoledge to tackle. But the truth is that no one will force a lazy teenager to learn all that stuff. Most polish teens probably don't know when was Chrzest Polski, have problems with counting % of something, don't know the capital cities of well known countries. When I was in LO (and it was quite renowned LO... what doesn't mean that all kids where smart) one girl aged 18 didn't know the capital city of SPAIN! Actually she had no clue what country Madrit was in...

Poland maybe had a good edication 20 years ago. But know (after the reform in 1999, it reached the buttom). I know it from my own experience as I was come within a reform as a pupil.


EXACTLY. I was doing nothing in gimnazjum. I see nothing changed. That's really sad because the most important thing you should gain from school is ability of regular learning, being systematic. Kids learn only that it's easy to get 5.

What is more in Poland pupils can't be suspended at the level of middle school so now imagine class of 15 years olds who you can't disciplinate!

oh geez... that sounds like an American education...hehe...

yep, the nightmare comes true ;]

I don't get it why they change quite nice system to much worse new system with gimnazjums. Does someone remember what Handke was saying then? I was just a kid but I've always thought that's the way it is in most European countries (3 stages of general education) and we are forced to do the same if we wanna be in EU... but I see it's plain bollox.

Also Nowa Matura is some big mistake. Now buttheads can easly apply for unis and get their mgr paper.

i remember times when there was 20 candidates per place at the UJ in Krakow... yes, people were fighting and the best got in...

The best, or the ones who had the best connections.

good point :)

Yes i am Polish, i havn't gone through the new system, i finished 2nd grade before moving to America, remember learning basic multiplication in kindergarten, not nap time like they have here. Have cousins still in Poland all have their masters and are well educated. Maybe you are right, maybe there have been major changes in Poland, if so it must be for the worse. Having a masters or a PHD in communist times or early 90's in Poland was truly something to be proud of.

wow, what basic multuplication? In pre-school?! I had no math in my kindergarten.


Mgr is not prestigious in Poland. Everyone knows that.


Well just read the article I've posted.
You should remember it if you was attending to gimnazjum.
In mine they were telling us in 1st grade that we are revising the material from earlier years. While in 3rd grade they were telling us that we are revising the material from gimnazjum... so that means that we were learning just in 2nd grade...

A PhD still is, but in the last few years a lot of dodgy private institutions have opened which offer highly questionable 'masters degrees'. A kind of educational hyperinflation.

the kids have a nap time in the states...


yes, they learn very basic things...

not only private but also many public...


but he said he had it in POLAND! wow, something weird... maybe it was Montesori kindergartner

That's a shame. It's happening in the UK too.

really?
I thought that UK unis are just behind the US.

Btw. I've been always wondering what's college in USA. I've just learnt they something different than Unis. So what qualiffication does a college give you?

yes i did have it in Poland in kindergarten in 89/90. I said Masters degree not Mgs, Magister is Bachelors, Magister Inzynier-Masters, and PHD is same, American to Polish terminology for that.

not really.... it all depends on how many needed credits you've got and how many translates to your record...

so you was tought multiplication at age of 3/4 ?! hmmm... coś kręcisz ;P


so somebody with a licencjat degree is who? an asociatee?

you get an assosiate degree when you complete all the college basic courses...

see... you can't compare like that because the systems in PL and the US differ...

what r u talking about? age 6 or 7 is for zerowka in Poland do you even live in Poland?? and i said basic meaning, eg. 2 x 2 or 3 x 4 not 34556 x 299

the "kndergaten" in US is the Polish "zerówka", and what e.g. German call Kindergarten is called here "preschool", or Poilsh przedszkole. Hence the misunderstanding.

You have to be 5 years old to enter the kindergarten in the US.

Yes I am. You have written that you were attending gimnazjum so how is it possible that in 1990 you were older than 4???


ooops. Ok sorry. I've missunderstand you :)


isn't assosiate degree something like "technik" (the title you achieve when you graduete studium policealne)?