5. The Austrian Educational System (written by Ben)
First, an anecdote from one of my fellow Austrian teachers:
“So, after your talk yesterday about how relaxed Austrian
schools are, I reflected on something that would shock an American teacher. One
of my students in class had his birthday. A friend of his came into class
unannounced with a Birthday Cake”… (this is not the shocking part)… "but,
we had no way of cutting the cake. At that moment, a random student pulled a
6-inch hunting knife from his pocket and proceeded to allay everyone’s worries
by cutting the cake.” This teacher then proceeded to tell me how she left the
room, and completely trusted the students to behave.
In Austrian schools, there is a very relaxed feeling. The
students all know each other. The teachers all know each other. They all gather
in large groups and converse. The students stay in one class-group and the
teachers visit the different classrooms. In between periods, the teachers
return to the teachers’ lounge, have a coffee, some bread and cheese, or some
chocolate, and chat. Sometimes they stay there for 10 minutes, taking their
time long after the bell rings. When they go to their class, the students are
usually crowded around someone’s phone, a card table, or the computer and
listening to loud music. These students are left COMPLETELY alone for 5-10
minutes. This is the ultimate fear of any American teacher. The students could
be: selling and doing drugs, stabbing each other with scissors,
breaking any number of expensive machines… etc. This never happens. The
students are simply well-behaved.
Other minute differences include: Jesus hanging by a cross
in every room of the building (no Austrian flags) and a school chapel on
grounds. When I asked how a publicly-funded school could do such a thing, I was
told the country is mostly Catholic…. so crosses for 100% of the folks, why
not?
Finally, the school is centered around one question: what would
be best for the environment? These students will only ever get anxious,
worked-up, or angry about the environment (and sometimes U.S. Foreign Policy :) ). It has poured its
way into every lesson in every class. In education, we refer to these as interdisciplinary
themes and you would think my school is training a generation of global
superheroes.
6. Austria and the English Language
Another part of the Austrian educational system is their belief that students should speak two, if not three, languages. English is the mandatory second language, and students begin learning English when they're in the equivalent of our elementary school (It's called a Volksschule here.). While I have relied on Ben to do all of our important business (set up our bank account, register for health insurance, communicate with most everyone, etc.), I have managed to speak to Austrians in English without much of a problem.
When we first arrived, I had major "language" shock. As an English and literacy teacher, words and language are my life, and not being able to understand signs, ads, directions, announcements, and the like threw me for a loop. Once we found out in April that we were moving here, I began trying to learn some German. I bought CDs that I listened to in the car, I used Ben's Beginner's German book during free periods when I worked, and Ben and I tried to keep some exchanges in German. Needless to say, with moving, planning and having a wedding, and preparing to come here, I didn't have much time to learn German. If only I had known years before that I would be spending a year in Austria (and that my future husband spoke German), I would have taken German in college.
I do feel like I'm missing some of the experience because I'm a language outsider. And, I had a period when we first came when I was very self-conscious; I didn't want to go out by myself when Ben was working because I was afraid someone would speak to me in German and I'd absolutely freeze-up (it's happened...). And, I hated that I didn't feel empowered because I was so dependent on someone else to do everything important. But, because the Austrian educational system understands that English is a global language, and because many of the tourists here speak English, they teach it in their schools and I feel like I can manage being here without knowing that much German.
That isn't the whole story, but that's as much as we're going to go into it for today.
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