My Schooling in Austria

I talk about my school fairly often. A lot of times, school is the only subject adults can think of when they “small talk” to a teen. But what if I had to explain my school to someone who has absolutely no idea how schools work in general or even what they are? If, say, a Martian were to land in my backyard, how would I describe my school to him? Bizarre scenario, I know. I mean, first of all, school probably isn’t the first thing they’d ask me about, but alright. This is probably how I’d explain it to him:

First off, a school is an institution with the responsibility to teach the youth important knowledge and abilities humanity (our species) has acquired over the course of history. It should also ideally impart important values and mould young people into responsible personalities who contribute to society in a positive way. I visit an “AHS”, which, in German (the language spoken where I’m from), stands for “generally educating higher school”. There, I have twelve subjects, ranging from languages over sciences and arts all the way to physical education. Those get taught to me along with a whole “class” of just under thirty other students my age in “lessons”, fifty-minute time spans. Five of the seven days that are in one week, I have five to ten of these lessons, which are always precisely set by a timetable and separated by five- or ten-minute breaks. It’s also possible to have a break that’s as long as a regular lesson. Per lesson, we have one teacher, an adult who’s well-read and educated on that particular subject. They teach a curriculum that’s more or less fixated by the government. For our school-free time, we are assigned homework to do by ourselves to solidify what’s taught to us in school.

Methods used to teach mainly include giving information, explaining and answering arising questions. When languages are taught, making the students speak is also important. A good teacher will try to actively include the students in their teaching and, best of all, design their lessons lively and interestingly enough so that the students want to participate themselves. Exercises and other work are then assigned to see how good the students understand given topics and, in most subjects, a few times a year, the student’s abilities are tested in the form of written “exams”. By the end of each school year, pupils receive reports with “grades” in each subject, feedback in the form of numbers from one to five, five meaning “negative” performance, which again means less than 60% of what’s expected is achieved. A “five” in a report generally means the student has to repeat all classes from that year.

In addition, schools are places of social interactions. Given that students spend hours a day with one another, they find lots of friends in school, which they often keep for a long time after their finished with school. Unfortunately, some students also sometimes tend to dislike other people so much, often without reason, that they repeatedly act towards them in a mean and degrading way. We call this process bullying and it’s making the lives of the affected much more difficult and a core reason why some kids are depressed. Teachers act as authority figures for the students, meaning students are to address them formally and with respect, which also teaches them discipline. However, some teachers nowadays try to gradually move away from the authoritarian image and interact with their students in a more friendly and laid-back way.

Personally, I think our educational system needs to evolve (but that’s for another time). Still, even though it’s a little outdated, the system surely required a lot of work and brainpower to develop and has brought us a long way.

I’m looking forward to reading your comments on this topic! What did I miss? How would you describe your school to a Martian? Let me know!