Educational Blog

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 fr...

Our educational system has brought us a long way. It’s part of the reason for almost every idea of bright minds in the world today. However, it’s received its fair share of critics as well. Does our system need a change? And if so, how should that change look? Over the past few weeks, I have acquired quite a lot of information on the topic of education and therefore, I feel inclined to answer these questions. Here’s my personal take on this. If you’ve been reading my blog, you already know that I’m of the opinion that our school system needs to evolve. My first suggestion for improvement comes from our system’s way of seemingly thinking that all students are equal in their characteristics, personalities and interests. The reason for this isn’t difficult to understand; The less individualistic an approach to education is, the more “efficient” it is. It tends to also be less student-friendly, though. Thus, I would really like to see a more tolerant education philosophy implemented into o...

The achievement gap is the gap in academic outcomes between diverse groups of students. Those groups can differ in income, race, gender and more. Today I want to talk a bit about this gap in different countries. In the UK, these gaps, which are often called “attainment gaps” there, have been mostly narrowing over the last years. However, research suggests that in 2019, meaning even before the Covid outbreak, the attainment gap between poor primary school pupils and their wealthier peers has widened for the first time since 2007. Not by a large margin, but concerning nevertheless. According to experts, rising levels of persistent poverty is to blame. The worst gap is that between black Caribbean and white British students; By the time they face their “General Certificate of Secondary Education” exams, black Caribbean kids are 10.9 months behind their white counterparts. In 2014, they were “only” 6.3 months behind. As with many other problems regarding inequality, the United States are e...

  Today I have spent some time studying the different school systems and I would now like to write a little bit about them. I have done some research on compulsory schooling, home schooling, world schooling and unschooling and I have learned some things that I thought were impossible. Let´beginn with the compulsory schooling.. It is by far the most common form of schooling in the world. You go to a school that is normal for us. There you sit with your classmates in a classroom and the teacher teaches material with the aim of preparing the students for the Matura. In Austria this system lasts 9 years. At the right age you start the so-called primary schools and learn the basics like reading, calculating and writing. In the fifth   to the eighth school year, pupils attend the lower school of a Gymnasium or a new secondary school. After the new school year you can decide whether you want to continue your schooling or whether you want to learn a profession. The second type of...

  Today I have been dealing with very interesting topics. I think that these forms of learning will be the future and will make many things easier. First of all, I dealt with e-learning environments. The e-learning environment is becoming more and more important. More and more people want to work and learn from home or their favorite workplace via online platforms. Many people say that they can't concentrate as well in the office as they can when working from their living room. Others like to work in nature or in libraries. Also, many people have more time for themselves and their work because they save their commute. E-learning platforms make it possible for each individual to fulfill his or her desire. The current Corona crisis has shown that e-learning works very well and that is why more and more companies will use e-platforms. Next, I dealt with digital platforms. Today there are more and more platforms that make it possible to work from home and still communicate with you...

In the last few weeks I have been dealing with a lot of different things on the topic of learning and education. I have to say that I have learned a lot of new things and also about things that I didn't feel were real. First of all, I found out that the purpose of our education is to prepare us for our future life. Since then, I no longer question the meaning of what I have learned so often, but try to somehow process it for myself and take it with me. Because you never know. Maybe things like that can help you some day.   Next, I researched different school systems and their advantages and disadvantages.   I found out that probably the most boring and exhausting school system is the most common one. Compulsory schooling. It is actually exactly the same school system that exists in Austria.   After that, however, I got involved with very exciting, even very unusual types of schools. Homeschooling, unschooling and worldschooling. I found homeschooling and unschooling...

Today I have dealt with the achievement gap in the education system of some countries. Unfortunately, I learned that in many countries of the world there are still big gaps and that students have worse chances because of their origin. The first country I dealt with was the UK. In the UK there is a big achievement gap. Here, students who come from rich homes have it a lot easier than poor ones. Since you have to pay for higher education schools in England, only the rich students can go there. Poor or handicapped students often have a learning gap of more than 1.5 years. The longer the students attend the schools, the higher they climb.   Let's continue with the USA. Here, just like in England, there is a large achievement gap. African-American students and Hispanics are often graded lower than whites in the U.S. for the same achievements. They get kicked out of schools faster and have a smaller chance of getting into college, even though they score better. In recent years, how...