To begin our day, our group attended a speech given by the Czech minister of education. This talk was incredibly enlightening, although (and this is anecdotal, but I think I speak for a majority of our group when I say this) it was not what I had expected. We have typically focused on the Czech and Finnish equivalents to K-12 schooling, and the minister seemed especially interested in Czech universities. He was very open about the problems facing the education systems in Czechia (among these, the most striking to me was brain drain away from the more impoverished areas towards the large urban centers), and discussed how he plans to take a very active role in the amelioration of these issues. One thing he mentioned that I found particularly insightful/unique was a concept of a truly European university. This idea has begun as ‘university clusters’, where schools from multiple different European countries partner together and create common curriculum and shared resources, so a degree in science (for example) at one university in the cluster is the same as a degree in science from another school in the same cluster. The end goal of this program is to create a ‘European degree’, where if a student meets certain standards they receive a unique degree alongside their degree from their university. This is in response to a general weakness (for lack of a better word) of European universities when compared to prominent schools in the United States (where the minister claimed a majority of the world’s best universities reside). All in all, it was a very eye-opening experience to come face-to-face with institutional thinking at the university level.
Next, we travelled to the Art School which was named “Zus Taussigova.” While we were there, we were fortunate to have an in-depth conversation with a visual art/painting teacher who explained some of the complexities of art school in the Czech Republic to us. He talked to us about methods to keep students from experiencing burn-out, entrance exams and auditions, and future career paths for students who graduate from the school. We were lucky to observe some examples of the students art which they had made during the school year, including some excellent examples of pottery and drawing. We walked through the school and heard music through the walls as students studied, and even had the chance to see their auditorium! We are so very thankful to the school and staff for being welcoming to us!
Finally, we had a short, informal talk given by a primary school teacher. This talk was immediately interesting, as she had come from a unique background both as someone who had briefly studied in the United States and as someone who teaches at a private school (Czechia has very few, public school is DEFINITELY the primary focus). Some points that were especially interesting were that her school is marketed as a school with Christian values and receives many students from Catholic families, despite Prague being one of the more agnostic/atheist cities in the entire EU. Additionally, it seemed like Czech teachers face a lot of the same problems as American teachers, faced with low incomes, nearly no gender diversity in the profession, and limited social mobility. This talk served as a nice way to descend the levels of Czech schooling, starting the day at the university stage, moving to secondary, and then to primary schooling. It seems as if we had a very encapsulating experience when the totality of our experiences today is tallied.
(Written by Eric Neumann and Charlie Gessner)