Update on School
We have successfully (more or less) finished our first week of school! We are all EXHAUSTED, but we have survived! My days are pretty long. Here is my lovely schedule.
*General and Social Education
You will see that our lunch break is nearly two hours. This is because a lot of kids go home for lunch. In primary everybody does, secondary most people do, and then high school people eat at the cafeteria.
My school has a cafeteria in case kids live too far away to come home, or even if they can it’s not very long. This applies to me so I tried it the first two days. Actually it was Tuesday and Thursday since I ate with Papa on Monday and had cooking on Wednesday. Anyway, Friday I came home on the train and had lunch and then Mama drove me back. It was lovely so I’m going to do it this week. Although now I know some people from this this little town so I wouldn’t be all alone in the cafeteria.
Here is a picture of the entrance to my school – College Thurman. Usually there are no cars but this was before school started.
I will now once and for all attempt to explain the Swiss – or at least Jurasian – secondary (7th, 8th, and 9th) school system
Firstly, the three most important classes (French, Math, and German) are in three different levels: A, B, and C. Then there are four different options. 1) Latin 2) [additional] science 3) sewing,woodworking, etc. 4) everybody else
Your “profile” is made up of these different options. The levels are decided on how well you do in the class before, and the options are a bit too. For me, we chose AAB option 1, otherwise known as A in French, A in Math, B in German, and option one (Latin). In order to get into the academic high school, you have to have either aaa or aab and option one or two, so on the track I’m on, I could do it. However, it’s possible in secondary to drop down a level, so my grades are not going to be recorded this semester/year, unless of course they’re really good.
Secondly, each class is made up of about twenty students. Now, since for French there are three classes (A, B, and C), if you just took the kids from one class and separated them into three classes, 1) that’s a lot of classes, and 2) there aren’t a lot of kids in each class. So, the classes are paired to form “modules.” So my French class is all the kids who have A level math in our module. Each class is given a number and the other class has the number that goes with it. The first number identifies the grade, the second the module, and the third the class. For example my class number is 721 and the other class in our module is 722. 7 = seventh grade, 2 = second module, 1 = first class.
Thirdly, you may have noticed that my grade number is 7, therefore meaning seventh grade. Bravo! We decided to put me into seventh for several different reasons.
1) Both the director and the counselor recommended this, mainly for the same reasons below.
2) Since the seventh graders are also new at the school, we could all be new together and I wouldn’t be jumping into a class that had already been at Thurman for a year.
3) Because the kids come from lots of different villages, they’ve gone to different schools and therefore may have learned different things. In order to make sure that everybody knows everything, there’s a lot of review. Sometimes I’ll review and sometimes I’ll learn, since math curriculums aren’t standardized across the world (oh how I wish they were!).
4) Plus (and I’m not sure if this went in to serious consideration), they’ve had a year less of everything!
All in all, I’m quite happy with where I am, and I feel that I fit in just fine. I am taller than most people in my grade, although there are plenty of people taller. I’m not tall enough to really notice it though, it’s just when I start thinking about it and realizing that my eye level is above people’s heads.
I think I’m ready for another week, I just need to sleep!
If you didn’t understand all that, that’s totally fine! It took me until we got here, and it still doesn’t really make sense.
| Hours | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| 8:10 – 8:55 | Math | Math | Geo/History | German | |
| 9:00 – 9:45 | French | Gym | Computer Lab | Math | German |
| 10:05 – 10:50 | French | Gym | Science | French | Latin |
| 10:55 – 11:40 | EGS* | Music | Cooking | French | Science |
| 11:45 – 12:30 | Cooking | ||||
| 12:35 – 1:15 | Cooking | ||||
| 1:35 – 2:20 | English | German | Art | Math | |
| 2:25 – 3:10 | Geo/History | Geo/History | Art | Math | |
| 3:15 – 4:00 | Computer Lab | French | Latin | French | |
| 4:05 – 16:50 | English |
You will see that our lunch break is nearly two hours. This is because a lot of kids go home for lunch. In primary everybody does, secondary most people do, and then high school people eat at the cafeteria.
My school has a cafeteria in case kids live too far away to come home, or even if they can it’s not very long. This applies to me so I tried it the first two days. Actually it was Tuesday and Thursday since I ate with Papa on Monday and had cooking on Wednesday. Anyway, Friday I came home on the train and had lunch and then Mama drove me back. It was lovely so I’m going to do it this week. Although now I know some people from this this little town so I wouldn’t be all alone in the cafeteria.
Here is a picture of the entrance to my school – College Thurman. Usually there are no cars but this was before school started.
I will now once and for all attempt to explain the Swiss – or at least Jurasian – secondary (7th, 8th, and 9th) school system
Firstly, the three most important classes (French, Math, and German) are in three different levels: A, B, and C. Then there are four different options. 1) Latin 2) [additional] science 3) sewing,woodworking, etc. 4) everybody else
Your “profile” is made up of these different options. The levels are decided on how well you do in the class before, and the options are a bit too. For me, we chose AAB option 1, otherwise known as A in French, A in Math, B in German, and option one (Latin). In order to get into the academic high school, you have to have either aaa or aab and option one or two, so on the track I’m on, I could do it. However, it’s possible in secondary to drop down a level, so my grades are not going to be recorded this semester/year, unless of course they’re really good.
Secondly, each class is made up of about twenty students. Now, since for French there are three classes (A, B, and C), if you just took the kids from one class and separated them into three classes, 1) that’s a lot of classes, and 2) there aren’t a lot of kids in each class. So, the classes are paired to form “modules.” So my French class is all the kids who have A level math in our module. Each class is given a number and the other class has the number that goes with it. The first number identifies the grade, the second the module, and the third the class. For example my class number is 721 and the other class in our module is 722. 7 = seventh grade, 2 = second module, 1 = first class.
Thirdly, you may have noticed that my grade number is 7, therefore meaning seventh grade. Bravo! We decided to put me into seventh for several different reasons.
1) Both the director and the counselor recommended this, mainly for the same reasons below.
2) Since the seventh graders are also new at the school, we could all be new together and I wouldn’t be jumping into a class that had already been at Thurman for a year.
3) Because the kids come from lots of different villages, they’ve gone to different schools and therefore may have learned different things. In order to make sure that everybody knows everything, there’s a lot of review. Sometimes I’ll review and sometimes I’ll learn, since math curriculums aren’t standardized across the world (oh how I wish they were!).
4) Plus (and I’m not sure if this went in to serious consideration), they’ve had a year less of everything!
All in all, I’m quite happy with where I am, and I feel that I fit in just fine. I am taller than most people in my grade, although there are plenty of people taller. I’m not tall enough to really notice it though, it’s just when I start thinking about it and realizing that my eye level is above people’s heads.
I think I’m ready for another week, I just need to sleep!
If you didn’t understand all that, that’s totally fine! It took me until we got here, and it still doesn’t really make sense.
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