The girlfriend, who is my age (27) and grew up in Bosnia, adds the school system to her list of rants about how ridiculous this country is. When she came here as a refugee and attended the last year or two of high school (1995-96), she was well ahead of most students, even though she had effectively not been in school for several years during the siege of Sarajevo. (There were, in fact, "war schools" that were supposedly attempts to give the kids a normal life and an education during the siege; she now laughs at Western academics' attempt to romanticize this as a heroic act of resistance, since the instructors were morons who had up until recently been in the Communist Party but now were fervent Muslim nationalists, and the students spent almost all their time screwing off.)
She especially hated the infantilization of young adults in US school settings (having to request permission to go to the restroom, for instance -- utterly ridiculous). She also hates the idea that "parents should be more involved in their children's education," since most parents here are (her words) "idiots" -- as evidenced by the "intelligent design" bullshit, the parent-teacher conferences where parents inevitably complain that their child's assignment is "too hard," the overall knuckle-dragging and book-burning, etc. -- and the purpose of a public school (in good Communist or French Republican fashion) should be to educate people who would otherwise be reared in ignorance by parents who are really just one step away from being superstitious, illiterate peasants. The role of the parent in this scheme is to have respect for the value of education and for the teacher's expertise; to intervene with the child only when it is necessary to remind him or her to work hard and listen to what the teacher has to say; and above all, to keep one's mouth shut about things that one inevitably knows nothing about. I suspect that a lot of teachers in this country would find this outlook congenial, and I suppose there's something attractive about it.
Take it away, Wojtek!
- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
Tell no lies, claim no easy victories