sapphi_snake said:
B. Yes, I guess I was relying too much on anecdotes and personal experiences (disregarding circumstances that may have not applied to other kids). B2. Yes, the school system really is awful. The pressure is a huge issue, especially when it comes to the big exams (that one you need to take after the 8th grade to get into high school, and the Baccalaureate that you take after high school if you wanna get into college). I can say from personal experience that you definately feel like 'OMG, my life is over if I don't get a good mark on this exam'. And in many ways that is true, as the system is set up so the smart kids get smarter (as they end up in the good schools, with good teacher that actually put in effort to maintain the high school's good reputation), and the 'dumb' kids get dumber (they end up in poor schools, where teachers rarely come to class, and are sorrounded by peers uninterested in learning). If you don't make it into one of the good schools, chances of you getting into college are low (note: in order to get into a particular college over here you usually need to take an entrance exam, so the reputation fo the school you went to isn't important like it is in the US, just how well they educated you). And now that they've set up surveillance cameras in the exam rooms (thus making cheating no longer possible), kids from the bad schools woin't even be able to pass the Baccalaureate, which is mandatory if you wanna go to college (only 45% of Romanian high school graduates passed the exam this year). And bullying is mainly a problem in the bad schools. I would generally avoid visitng such a place. It's really generalized violence though. I must admit that I was 'bullied' in grade school (especially in grades 1-4), but things changed when I went to high school, and for that I'm grateful to the system for weeding out the bad ones. C. Really? I wouldn't realyl say that someone who bullies others through teasing also beats people. |
B2. Really, what's probably the worst about it, is that peoples brains still change a bit in highschool. There are people who are bad students in gradeschool who really put things together in highschool.
The "bad schools" issue will probably eventually go away if it's anything like asia. In Asia they do things much the same way, except they have private tutors. Parents hire private tutors, or put them in schools run by private tutors, after they get out of school. Often times kids sleep in school so they can go to private tutors all night.
Of course then you have the whole "The public education system is pointless" issue and the fact that parents force their kids to work their entire childhoods.
