Post No.06

Another quick post.
I'm reading an article about Greenpeace right now and another thing about Denmark came to my mind. It hasn't been a long time since there was an international conference dealing with global warming in Copenhagen. In fact when I left my country I expected that Denmark is a really environment friendly country. I thought of different bins for sorted waste and so on. In fact, when we walked the town around there were plastic bags full of waste leaning against the walls. We were told that it is quite demanding to take care of the garbage right now because of the snow. This doesn't change the fact that the waste hadn't been sorted at all. Many types of materials were in those plastic bags all together and I though "Oh my God, we are more environment friendly than Danish people". To be honest, I am really happy that the Czechs take care of these kinds of things that much and I am really proud of it.

Post No.05

Wow that was an absolute shock for me! When I got to know that I'd been chosen for the ERASMUS stay in Denmark I really expected that I would learn a lot about the Danish school system and till that time I'd thought that it is the peak of European education systems. In Denmark pupils are not tested. They are not expected to reach a particular point of knowledge in the grade. I also expected to meet creative and enthusiastic teachers. Well that was not true either. Many of the teachers just used additional materials which they handed out to the pupils and that was it. No welcoming phrases, no conclusion, summary, saying goodbye. Yes, that was completely different. In the Czech republic we are taught to divide the lesson into several parts such as a warm-up activity, main topic, conclusion, giving homework etc. On the other hand Czech pupils have got completely different demands compared to the Danish ones. They are more resistant to knowledge and more "fresh" with teachers. On the other hand they are quite used to the authority of the teacher. We do not use the first name terms or touch teacher's shoulder just to draw his/her attention.
I really love this experience - although those were just four lessons. I do not want to say anything wrong about the Danish system. I can't say that they do it in a wrong or good way. Every pupil needs something different and the nationality counts very much.