We have made it to the end of the week and we have survived. I feel a little as though I have been through the wringer, but I’m still here. I think we may be just about out of the woods, but I’m saying that very quietly incase something goes wrong at the last minute. Of course nothing is sure until we have the report card in out hot little hands, but by the skin of her teeth it looks as though my daughter has probably passed the year. There is one exam still to come back, which could blow us out of the water, but she thinks it went OK (so thanks for the positive maths vibes all those who sent them our way!).<\/p>\n
I can’t relax yet. Not till I know for sure. But there is a little light at the end of the tunnel, which I couldn’t see a couple of days ago.<\/p>\n
Thanks to all of you who commented – you are all correct of course. The system is bonkers and puts kids under WAY TOO MUCH PRESSURE, WAY TOO SOON. I think there is a time and a place for a good dose of academic pressure, but going on for years is just too much. I mean, they’re kids. They should enjoy life and not have premature frown lines from worrying (ditto their mothers!).<\/p>\n
That said, in defense of the Swiss system, I should say that we have one of the best education systems in the world. We beat most developed countries hands down on the quality of education the kids receive. The apprenticeship system is second to none and is in no way thought to be a less valuable way than the gymnasium followed by university. It’s sometimes hard for us Anglo-Saxons to adjust to a system where university really isn’t seen as the be all and end all. I recently read a report of a study that had been carried out which showed that someone who completes an apprenticeship here as a chemistry or physics lab technician has knowledge equivalent to a US bachelor’s degree in science. Which is pretty impressive really.<\/p>\n
More to the point, about 99% of teenagers complete a solid comprehensive education which fits them for the job market. Youth unemployment is next to non-existent and people take a pride in what they do.<\/p>\n
So it’s not all bad. But it sure is stressful sometimes!<\/p>\n
I think I now need to sit down and have a nice cup of tea….or even something a little stronger. This week I’ve earned it!<\/p>\n
Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have made it to the end of the week and we have survived. I feel a little as though I have been through the wringer, but I’m still here. I think we may be just about out of the woods, but I’m saying that very quietly incase something goes wrong at the last minute. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sQtrc-tgif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2324,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}