Education
I am very interested in education, so I will write a few things about the system here in Montenegro. My first couple of experiences were very refreshing. I think it was the second or third day in the country that I met Marta and her friends who were high school students in Budva. I was impressed with Marta's English and her intelligence and insights about the school system. I was also pleasantly surprised to see how much freedom the students had. But soon I happened to walk behind the school and talk to some more students and was even more encouraged to see that there were doors going directlly from some of the classrooms to the outside, where the students could gather and talk, or smoke if they wanted. I am not an advocate of smoking, by the way, but I am an advocate for more freedom in schools.
I was alos allowed by one of the teachers to enter her classroom. She wasn't afraid of getting in trouble from the school director as is the case in many schools. She felt free enough to make her own decisoin. I sincerely appreaciated her letting me in and letting me record a little video footaage of the students. She earned my respect by the way she treated me so when she let me know that she wanted to get back to teaching, I quickly honored her wishes and said good bye to the students, even over thjeir protests of wanting me to stay longer, as you can see in the video. Later I saw her again and she smiled and said hello. I believe I would be welcome again there.
I also met some other students and asked them about their English teacher and they took me to her and she allowed me to visit one of her classes, again without feeling afraid of not asking permission from the director. We had a nice talk after the class and she invited me to come again sometime.
Then another day I was walking by the primary school in Kotor and I decuided to see if I might be able to find one of the English teachers. I went in the building and found a student who took me to one of the English teachers. She was happy I had come in and asked if I could come back later for one of her advanced classes, which I did. She and the students prepared some questions for me and I was quite impressed with their lovel of knowledge and ability. She also invited me back and said literally that it made her day that I had stopped by. I had wanted to go back again, but as it turns out I moved her to Podgorica, but I still would very much like to visit some of her classes again. Another little note is that one night I found myself in a situation where I really needed someone who could speak English to help me with something. I was getting a room in a private house, what they call a soba here and the owner spoke almost no English. I gave her a call and explained the problem and then gave him the phone so she could explain things to him. I feld bad bothering her because this was about 8 or 9 at night but she didn't seem to mind.
Not all my reports are so encouraging, though. One of the first discouraging things I found was when I happened to walk by the new highschool. This new building has a fence nearly all the way around it, along with security cameras. I have to say it looks more like a prison than the old highschool did and wondered if they had consulted the students on the design and cost of the fence. If I am not mistaken the students all have to enter through one gate now, which would be very inconvenient if you lived on the exact opposite side of the building. Also, this fence makes it impossible for someone to do what I did that day - in other words just walk up and have a nice chat with the students or be able to enter a classrrom directly. The new highschool doesn't have doors which lead to the outside either. As in most schools I haev seen around the world, it is set up so all the doors lead to an inner hallway. This isn't even as safe from a fire standpoint, and it definitely doesn't give the students as much freedom as they had in the old highschool I wonder how many, if any students have protested this, but I also know, sadly, that their protests would most likely fall on deaf ears. One thing I have seen all around the world is that students are actuallly taught to feel poweless to change things during their many years in school -- at least in a typical state run school (or in all of the religious schools iI've seen.).
Here in Podgorica I have had a chance to meet more high school students, and in fact have had several of them helpng me wiith my projects. From them that I have learned that while there is more freedom than say in the USA where I was raised, the education is too outdated and not practical. I have also heard stories of students being kicked out of schooll for arbitary things like their hair being too long or wearing a jacket that the school director didn't like. And I heard that it is not entirely uncommon for a parent to have to pay a school director under the table to get his sone or daughter allowed back into the school. One thing I do like is that students in both primary schools and high schools can leave the school during breaks,or they cak sckip a class now and they in high school if they want without the kinds of punishments that students in other countries such as the USA or England would have to suffer for a similar action..