Schools in Switzerland vs. America | 20 Major Differences

[Music] hi guys I'm Chantal with growing up that borders and today we are going to talk about something really interesting so not too long ago I posted a video about the the major differences between living in America versus Switzerland and someone put a comment saying what are the differences between like the school systems and so I have like at least 20 so I've came up with like 20 major ones and I've been to school so I was born and raised in Canada I did go to school a few years in Switzerland and my kids did go to school in all three countries so I can really firsthand tell you kind of like the major differences that I've come up with so are you ready here we go so the first major difference I've come up with is back-to-school shopping so as you know in the United States and in Canada it's all about the marketing and we're big time consumers and so before you send your kids to school in September usually or end of August you go back and you do all your back-to-school shopping and includes your books and your pencils and your rulers and your clothing and like the whole thing right usually get a list of what you should buy and then you send your kids to school with all the new things and there were new backpacks and lunch pails and etc right and so when we arrived in Switzerland I did the exact same thing I came prepared with all the supplies that I thought my kids would need and our kids are in a public school system or they were actually in Switzerland and so it's not like they were in like a private school just so you know but this is what was included so they came back and they're like mom look what we got and they pulled it like all these things and put it all out on the table and they were like had these really nice pencil crayons markers scissors calculators like I forget everything but like the list went on and all the books included everything everything was supplied for the kids and I was like shocked I was like oh my gosh this is crazy because not only was it just like supplied but it was like the highest quality so the little pencil crayons that they received were brand called Karen - which is Swiss made and this special pencil crayon if you draw with it and then you dip it in water it actually becomes like a water paint you know like you use a paintbrush in because water paint it's like so cool I was so impressed and I was just like wow this is like really neat so that's one of the very first differences I notice right away number two is reusing school supplies and so like I just said a few minutes ago in America it's about marketing and consumerism and everything like that and we just bye bye bye bye bye well in Switzerland they think twice before they throw things away and what happens is is when the kids came back to school so they went to school the first year and then they came back and then the following year when they were going back again they were told to keep all the books from the previous year and bring them back the next year so that included like you know if you have a little textbook they literally brought that same textbook back and they literally left off on the page that they left off on and continued writing the following year so that was shocking because in America we would just throw that away and then go buy a whole new textbook because God forbid you go back with the same one or I used one or you know you have to go with something new of course they print off papers like every school doesn't everything so there is lots of like you know paper waste and all that but for the majority everything is reused right to the very last minute so same goes for their pencil crayons they don't replace like a whole pencil crayon box when that pencil crayon gets small then that one pencil crayon will get replaced so that was a big difference for me number three is respect so I grew up with a Swiss German dad so you can imagine I grew up with like respect was well-known in my household but for the most part you know in America when you go to school you kind of just walk into your classroom and it's kind of like hey hey you sit down whatever and and it's just like there's like there is a respect for the teachers but it's not like a demanded respect if you will and what I noticed when my girls went to school in Switzerland is they had to go shake the teachers hand when they arrived at school and shake the teachers hand before they left it teaches them a form of respect they you know respect their teachers in a different way and it's just really nice to see that that is a kind of imposed on the kids because I think it probably helps in the classrooms with the teachers as well when they're trying to like get a classroom to listen to them if they are taught respect from the get-go number four is outings and so it's more so like the consent form for school outings if you will because I'm the school Eddings I don't really know that there's like you know that many differences right all the schools go see museums and go see this and go see that but what they do in Switzerland that is quite different is sometimes if the teacher feels like going to the park for the afternoon they'll just walk off the school premises and go to the park for the afternoon and so I was like surprised because the first time I noticed this as we went to go get the kids after school and we were like oh where are the kids and they're like oh they just went down this lake down the road to the park or whatever and I was like oh that's so cool like but in America you when you would know basically if you're if the teacher decided to like leave the school premises and go for a tour or go for a hike or anything like that because they would have to send a form home the parents would have to sign off on it and everything right so there's a lot more rules and regular regulations I guess you if you will when it comes to school outings and just taking the kids you know on an outing so they do do things like if they're doing like a real school trip and of course look at parents to sign but if it's just like a little outing like just going down the road maybe going to the grocery store like one thing that was quite funny is my daughter said oh yeah my teacher sends us to the grocery store to go buy things and like that just would never happen in your America anywhere so when it comes to to basically like their rules and regulations and what the teachers are kind of allowed to do or let the kids go off and do is much different in America versus Switzerland so number five is quality of education so this point is probably hopefully not gonna offend too many of you but I know in the United States there are some great teachers and there are some really bad teachers and depending on where you live and kind of like the maybe even the state that you're in or anything like that is gonna matter for the quality of the education so it's not like you can just like say oh I want to go live here you know you have to like look at where am I gonna live that's gonna determine where my kids are gonna go to school and in this area there's better schools in that area and so on and so forth and so it's not really fair for the kids or for just the people who are just like trying to go better Norma and live just anywhere they want to live so in in Switzerland no matter where you are there's not like certain schools that are good in other schools that are bad you know it's like the quality of the education is across the bar pretty much the same and so that's some really a big difference I know there's a really good documentary it's called searching for Superman if you haven't watched it definitely watch it because that explains the school system and it really explains why it's broken in the United States so in Canada I would say it's pretty good I mean in my experience we had great school systems there and so I know there's a lot of things changing though now so who might not be the same as it used to be but anyhow so that's a big big big difference I know there's also different organizations like the gates organization and stuff like that like Bill and Melinda Gates they're trying to like change that by funding different things and there's like charter schools and there's all different kinds of schools with basically long story short if you're in a certain area and you want your kids to have a good education you have to pay for their their schooling if not you're just not gonna get the greatest quality point number six is homework so I know in the older grades based on like the comments that I got on the last video that I did post about the differences this was shown in America all you kids and the older grades you are getting homework and more homework on weekends and so on and so forth but the biggest difference that I've noticed is our kids were quite small when they started the school system in Switzerland but they got quite a bit less homework than they do in America so in the United States our daughter who was four years old at the time was already getting like one sheet of paper to do I know that doesn't sound like much but when you're like working and then you come home then you have to make dinner then there's three girls and you have to sit with each one because at the age of four they're not gonna just sit there quietly and do their paperwork it becomes a lie and then there's not much time left to like have fun and enjoy life and like be you know do what you should as a family and evening just relax and enjoy so um I find that was a big difference like in Switzerland they got a lot less homework it was a lot less pushed like academically I found that it was just like more about I don't know just more rounded a rounded lifestyle in the sense of schooling and homework and everything like that and the younger grades my girls never got homework in Switzerland on weekends which was really nice so you never had to worry about like Sunday night oh my gosh like did you you know do your paper or whatever like that it didn't exist so so that's quite a big difference I know where I went to school in Canada I got loads of homework and so I don't know I think everyone should follow the system in Finland because they're doing pretty good they don't do any homework and they're rated one of the best so maybe we should all learn something from them number seven is extracurricular activities and so growing up you know we would do sometimes like maybe a one to two day getaway trip at the end of the school year and in the United States I know that they don't do like these like they'd sometimes do trips but it's not like every single year you know for sure that you're going to the ski camp and the summer camp or whatever and in Switzerland they do do that and so it's really cool so they literally take the kids for one whole week they go up and stay in a Swiss Chalet they go skiing they go hiking summer camps they do the ziplining and they do like just a whole bunch of fun activities and so they alternate like winter camp one year summer camp the next year and it's very very affordable so I think they get a lot of the funding from the different communes and such but for a fraction of the cost your child can go for a whole week and I can't learn to ski and get like self taught you know not self tops right you learn to ski and get instructor and taught ski lessons and so it's just pretty phenomenal when you think about it I know when our kids were in the States and in Canada you know that didn't really exist and if it did it was only reserved until the much higher grades like grades seven eight and right it wasn't for like you know the 10 year olds 11 year olds 12 years old whereas this is so it's pretty cool point number eight is the school systems and when I'm talking about school systems okay so Canada in the u.s. is pretty much the same where you know everyone starts around like pre-kindergarten kindergarten then they go up to like you know their junior high or grade seven eight and then you do your no junior senior sophomore degree nine ten eleven twelve kind of thing right and then everyone goes off to university or college and then you hope to get a good job to pay for all the student loans and debts well so in Switzerland things are much different there's a lot more pressure on the younger kids of the younger age because already at the age of 12 you are put into different paths if you will so depending on the grades that the kids get in school and the teachers kind of sit with the parents and kind of analyze your child's either gonna go into a general path or what they call pre gymnasium which would be like pre highschool path and that is going to determine if your child is going to end up doing University in college or professional schools maybe or apprenticeship type schools and programs and so it's interesting because it's quite different right no one in in America and Canada everybody follows the same path and then you know goes on from there whereas in most I don't know if it's all European countries but definitely Switzerland they all have this chosen pathway that they're gonna go in and it doesn't mean that if they're going down you know a general path that they can't switch and then after end up in a professional school or university but chances are if they're going down this way they're not going to go so there's a lot of pressure at that young age to make sure their grades are high and so that's a little bit you know I would say a little bit unfair but at the same time it's good in the sense that not everybody is cut out to go to university not everybody is going to be a doctor or a lawyer or need that kind of education so this kind of ties into my next point because everyone is going down different paths when you look at any kind of job whether it's being a waiter or a salesperson or a mechanic or I don't know I'm trying to like - any you know day to day job that in the United States you don't need formal training for in Switzerland people actually do an apprenticeship and so when they're doing an apprenticeship they're actually learning all the ins and outs of the business and they're going to school only one day a week and then working for four days a week so everybody hasn't a professional training if you will which is really nice because like I was saying before not everyone's caught it cut out to be a doctor a lawyer you know a professional accountant or whatever so this way there's different paths for everybody to go through and and it's just maybe a little bit better organized in that sense point number nine the cost of Education and so in the United States and in Canada as you probably already know well if you're there you definitely know there's something called student loans right and so a lot of people after after they're done high school then they're choosing what university or what college they're gonna go to and half the time the kids don't even know what they want to do because they don't really you know they just don't know and so then they get a student loan you know schools cost a lot of money in America and then they end up hoping to get a job to pay for the student loans so it's kind of a broken system in the sense that it's expensive and then you're not a guaranteed work and you don't even know if that's what you really want to do and so I was surprised because already at Julia's age she's 14 right now in school in Switzerland they - they're not in school right now but if they were in school they already choose from one week a different profession and they go and work in that business at the age of fourteen so they kind of are starting to get a feel for what they want to do what kind of work they want to do and it just lowers all the confusion when it comes to like sheesh should I be this should I be that they kind of already guided at a young age and then what happens is is when they are ready to go to school if they're in an apprenticeship type program they're actually getting paid because they're working in a business four days a week so they're not coughing out these big student loans and then a lot of the times whether it's like becoming a nurse and different professions like that the the money that they cost them I don't know exactly but it's not what we have in America like if school is affordable if not next to nothing so I think that's great - point number 10 this is terrible school security all right here is the biggest differences in the morning when you walk your kids to school in Switzerland you can enter the school property you can hang out with other moms you can have conversations with them you can walk into the school no one's gonna like yell at you and stop you and there's no bulletproof glass I'm not talking for Canada because Canada is much much different when it different when it comes to this but in the United States there's such a huge problem right now as you all know with guns and shootings and all this crazy stuff so Security's super high it's like sending your kids to jail because like you know they have to like the doors are locked you can't just walk up and so the school security is hugely different like I am it's quite nice like when you when you go to school in Switzerland and the kids are there and you see the kids playing you can see the other kids you can see who your kids are playing with how they're getting along I don't know it's just fun to observe them and and see who their friends are and everything like that and there's just no threat when it comes to the security and to be to be fair like the kids it's their right to feel secure and safe when they're going to school there should never be like this like scare and threaten so it's something that definitely needs to be worked on over there in Canada let me think it's pretty good but it's still quite regulated like you can't just walk onto a school property and walk into a classroom there's still you know you have to report to the office but I don't think it's it's not as lockdown if you will as the u.s. is point number 11 is yellow school buses and school transportations so this is funny because we always see it in the movies right the big yellow school buses so if you're not in the US and you're not in Canada not every country has yellow school buses so the kids they walk to school in Switzerland because the schools are so close and every community is built that the school is like very close so the ones that do which is rare but do you have to take a bus they actually take the public transit so they're taking like a public school not school bus but public bus to school which is really funny and all the other kids you see them walking in the morning to school the moms sometimes walk and the kids start at a young age walking so you'll see little six year olds walking down the street all by themselves so it's pretty crazy so that's a big difference you know it doesn't take it used to take me like 45 minutes to get to school and and then I didn't actually take it big yellow school bus because anyway long story short I went to a French school and I got shipped a different way to school but for the most part you know people stand at a school bus stop wait for the big yellow school bus to come go on and then do this big long road because you have to like stop at every stop so quite different there point number 12 is school teachers and the quality of the teachers and so I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me and be like you know in Europe it's not it was the same or in Switzerland anyway but for what I've experienced I have nothing bad to say about the teachers in Switzerland they were all amazing same goes for the US and Canada but we were sending our kids to really good schools so I know based on this documentary that I did see there are some really bad teachers there in the US like really bad and the documentary speaks for itself watches searching for Superman if you want to see it so the the quality of the teachers like they're paid well I believe in Switzerland and so they just are they apply themselves and anyway nothing bad to say there but there there's definitely a difference so point 13 is parent/teacher night and so this one's really fun because um at the start of the school year in Switzerland the the whole school is invited basically all the parents and so on and so forth to get together and what they do is they do a little bit of a presentation and then each teacher brings all the parents into the classroom and they literally will show you the whole curriculum for the school year they show you the kids books what's at their desk it's quite detailed and they go through everything and so that was different I've never experienced that in America before you know you you usually parent-teacher nights in America is usually one-on-one with the teacher and then you talk about how the kids doing and and so on and so forth but this is more like an overview of the whole school year how it's gonna go and then what's really interesting is is you can meet all the other parents because it's just not like oh nice to meet you guys now goodbye they actually do hors d'oeuvres after and they serve like a light snack and even a glass of wine which was funny and everyone just socializes and gets to know each other so you get to know the parents of the the kids in your class and so on and so forth and so it's a really great idea I thought that was really cool and quite a big difference so point 14 is just sharing private information so there's a lot of like privacy acts and stuff when it comes to Canada the US and that's one thing I thought was interesting is in Switzerland we received like an agenda book with each child and in there they put all the parents that are in the class so all the parents of the kids in the class and all the phone numbers so it's really easy to organize like a birthday party or to get a hold of someone if you have a question or just to like you know get to know the parents so all their phone numbers are there everyone's sharing this private information so that I don't think you would ever have in America because people like I I'm not gonna give it out their phone number you know without their consent of course the parents are the ones that write down the phone numbers but still I thought that was kind of interesting and different and included in the agenda is actually the teachers phone numbers so you can like what's up the teacher you can call the teacher you have all their contact information so that's just amazing I don't know that the teachers in America do that 15 is diversity in classrooms and so okay if you're in a big city of course if you're in New York City Toronto Ottawa or anywhere like this you're going to have diversity in your classroom but if you're from a small little town and the middle of nowhere like you're not right and so that was a big difference for me our kids are in an area that is very multicultural and I'm just gonna name like a few different nationalities and countries that would be in one classroom for example so we could have Portugal Spain France Switzerland of course Kosovo Romania Serbia Congo for Kenya Faso Morocco cote de Foix the Ivory Coast Syria I mean it's so multicultural it's not even funny and so it's great because the kids are learning at their cultures are learning about different languages just by being and in the class with these kids and so it's very very multicultural at least where we're living in that part of Switzerland I know not everywhere in Switzerland like that but where we are it is which is kind of cool I love it point number 16 is taking your kids out of school so in the US and in Canada if we want to take the kids at a school we just send a note and say on such-and-such a date we're gonna be gone and retain the kids at the school and that's it no go in Switzerland in Switzerland you have to write a formal letter you have to wait for the response and if they deny you they can find you I think up to like five hundred francs so this is one of the reasons we are homeschooling because we are no longer allowed to take our kids out of school and so we were kind of like forced if we want the flexibility we just have to home-school which kind of makes sense right because we did take them out quite a bit but I know a lot of parents that are living in Switzerland that when they take their kids at this school they have to lie and like May this like big long excuse so that they don't get in big trouble cuz they mean business you don't just take your kids out of class or school like weekend in America point number 17 and I'm trying to hurry up because the sun's going down so my Lighting's getting worse but it's home home Ecch weird working all those like extracurricular classes so in the United States depending on where you can send your kids to school it's not always included I know in Canada they still do home MEC and all those different things which is awesome and in Switzerland they do too so they sometimes will do gardening which is awesome they take them to the community garden there's a real gardener there like the guy who takes care of all the garden flowers plants and he's the one teaching the kids the different herbs the different plants and then they harvest them and they cut them and all that kind of stuff they sometimes also do things like they'll just like up and go to the pool for the afternoon so they do like extra activities and it's part of the school it's not like it's not like this extra thing that they're doing they're just integrated into their learning which is awesome I think it's the best thing for the kids because it gives them like a well-rounded education not just like academic academic academic so that was a big difference for me eighteen is a special presence for special occasions so I thought this was really cool I don't know if this is just where our kids are going to school but the teachers were phenomenal when it came to either Mother's Day Valentine's Day Christmas any of these like kind of like special days and special occasions the kids made these like elaborate gifts they made these like really nice poems and it wasn't just like you know a little drawing or a little card it was like a really nice gift all thought out that you could use and reuse so like in my house I have all these beautiful gifts that the kids made for me and it's just like awesome it's things that you use on a daily basis so that was a big difference because you know in America it was nice you got like a little drawing or a little craft or something but it wasn't like you know like a you know I have a duty gift a real real nice gift like you get in Switzerland so most of you know in Europe in a lot of European countries and in Switzerland the parents get like five to six weeks holidays per year so they already get a lot of paid vacation time with their work and the school systems are a little bit different in that sense as well so let me do this three I'll talk Canada u.s. in the United States so if I look at the the school system in Canada you usually start after Labor Day which is the fourth of September then you go pretty much all the way up till Christmas without like a real long break in the United States I think you get at least the one week at Thanksgiving and then you get your Christmas break and in Switzerland they get two weeks in October off already and then Christmas break as well and I think those two weeks in October are what if you look way back it comes to when you start to pick the grapes and so the kids would get out of school and help with picking the grapes and so on and so forth off the vines and so that's where that school holiday kind of originated from so then they have their Christmas break like everyone does and then they get a week and switch around they get a week in February off which most people take off to go skiing or what have you and then they get two weeks off in April at Easter time so if you go back to Canada Canada gets March break so about a week in March and I'm just little holidays here like days here and there and then they get Easter they only have like Easter Friday and Easter Monday off and that's it in the United States hmm let me think now so in the United States I can't even actually remember so someone's gonna have to comment below and tell me in April if there's like holidays I know there's like a spring break for about a week but I forget if that's only high school or not so so there you have that and then let's see then in Switzerland after April then they go to school till about the 4th of July then they celebrate you know the 4th of July no I'm just joking so so they have it they go till the 4th of July and then they have their summer break until the end of August where is Canada they finished school around maybe the 15th there so June depending on the school systems right so somewhere in June there so it's a little bit different when it comes to that and then another major difference is everybody comes home for lunch in Switzerland so they go to a two hour lunch break where they come home a lot of times they have a home-cooked meal because moms are home and prepare them their meals and so on and so forth and so that's a big difference too so you see your kids a lot more and I know our kids loved it they got to tell us half way through the day what's happening and and all that so that's kind of cool number 20 is the end-of-the-year school party and so in Switzerland I don't I've never experienced this in America or Canada they have this like big huge party and everybody goes I know that there's this one couple they don't even have kids in the school or even grandkids in the school and they go to the party so it's like it's like big open party for anybody to come and enjoy they have bouncy castles they have like ziplining for the kids they do the school choirs plays music and sing songs what else like they did one date one year they did like a whole parade down the street where all the kids like got decorated by class and then they everybody's cheering them on and it's just like this big huge community event and the the high school kids the older kids they're the ones serving the the the beer the wine the drinks and the food and then all the parents and the kids are just having this like big fun party to start and kick off the summer so that's really cool and that's a huge difference because I've never experienced anything like that in the United States and Canada they might do things like maybe like a school like a school play or a school performance to end the school year but but never anything like this so I thought that was pretty cool so so you guys to end the video I really hope you enjoyed it and please comment below let me know you know if it's different where you are or what you've experienced I know you will anyway and let us know what you thought okay we'll see you next time give us a big thumbs up bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Growing Up Without Borders

Views: 101,305

Rating: 4.85113 out of 5

Keywords: Growing Up Without Borders, family travel, homeschool, world school, work and travel, traveling family, School and Travel, Family Vlog, World Travel Vlog, Digital Nomads, homeschooling mom, cultural differences, switzerland vs. america, switzerland vs. USA, expat life, moving abroad, long-term travel, vlog, digital nomad, work from home, wanderlust, growing up, School in Switzerland, chantal patton

Id: 2oPab6l8bdM

Length: 28min 29sec (1709 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 07 2018