Have you ever discussed schools and universities with someone from another country or even institution, and gotten confused over terminology? Words like college, faculty, credit, … while generally sharing latin roots, have taken on different meanings around the world. In this blog post, I try to make sense of it all, using my experiences from Switzerland, France, Australia, US, and Canada, and what I’ve learned from elsewhere.
Read the rest of this entry »What’s college? International confusion over academic and scholastic terminology
January 6, 2022
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Schools, Teaching | Tagged: definitions, education system, school, terminology, translation, university | 
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Posted by christiankull
Discipline and mastery: impressions of Swiss school system
November 24, 2015Parents learn can learn a lot about an education system from the vocabulary their children bring home. Since our arrival in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, the results are telling. The words bouncing around the living room are “test, oublie, revision, bavardage, arrivée tardive, heure de retenue, heure d’arrêt, redoubler…” These are all words about discipline or performance. Previously, in very different school systems, the words were more along the lines of “my project, the school concert, assembly, homework“. What does this show? Read the rest of this entry »
11 Comments | Schools, Teaching | Tagged: Education, public schools, Switzerland | Permalink
Posted by christiankull
Sustainability and school choice
July 11, 2013Imagine two 9 year-old children. One gets driven across town to a school that his parents find best fits his learning needs, or social values, or cultural community. He barely knows the kids on the street where he lives, as they all go to other schools. He sits in traffic everyday, contributing carbon to the atmosphere and pollutants to the city air. The other child walks to the local primary school, joining friends along the way, kicking stones down the sidewalk, plucking leaves from the hedge, learning to avoid dangerous street crossings and engaging in little mischiefs. Obviously, I exaggerate and simplify. But the point I wish to make is that the impacts of school choice (or school vouchers, or proliferating private schools) on traffic, air quality, carbon emissions, health, family time, and neighbourhood cohesion are far from sufficiently discussed in debates over school choice.
2 Comments | Schools, Sustainability | Tagged: carbon emissions, school choice debate, sustainability | Permalink
Posted by christiankull
Christian Kull 