School In Finland

Picture 1 Ivar takes Davis for a ride in his own boat
Picture 2 Lagmans School, William's school
Picture 3 Davis and William rode bike to school and Isak wanted to!

On Friday, Davis, Jessica, and I went to Lagmans School with our cousin William who is the same age as Davis. Because of the age they begin school, William is in level 5. As in America, the last few days are not typical so we didn't see a normal school day, but it was normal for the end of school. The headmaster greeted us and showed us to William's classroom which looked like regular classroom! Then he took us outside to show us the new grounds for which they received a grant to develop and now have received an award for them. He, as well as the teachers and children, were very proud of the new design with large green spaces and new plantings, play areas, geometric designs, a dry moat with stones and a bridge, and different types of ground cover.

I met William's teacher and all of the students lined up outside for a quick walk to the local church for the end of the school year chapel time. A chorus sang, a girl played a flute solo, and the minister spoke about Zaccheus. We didn't understand much but caught the idea of Zaccheus, the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. They sang several hymns but none that we recognized. (The school's are attached to the local government and students receive a grade in religion on their report card. Those students who are not Christian, do not have to participate in these activities.)

After returning to school, students ate an early lunch of meat and pasta and two different salads. My kids were suprised to see them add ketchup on top as 'tomato sauce'. I visited with the teacher during lunch and learned that teacher training in a university takes 5 years to complete and that very little standardized testing is done with students, then mostly in math, until they reach late middle school age.

After lunch, we had an opportunity to talk with William's class about Eufaula and Atlanta and they were most interested in the alligators in Lake Eufaula and were quite suprised about the heat and humidity we have in the summer. I brought some alligator jerky to Finland to give as 'gifts' so on the next day, I cut some strips up and sent to school for the class with William who reported back that it was 'a hit'...some of the parents who were there wanted to try it, too!

Then William's class, which is changing schools for the next year, had graduation practice. It was to be held the next day, Saturday, so parents would be off work to come. However, since the space was small, only parents of the graduating students could come so we did not ask to go. Graduation Day was full of presentations by the students of work they have done such as writings and poems, songs they have learned, etc. Then they receive their second report card of the year and school is over for the summer. They begin again around the same time in August as we do.

Some of the big differences we noticed were that students take off their shoes when they come in to school and walk around in sock feet; students take a wood working class each week and a sewing class each week; school starts at 9 a.m. and ends around 2 p.m.; almost all the students walk or ride their bikes to school as did Davis and William that day; preschool is what we call kindergarten and their kindergarten is what we call preschool.

The funniest thing was that as Davis and I watched the students in William's class, we could easily pick out students whose actions and personalities matched kids from Lakeside. I guess that means that kids are kids world round!