Snow!!! Also some insights from teachers and students.

 

Well, winter has finally hit Athens and a rare snowstorm has slowed down this lively city and cancelled school for today, sidelining my plans to visit a vocational high school and forcing me to stop and take a breath. The past few days has been a whirlwind as I've had to opportunity to sit in on some classes in another public high school, experiencing the full range of engagement and behavior, and some incredibly brilliant and caring students and teachers. 

Interviews with Students

Because of an impromptu field trip, I had the opportunity to sit down and interview students in small groups rather than the whole class as I have done previously. These students ranged in age from 13 to 15 and they had a lot to say about their education and what could make it better. Students varied in how much they thought the pandemic changed their school experience with some saying it is better now than it was before COVID and some saying it's more difficult. The aspects of school they love are universally being able to be with friends and the difficulties of school are too much pressure to achieve and too much homework. They reported having 3-5 hours of homework a night - something that was confirmed by the teachers I spoke to. There is also an after school private tutoring called Frontisteria that most students attended for 1-3 hours every day, something that comes along with more homework. Parents feel compelled to send their kids to these sometimes costly tutoring sessions so that they can be competitive in the exitasis - the test that all Greek high school seniors must take if they want to attend free public college. Most college bound students spend all senior year preparing solely for this test and it is something that is a serious source of stress.

When I asked students how they were coping with the stress - both that caused by the transition from the pandemic and otherwise, they had a few self-care strategies involving extra-curricular activities such as sports (not provided in the schools), dancing, playing video games, and one - Spiro - works on self-motivation - "I asked myself 'What if I try?'" But the most significant factor that came up again and again when I spoke with students about what helps them learn and be motivated in schools was caring teachers who connected with them by asking how they were, being understanding about missing work, and being interested in getting to know them as humans and not just students.

Interviews with Teachers

I also had the opportunity to sit down and talk with teachers - some brand new, some veterans, some at the administrative level, and one recently retired, and their ideas about what the problems were with schools and how to solve them were also varied and interesting. First of all, at all levels, the frustration is real. Just as in the US, teachers are seeing more apathy and disruptive behavior from students than before the pandemic. Many of them also noticed an upswing in mental health struggles on the part of students and teachers. When asked what they thought the solutions were, many spoke to the sentiment "You can't change the system." Teachers are severely underpaid in Greece - some paying over 3/4 of their income just for rent. They also mentioned various teaching ideas being implemented countrywide over the years without adequate training or support. They mentioned that just when they felt they were finally understanding these new educational ideas, a new one came to replace the old. In my 25 years of teaching in the U.S., I can definitely empathize with this. Finally, the rivalry between the regular public schools and the private Frontesteria tutors seemed to be a point of contention that I haven't fully been able to grasp, yet.

Along with the frustration with what is already a difficult job in even more difficult times, I met teachers passionate about their students and working hard to make things better. Iliana and Giota are both teachers at two different schools incredibly proficient at both their subject matter and building relationships with their students and a culture of learning in their classes.  Illiana told me of a system of mentor teachers used in a vocational school where each teacher spends 15-20 per month meeting up individually with 4-5 students assigned to them. They are initially trained by a psychologist on a protocol of talking to students and build relationships with these students over the course of the school year, serving as a supportive adult with a listening ear. This system, said Illiana, was one of the few strategies she'd seen that had an almost immediate and lasting impact on school culture and behavior. I plan to look into it some more, because it sounds like a good fit for my school.

The last few days have done a lot to strengthen my impression that the key to improving our schools lies in the relationships students form with their teachers. As one teachers at the Thucydides high school said "There's always a way to connect."