TRADITIONAL OR INNOVATIVE

PERSPECTIVE 
by JANN FLURY
Columnist EducationNews.org

May 25, 2000 

Times have changed since I was a kid and went to school in Switzerland. The schedule was five-and-a-half days a week: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, and from 8:00 a.m. till 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Students enjoyed school because they learned something new everyday. Paying attention, lots of hard work, practice, and review would get you good marks at test time, and you knew that you had learned something that would come in handy later in life. All that has changed with our modern education system. Today, here in Ontario and the rest of North America, no one walks to school over any distance. Students are no longer taught through direct instructions and no information is drilled into them, so they will remember. They don't even have to learn the alphabet or memorize the multiplication tables anymore. Learn to get along with a diverse group of peers and feel good about yourself and become a learner for life is what they teach in place of the 3Rs.

Today, in Ontario, regular classroom teachers represent less than 50% of staff employed in public education. Forty-three percent of students are reported to have some form of significant learning disability and "studies show" that children should start their schooling before they are 3 years old. Since we live in a quickly changing technological era, teachers and education administrators conclude we need new resources, computers and the latest visual presentations to teach children new innovative programs that will help them get along in the "global village" of this new millennium. Educators tell us that life is much more complicated for the children today than it used to be. They warn us that if we don't buy into all the "innovative" education changes, new resources, and provide computers for every student we will fall behind the international competition.

After some checking, I am happy to find out that Switzerland hasn't changed their public education system since I started school there many years ago. Switzerland has opted for the traditional, no nonsense, direct instruction method of teaching and putting the responsibility and accountability along with management authority where it belongs: right at the local school and community level.

Some of the differences between the Traditional education system of Switzerland and the "Innovative" modern system here in Ontario are striking, and comparisons are indeed revealing. On international test comparisons, Swiss students outperform North American students by a wide margin, yet Switzerland spends much less on education per student than we do, even though Swiss teachers receive considerably higher salaries than do their counterparts here.

- In Switzerland, the tiniest village or hamlet has its own school (s). - Children do not start school until they are 7 years old. - Every village has its own elected "school board" of, typically, 7 trustees, who are average people with day jobs. Their remuneration for the post is approximately $1,500 per year. The boards function as our school councils should. They hire the teachers, validate the teachers' report cards, set the budget, and field parents' complaints. - No transportation is provided for students attending public school; whereas, in Ontario, bussing eats up nearly 5% of the education budget.

Swiss policy is to minimize non-classroom expenditures. There are no transportation costs. Almost every adult in the school is a classroom teacher. There are no principals, secretaries, librarians, lunchroom supervisors or crossing guards. Instead of principals, the Swiss schools have "rektors" to do the administration and an "inspector" to provide instructional supervision. Both the rektor and the inspector (who come from another school) continue to teach at least half-time, and both positions are term appointments. Other duties are shared among the teachers. - Enrichment and remedial teachers are unknown. Teachers keep the primary students at the same level through giving those who need it extra instructions or practice exercises for homework. - Special needs students with physical or mental handicaps are sent to an appropriately specialized residential school at an inter-cantonal (inter-provincial) level.

The average school in Switzerland is over 100 years old. It has no gym, no library, no computer room (indeed, no computers), and no PA system, but they have special rooms for cooking and sewing classes for the girls and wood working for the boys. Both gyms and libraries are common property in the community with access for students during phys/ed and study or research periods.

Schools have no lockers and there is no stealing. Vandalism is almost unheard of since students consider the schools as their own property. Serious violence in schools was non-existent until the recent influx of East European immigrants into Switzerland.

Although, until 1999, no permit was required to purchase a firearm in Switzerland there have never been any shootings before that date. In fact, every male over the age of 18, by state law, is obliged to keep a fully automatic army assault rifle along with 120 rounds of ammunition in his home. The first shooting incident (accidental or otherwise) occurred last year in a school, when a Serbian father killed a teacher who had reported the Serb to the police for allegedly raping his own daughter.

So here we have the old and the new, the traditional and the innovative, the uncomplicated, economical; and we have the complex, expensive high-tech systems of education. The traditional system of Switzerland has a track record that far outperforms our "innovative" child-centered, outcome based teaching system and costs a fraction of the price.

Shouldn't we in North America be looking at simplifying our education system and revert to direct instructions teaching methods, which are empirically proven to be far superior.