Here goes nothing...tell me I'm NOT crazy

[musical74]

Even missing a MONTH due to a nasty sinus cold, I still pull off a B in my psych class!! Writing final is tonight...rather doubt I'll get an A again, but definitely feeling good about college

[Sin]

I feel so sorry for people who have to pay for education. I don't mean that in an arrogant way. Just saying it's a shame.

[PyTom]

I feel so sorry for people who have to pay for education. I don't mean that in an arrogant way. Just saying it's a shame.

Someone has to pay for education. (Unless you have teachers, professors, and staff who work for free.)

[Sin]

Oh, for clarity's sake I should point out I'm not American. I live and studied in Sweden. Teachers here are payed by the government (through taxes) and not through tuitions from individual students (or their parents). Schools are granted funds relative to the amount of graduating students so there are incentives for them to do good, though I don't swear by the specifics. Students themselves get benefits too from the state as long as they're studying and passing classes. A few hundred dollars a month or so. This combined with a interest-free loan means that you can move closer to any university in the country.

Sure, we pay for it all with higher taxes and Sweden has among the highest in the world, but it evens out the playing field so that a good education isn't something reserved for the wealthy. Here, people drop out of school out of boredom or when they want to change fields. Never because of money. And no, the education we get is no less valuable than what's taught in American colleges and is internationally competitive.

I'm really grateful for the education I have gotten and I sometimes forget that things are different elsewhere, and when I hear about the astronomical sums that people spend on their education in the US it just sounds wrong somehow. Like they're being cheated.

[LVUER]

Oh, for clarity's sake I should point out I'm not American. I live and studied in Sweden. Teachers here are payed by the government (through taxes) and not through tuitions from individual students (or their parents). Schools are granted funds relative to the amount of graduating students so there are incentives for them to do good, though I don't swear by the specifics. Students themselves get benefits too from the state as long as they're studying and passing classes. A few hundred dollars a month or so. This combined with a interest-free loan means that you can move closer to any university in the country.

Niiiceee. Germany is also like that, right (or so from what I heard)? This means everyone could study, as long as they want to. In my country, lots of children don't go to school because of financial problems (and teachers pays are so small that it ridiculous, and I'm a teacher too ...sigh...).

I'm really grateful for the education I have gotten and I sometimes forget that things are different elsewhere, and when I hear about the astronomical sums that people spend on their education in the US it just sounds wrong somehow. Like they're being cheated.

Same here too. To make things worse, education here is like business. And government is in progress to make education more... commercial... (sigh again)...

[Midnighticequeen]

Oh, for clarity's sake I should point out I'm not American. I live and studied in Sweden. Teachers here are payed by the government (through taxes) and not through tuitions from individual students (or their parents). Schools are granted funds relative to the amount of graduating students so there are incentives for them to do good, though I don't swear by the specifics. Students themselves get benefits too from the state as long as they're studying and passing classes. A few hundred dollars a month or so. This combined with a interest-free loan means that you can move closer to any university in the country.

Sure, we pay for it all with higher taxes and Sweden has among the highest in the world, but it evens out the playing field so that a good education isn't something reserved for the wealthy. Here, people drop out of school out of boredom or when they want to change fields. Never because of money. And no, the education we get is no less valuable than what's taught in American colleges and is internationally competitive.

I'm really grateful for the education I have gotten and I sometimes forget that things are different elsewhere, and when I hear about the astronomical sums that people spend on their education in the US it just sounds wrong somehow. Like they're being cheated.

I wish I lived in Swedish now. It costs way to much to go to college, but if you don't you mind end up working minimum wage for the rest of your life, which is not a future I would wish on anyone. (The school I want to go to alone cost 75k, and yes that is the cheapest I found it at)

[Hime]

Heh, I think many European countries have free education anyway... The Nordic ones at least. And contrary to what some people might think, the quality is pretty good too, at least it is here. Most teachers have to have the highest possible degrees besides their reasonable salaries and many countries with free education have some of the highest scores in global tests as well... I just can't understand how they have yet to understand the greatness of such a system. I guess it's all about the profits instead of about the people and their wellbeing. :/

Also, free lunch is awesome. And better than my mother's cooking...

[musical74]

*Has more respect for LUVER...being a teacher has got to be HARD*

OK offical grades are a pair of B's...I'll take that also found out that my letter to the editor is going to be published

[Jo'ogn]

I think many European countries have free education anyway...

Similar to Sweden Germany has, too. Unless you feel the need for a private school. Even Fachhochschule (college) and university have considerably small semster fees. They are increasing them though. I paid around €75 per semester back in 1998. They had increased it by €50 during my studies. And today it might be around €250. But depending on the city, or Bundesland (state) a public transport ticket is finally included.

Attending a higher education (college, Uni) you can apply for an interest free govermental grant and depending on your situation and your final grades you get it and have to pay back less.

As for educational quality. Looking back, I cannot complain. It also depends on the willingness to learn. afaik most teachers are "Beamte" (employed by the government), which means they have considerably safe working places.

iirc Germany didn't score too well in that PISA thingy. But again it depends also on the trends and willingness of the young generations. Kids seem to copy the us-american ghetto style in some schools - though there are no ghettos in Germany! And they make their own life a problem. As those situations are willingly self-made I can only assume that they must 'enjoy' the thrill o_0;

Studying was fun, but after all these years I am done with schools and education. The things I need to know I can teach myself. I used to go to libaries a lot before the WWW became the dominating source of knowledge for me. They were free until some 15 years ago. I don't know the actual fees, but it was about €20 per year some three years ago. I think it's fair, considering that you get as much books, cds and videos as you want to. And in this big city we have a lot of libaries, it's awesome.

Also, free lunch is awesome. And better than my mother's cooking..

They had an awesome Mensa at the tech college I attended. It was outstanding. My mom's cooking ish awesome too and so ish mine ^_^b

[Hime]

Yup yup. Here basic education is 100% free, but from high school and upwards you have to buy your books yourself and you might have to pay for some special courses. For example, I'm in an art-specialised high school, so we have to pay a little for the art courses and in exchange we get good tools to work with. Because the city supports our high school, the prices are still relatively low, about 25 euros at most (for for example, the most advanced ceramic arts courses). Usually they're just 5-10 euros though. Pretty little for working under real professionals with high-quality tools... ^^;

[Ren]

You're all making me envious here... the Italian school system is really behind in comparison, especially for art schools, it seems.

Just the other day I saw a report on television about how in the papers you get when you sign in to a school they omit that the laboratory tax is voluntary, so a lot of people end up paying more than 100€ they could otherwise avoid - and I saw a principal saying it was something they needed to do to "encourage" people to not avoid paying... seen as for so many people getting to the end of the month is a continuous problem, that's irritating, to use an euphemism.

As for having high quality tools or professional teachers or fancy courses... meh. Most of the time you're lucky if you get the occasional teacher who really has a passion for what he does, and doesn't make your life impossible because they have no idea of what they have to do 90% of the time and think they can actually teach you.

It's no surprise our politicians choose to send their children to foreign schools, but it's also very irritating - schools shouldn't be some sort of ordeal where you go through well mostly because you're good on your own... I guess most teachers don't agree that schools are a place were you learn and better yourself.