Kendra Duli, ‘23

December 2019

I moved a few months ago from Europe to the United States and I would say that there are quite a few things that are different and some that are surprisingly the same from where I grew up. It has to be made clear that Europe is not a country, a continent made up of countries so this article will be mostly based about the schools in my home country Albania but I have contacted also my friends who live in Italy and UK so their experiences will be in it too and I have also used researched information it so the source will be more accurate. Now without further ado let’s get into it.

In Albania a child can go to elementary school/1 st grade once they turn 6 years old but if the child has a disability they can start at 7 years old. Albania has an interesting school system where there is a 9 year school and then high school which is 3 years later on you have university and so on. During those 9 years you do Elementary school and Middle school in the same building and also 1 year of high school. Of course the school is the same building but when you get to 5 th grade you are usually switched from one side of the building to the other or switch floors and also you don’t have to move around to get to 1 class to the other during because we all stay in the same class the whole year and you are going to have the same 30 people for the next 9 years unless you want to switch classes or schools. Next year you will most likely be in a new class. In elementary you have 3 teachers. One is for English or another language, depending on the language your class was assigned, which we start by 3rd grade in school. The next is our gym teacher who taught us in the gym or  outside. Lastly there is our other teacher who teaches us all our other subjects which are: Albanian language, Math, music, art, science, education, and history. 

Later on in the other 4 years you have around 14 subjects which are divided into the week. We had Albanian everyday but then the system changed so we had 2 periods instead of only 1 we had around 3-4 subjects a day where most of them where double periods. We had math, English, French in my school (but some schools had Italian or German), biology, physics, geography, history, art, music, gym, ICT (information of computers and technology), and citizenship. In 8th grade we were also taught Chemistry; we were told first it was going to be added onto the 7th grade curriculum, but they changed it and made it easier, which made a lot of teachers and parents angry. During these years we had different teachers for each subjects but we would not go to them, they would come to us. The teachers also travel from one classroom to another in Germany, France, and Greece.

In high school the subjects you get are:

• Career education

• Mathematics

• Art history

• Albanian language and literature

• History of Albanians

• Science

• Geography

• Economy

• German language

• English language

• Italian language

• ICT

• Physics

• Chemistry

• Biology

• Philosophy

• French language

Italy used to have this system but they switched it. Their system is similar to the American one for the early part where at first the child is in elementary school at 5 years old, and then switches to a 3 year middle school. Then for high school (which is something that also happens in Albania) the students get to choose between 2 schools, professional schools and advanced high schools.

My friend is Italian; he lives in Venice. He attended high school there, in a professional school for ophthalmologists. He has shown me that there are about 14 subjects in school such as anatomy, physics, chemistry, biology, science, mathematics, Italian literature, French, etc. The twice-weekly school ends at 7 p.m. They spend every hour in the classroom and in the lab. There are no clubs in the school each club they develop individually after school. The grade they receive at school is from 4-10; grade 4 is a failing grade. The school has two semesters and each semester has two to three assessments. During the day you should average 3-4 hours on average. Students in Italy are passionate about professional high schools but are not passionate about foreign languages.

Another thing I would like to point out is that in Europe the education is free in most countries, even for university, but you can also go to private schools which do cost money. 

In America, the school system seems to be a bit easier. You start with physics, biology and chemistry through 11th grade, and you have to go around the building to go to each teacher’s class. You have around 7-8 subjects that you usually do within 1 day of classes. I also have to say that as a foreign language, Spanish is given much more importance in Europe than here. 

Now that we have a general idea of these two systems let’s get into some more interesting aspects. For example, time management is different between the States and foreign countries. In the states, the average time between periods are between 5 minutes which is the same in my experience but you usually just calm down, take out textbooks and chill with friends because you don’t have to get into another class (unless it’s gym where you change in dressing rooms and go to gym class). For lunch in Albania you get a 15 minute lunch period where you can go outside or eat the food in the classroom. 

Would it be difficult for American students to imagine a high school without homecoming and prom? That’s the case for most schools in Europe. One will rarely find these school social gatherings. Prom can be a bit more common in the United Kingdom, and perhaps in Albania, but we can always rent a bar or place and split the money so everyone pays 5 euros after school. 

After a few months of having the same Monday through Friday schedule, the same classes every day, in the same order, it’s not strange that most American students get bored beyond belief by the time it’s December— and there are still about 5 more months of school.

Wouldn’t it be nice if students had different schedules each day? That’s the case in most

European schools. For example, a student could have English on Monday afternoon and not on Tuesday afternoon. Many students’ classes are scheduled at different times of the day and

they don’t always have the same classes every day.

Sports are a big part of American school culture. Whether it’s football, basketball, soccer or wrestling, everyone has a good idea of the events happening. In Europe, sports are not tied in with the school. We can play these games during PE class, but not much on other occasions. Of course, there are sports teams that have been added lately for sports like soccer and volleyball, where we compete with other schools, but you have to miss class to be there.

In many ways, American and European schools have obvious differences.  In the end, though, both are focused on educating their students — and they could certainly learn from each other.