Travel+Journal

Stories from students **__//My travel Log from while in the Bahammas//__**

While in the Bahamas I met a few new people from out of country, and I am going to share with you where they are from, a little bit about them and the schooling system they have where they lived.

To start I met a kid who's name is John, and he is from oxford England. HE enjoys video games, friends, and causing a little mischief every now and then(nothing serious just normal teenage stupidity that we all have). His parents are divorced Also but he currently lives with his mother and step father. the Schooling System in England is the type of schooling system I wish we had here in the States. In England they do not call grades grades instead they call them years, so I would not say that I am in 10th grade I would say that I am in year ten. Now for the actual system itself, when you enroll you take a test to see where you are in the sense of knowing the material from the previous year. you also take a test to show how long it takes for you to do the material correctly. after these tests you are assigned your classes. sounds pretty normal right? well the difference is that you are put into classes that are at the same learning level as your self when it comes to comprehension and the amount of time it takes to do the required material. So the main point is that the school places you academically wise where you belong(while still within your grade).

Another person I met was named Danny and he was from Barbados, and in Barbados they don't even have grades! I was some what confused but quickly realized that he was from Barbados and not from the US. In Barbados they have what are called forms, and depending on how old you are determines what form you are in. My friend Danny who is my age is in the second form, I honestly don't know how forms work other than there are four forms and they go from our preschool to 12th grade. and in those four forms it divides those grades up(again just for clarification they don't use grades I am just using grades as an example to help make sense of the forms). Now to tell you a little bit about Danny. Danny was born in Barbados, his parents are still married(and have been for almost 20 years) he is in the second form and he goes to public school. one of his favorite drinks is red bull and I cant think of a single time seeing him in the Bahamas without one. He has met Rihanna multiple times(because she lives there he sees her allot just walking down the street and in KFC which is one of her favorite foods apparently). He enjoys life and sees good and humor in just about everything and is very very laid back. He plays sports such as football(our soccer), cricket,polo,rugby, and lacrosse.

The last person I met I have the least information on mainly because I didn't ask as many questions and because we were playing call of duty black ops zombies, he was swearing at the t.v allot( oh well it was all in good fun, and do note he comes from Switzerland and according to him swearing is accepted in his family and culturally). Anyways i cant remember his name(this is because I could barely understand it when he told me) but he enjoys things such as video games, watching sports on t.v hitting on girls, dancing provocatively ,listening to music, and hanging out with friends. The schooling system that he has is not my favorite, but at the same time I have wished for it for years, I guess now that I have heard that it is a reality somewhere else I have found flaws with it. But he goes to a public school and in his public school he gets to choose all of his classes so that he can excel at what he wants to study and so that he can become exactly what he wants to be when he grows up. so say I went to this school, well I want to be a green engineer when I grow up, and that requires a ton of knowledge when it comes to math and science so all of my classses would be math and science based. And I would learn how to more thoroughly use them with in each other.

The next thing I want to talk about has nothing to do with schools or the learning systems but instead a form of art that I think is really cool. In the Bahamas they of course have pom trees and they trim the branches off of these palm trees and just throw them away, well this is when the saying one mans junk is another mans treasure really comes into play because what people do is they go to all of these trash cans and take the palm branches out and(if you have ever torn a palm leaf you know that id tears into strands) they tear the palm leafs into strands and they make art out of them by weaving them. They weave the leaves into various shapes, objects,and creatures, such as turtles,fish,palm trees(irony) bowls,hats,flip flops(for decoration not for actual use) nad much more. There was also art such as guitars, cars, and airplanes made out of coke cans i thought that these were pretty cool and you see them all over the Bahamas.

My final call on which schooling system I believe is the best would have to be the schooling system that my friend John has because it allows you yo learn at your own pace in the subjects you need the most help in, and because of this system most students in the school have good grades because all you have to do is do the work, granted it has to be correct but there en lies the beauty, because everyone is learning at the speed appropriate for them, they are actually comprehending the material better than before when the students were just thrown into the bulk of everyone else, and couldn't keep up with comprehending the new material. This system also allows teachers to teach a lesson for more than a day if people aren't understanding it, unlike here in the states where if you don't understand a concept you have to go in and get extra help, because a teacher cant just stop for the few who dont understand, instead teachers here have to keep on a schedule set before them by the school board.