Swiss have unique view on purpose of education
A heritage and a hope Peter Johnston

It took place a little over two weeks ago while attending the wedding of Timothy Gertson and Lindy Hall in College Station.

At the reception my wife, daughter and I sat down with Charles and Beth Boettcher from East Bernard, who were joined by their son-in-law, Jeff Hood, from Austin, two of his three children and a young man named Matthias Seber from Switzerland.

Matt is living with the Hoods for several months as a part of an eight-month tour of the United States to improve his English.

Matt knows four languages.

Though I cannot speak four languages, we had some common ground. I traveled to Europe before my senior year in high school including a short stint in Switzerland.

My wife is part Swiss. We covered those facts as well as the questioning looks on the faces of Matt's friends when he told them he was traveling to the U.S. rather than England or Australia to improve his English. He added that most Swiss do not have a favorable impression of the United States.

But I was most intrigued with Matt's comments on Swiss education.

Matt is 20 or 21 years old. He has completed high school and his first stint serving in the Swiss military. He is on about an eight-month break before starting in a university. When Matt was 16 he qualified to be one of the 12 percent annually in the Swiss educational system who, at age 16, go on academically for four years in high school.

Did you catch that? Twelve percent. Only 12 percent go to high school! What do the others do? According to Matt they go into apprenticeships. Apparently the Swiss don't believe that academic education is the solution to all of mankind's problems.

Con- sider what that would be like in the United States if only 12 percent of our students went on to high school. And then, if, like the Swiss (based on our conversation), at the end of each of those years they took a test to determine whether they could continue the next year?

Matt said that the government wants only students at that level who are genuinely serious about their studies.

Interestingly, shortly after that conversation I read comments by the late Albert Shanker, former President of the American Federation of Teachers. I believe his comments were made in the early nineties.

Analyzing our American educational system then and looking at the success of foreign educational systems (though not necessarily the Swiss system) he made two recommendations.

First he said the American educational system needed accountability. But, he added accountability alone would not yield the desired results.

Second, he said, students needed motivation. Motivation.

I don't expect that we will see a change in the United States to reflect the Swiss type system. Nonetheless I'd be interested to hear from you what you think. Would that type of system provide needed incentive - a critical element according to Shanker? If not that change, what else might provide the motivation necessary for students to put their best efforts forward during their school years?