Facebook has reminded me that it is back-to-school season. Summer is drawing to a close (unless you're in TX, in which case you have a good 3 months left), and the season of lunch boxes and alarm clocks looms before us. I have noticed this because about half of my facebook friends are teachers, and have "kiddos coming soon!" or "decorating the classroom!" or "preparing for the first day of school" as their current status. It's cute. Ah, the first day of school. What will I wear? Who will I have lunch with? Will the teachers/professors mispronounce my name yet again? It's such a defining day. So judgmental. It starts in elementary school, with the cool vs. uncool lunchboxes. Soon it's onto to fashionable scrunchies and the number of slap-bracelets you can fit on your wrists. Next, it's what uniform you're wearing: band? cheerleader? soccer? drama? church? We like to think it stops in college, but really it has just evolved into where one sits in the classroom. Back of the class: slacker, or quiet straight-A observer? Front of the class: teachers' pet, easily distracted, or near-sighted? Middle: shy and blending in, or debating with the whole room? I myself am a second-row gal. I like to be in the action, but not too close. You sit in that first row and you're bound to be used as an example, called on randomly, etc. I use the first row as a buffer. In grad school, however, there are no uniforms, people go to cafes for lunch, and the classrooms are set up round-table-style (at mine, at least). So the question is, 3 weeks from now, as I walk into my first first day of school in 3 years, how will I define myself?
I was telling R about this last night, in yet another effort to force American cultural insights on him, when the discussion moved to Dutch schools vs. American schools. Now, usually I win this one, as I had a relatively good experience, and R a relatively bad one, but this time he got me. Mid-discussion, he nonchalantly mentioned that, during "long" final exams (and by long he means 2 hours. huh.), the students are served coffee or tea. Served. WHAT??!! Apparently there is a little sign on each desk that says "coffee" on one side and "tea" on the other, and you turn it to your preference so that halfway through, someone can walk by and pour you fresh hot coffee or tea. Now, I understand that in American university finals we are permitted to (usually) bring along a venti-double-shot-with-whip-sugar-free-carmel-non-fat-sprinkles-extra-hot machiato, or some sort of respectable coffee (Blue Bottle? My San Franciscans...) that probably tastes loads better than the coffee these schools probably serve, but it's the principle of the thing. The principle being why don't we do that?? It's a brilliant idea, and why aren't we adopting it? In high school a few teachers would give out those little red-and-white peppermints before a test because supposedly they stimulate the brain, which is lovely, and I'm certainly not one to turn down candy, but wouldn't a mid-exam caffeine boost be much more effective?
Now, I tend to be rather smug about the American university system. Not because I think our universities are necessarily "better" academically (often they aren't), but because I believe it's important to take classes in a range of subjects before choosing a major, and in neither France nor The Netherlands can a student do that. Nor can a pre-med major take a literature class, a business major take a music class, etc. At a mere 15 or 16 years old, without knowing what they actually like or who they are, each student must choose his or her path in life, and once chosen, it's next to impossible to switch. I find this absolutely horrifying. Perhaps it's because I myself changed majors twice, but I still think I'm right on this one.
Anyway, my smugness was somewhat shot off its chair with this coffee/tea discovery. And I am sad.
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