Thoughts on Swiss school

This week is the last week of school and as the kids are winding down they are coming home with lots of stuff from the school year. It's probably more fascinating to me than to most parents around here because I'm learning how they do things. I'd say overall I'm a fan of the Swiss school system. I just wish I understood a little bit more French.

At the end of each semester the kids evaluate themselves on different areas. When they are finished the teacher does the same thing. You can see Alex's evaluation on the left and his teacher's on the right. I love it that they use faces to describe how they are doing. Frowny face for bad, straight face for OK, and a happy face for great. If only life was always that simple.

One thing that they focus on here that they have sort of let go in the US is penmanship. I can remember working on my cursive and getting graded on my penmanship. I'm not sure if they still do that in school, but I do know that fewer and fewer kids in the US use cursive, including myself. Alex started cursive this year and I will readily admit that his is already better than mine.


This is a test that Alex had to take on the kangaroo. He studied the kangaroo, along with other things in Australia, for weeks. I was surprised at the details that the first graders had to know. One day Alex came home from school and informed me that he knew more about the kangaroo than I did. No argument from me there.

One thing that they take very seriously over here is physical fitness. In first grade, each child is issued one of these books and each week in gym class they have to pass off different activities. Some of them are self explanatory and others are a little more interesting. They will continue passing them off next year in second grade. The ones that were especially funny to me were the winter sports (this year Alex went ice skating and next year he will go skiing) and all of the swimming activities.