My middle of three child is a 15yo girl, who is simultaneously the apple of her fathers eye and the one most likely to put her father in an early grave. So, a standard issue Aussie adolescent.
She recently decided she wanted to apply for an exchange student program; which pleased her brothers immensely. She looked at the options and thought either Belgium or Spain were her choices and after checking Google decided that in Sep-Feb that Belgium was far too cold. There is no Spanish heritage anywhere in her lineage, so it’s an experience rather out in left field and I think it’s superb.
She’s in the top decile of the top class at school, independent and strong willed. She’s going places. We have let her do the running on the application, whilst supporting her 100%, because I have an aversion to overweening, parent ghosted applications but the flipside is that her honest 15yo answers don’t always dovetail into the ticking the right boxes. Que sera, sera.
So her initial application came back with a series of questions indicating they were concerned about her suitability for the program.
Firstly they indicated because Spain is a “VERY (bolded, underlined and capitals) academic country” they were concerned about her grades. My bullshit meter when off like a fire siren. I checked the last PISA results which put Spain 33rd out of 65 in world rankings, just above the US not to put too fine a point on it, and 21st out of 28 EU countries. Little old Australia was languishing … only 14 ranks above them in 19th place in the world. So is this academic focus tosh and humbug or a legit aspiration?
Secondly they are concerned about her fitting in because “in Spain family always takes precedence over friends”. Siren goes off again, though that’s a bit more difficult to verify. If it is true, how is it enforced. And if it isn’t, are they concerned that my little girl will be an agent provocateur striking at the very heart of Spanish culture.
It’s hard to know just what they mean when they claim that Spain is a very academic country. But as a Spaniard, my natural reaction is to agree with you. The country’s education system is indeed broken, and the problems run too deep to be solved by simple reforms or national curriculum changes - not that that stops our politicians from blindly changing the system every four years.
The issue is cultural more than anything else. As an example, I’ll tell you that my father is a law professor back in Spain. Four years ago he was named dean of the law department at his university, so he has had the chance to look at the system from above. What has he found so far? Firstly, that a common-held belief among academics in Spain is that a lecturer is better if a large percentage of students fail his/her courses. In other words, the goal is not to help your students pass but to make sure that many of them fail as that will make you look good as an academic.
Another common finding is that Spain’s education system - at university level but also at lower levels - relies on memorisation rather than critical thinking. A particular professor at my father’s university is known for making his students learn legislation by heart. Come exam time, students have to quote a certain paragraph of a certain law, word by word, or fail. No practical classes, no useful skills. It’s just a matter of being able to uncritically recite stuff you have read.
From a personal point of view, I’ll tell you that I attended an international school in Spain as a kid. This means that we had to learn Spanish history (taught by a Spanish teacher) as well as British history (taught by an Irish teacher). The typical exam question in Spanish history was “Name the 17 kings and queens Spain has had since 1718”; the typical British history question was “Do you agree that nationalism was a key cause of World War I, or were there more important factors? Support your answer with evidence”. Needless to say I regularly failed Spanish history, whereas I never got anything other than an A in British history.
This one is absolutely true. In fact one of the reasons why Spain has not collapsed yet despite a 26% unemployment rate is the fact that families stick together no matter what. Of course this will vary a lot from family to family, but for example your kid might be expected to stay at home on Sundays and eat paella with the family instead of socialising with her friends. She’ll still be allowed to have friends and all, but it’s quite possible that her host family will demand her presence a few times a week
With the second, they are probably mostly concerned that she will not enjoy her time as much if it’s a drastic change in social life. My US high school used to get exchange students from Northern Europe. These kids were used to having a lot more freedom and unstructured time than their American host families were comfortable with. They were also used to looser social expectations about teenage drinking and sex. So mostly the ended up bored to death and fighting with their host families.
I think something she wrote sent up a flag. So they’re saying school and family to emphasize this is supposed to be a learning experience not a vacation trip. Don’t take it too personal. They’re probably used to dealing with teenagers who appear to be thinking “I’ll be in another country and away from my parents? Let’s go clubbing.”