Friday 2.20, Prague

We stumble off of our overnight train from Krakow with heavy eyes. According to our conductor, newer trains frequently succumb to the harsh Polish winters, so we rode on a much older one. By older, I mean smellier, less roomy, and much more subject to lurching, creaking, and other sorts of things. One group found snow in their room in the morning. We put this behind us, and board a bus to the International School of Prague, the ISP. Here, children of diplomats, ambassadors, and international businessmen study, in English, from pre-K to 12th grade.
We are ushered into their cafeteria, where they have prepared a breakfast for us. Soon students from the school come to greet us, and bring BLS students with them to their classes. I am fortunate enough to spend their first class block talking with the ISP’s chemistry teacher. For the entire block, we sit (over coffee thankfully), and discuss our school climates, our respective philosophies of education, our successes, and our shortcomings as science teachers. We end up having an awful lot in common. It is refreshing and a little bit validating to find an overseas colleague who deals with many of the same struggles that I am dealing with back in the states. Regardless of the country, misconceptions exist, students struggle to master concepts, safety and class size restrictions impede on the learning process, and the work is never done. I hope that we continue our correspondence in the future; it is always good to talk about teaching and get new ideas!
During the second class block of our visit, I sat in on a class entitled “Theory of Knowledge”. The students in this class sat with their desks in a circle, and engaged in a Socratic debate regarding whether Relativism or non-Relativism is closer to absolute truth. The students were prepared, engaged, polite within the debate format, and very thoughtful about their points. After the class began, the teacher sat back and let the debate happen. It was wonderful to watch the students develop their own understandings. Although I don’t think a conclusive agreement was reached, the students were clearly benefiting from the topic and the format. Ultimately the leadership and critical thinking skills that was fostered in the class will transcend the topic of discussion.
At the conclusion of the class, we hustle away from the ISP and travel into old town Prague. An addition to our group is Mr. Crane, a history teacher from ISP who has lived in Prague for the past 20 years. He will be our personal tour guide within the city of Prague. After checking into our hotel, he takes on a tour of downtown Prague. It is a fascinating place. Because it was not destroyed in either of the World Wars, downtown Prague is full of some of the oldest buildings in Europe. Walking down one of its narrow cobblestone streets, one could pass buildings built in Gothic style next to ones built in Cubist style next to buildings built in Art Nuveau style. It seems like every building has a history, and since we are being shuffled around by two architecture buffs, we hear about a lot of it. The walking tour takes much of the afternoon, and after some free time and dinner, we go to sleep in preparation for tomorrow. We will be visiting our final concentration camp of the tour, Terezin/Theresienstadt.