First Impressions of Eastern European Education

Abstract

eachers are moving about in a room crowded with tables. Some are kissing, others are probably relating summer news. Dressed up in suits or down in jeans, this might be the first day of school for teachers at Maine South High School, my school in Park Ridge, Illinois-except for the European cheek kissing and the opening remarks in Hungarian, that is. Today is opening day for all teachers. My assignment as a Fulbright exchange teacher this year is to teach conversational English at Kassik Gimnizium, a secondary school located in Budapest, Hungary, only a few blocks from the Danube River. The director introduces me to a group of about sixty teachers, mentioning to them the five words I know in Hungarian. They smile, and I am suddenly a part of their community. I meet the other four English teachers who make up our department. They are very anxious to help. Our first day together lasts only one hour. I am given my schedule at the end of the day; I have ten hours of classes a week. For every teacher, each day begins and ends at a different time. In Hungary, high school classes are scheduled like college classes in the United States. The average teacher has eighteen lessons per week; the salary for eighteen lessons is roughly one hundred and eighty dollars. Many teachers, therefore, teach extra lessons a week or give private lessons before or after school.