Lectures

I haven't posted in a while- I have been busy lecturing and traveling and my internet is DOWN! So, I am going to break up my activities into smaller posts, that way people can read what they like and skip the rest.

Last Wednesday I gave my first lecture here, it was in the Didactics group (what we call Education), and I spoke about the American school system. In last week's talk I covered K12 education and tomorrow I will speak about colleges/universities and graduate work. I have to admit that I learned quite a bit in preparing. Did you know that NJ spends on average $12,000 a year per child to educate them. That is quite a bit, but even more shocking is the range spent across the state. Students in Sea Isle City have nearly $34,000 a year spent on their education, while students in the Irvington School district only get $7,400 a year. It was quite shocking to see how very different the numbers are for different school districts. In general, however, the German students were most intrigued by the notion of home-schooling. I mentioned it in passing at the end of the seminar and they were very interested in why someone might want this type of educational experience. I had very little to offer on that subject.

Tomorrow I will speak about colleges and universities, and I am a bit more comfortable in that area.