School Sweden vs Germany: relationship between students and teachers

The relationship between students and teachers is so much better in Sweden. The teachers are asking the students how they are doing, every teacher wants their students to do good, to be happy, the students have a saying in when they want to have a test, and in postponing lessons to a time where it fits the students better (for example if another lesson is cancelled) Iit is a very nice environment. Saying that teachers and students are friends, is said too much, but sort of. I like most of my teachers in Sweden a lot. There are maybe one or two that I don’t like so much, but they’re great compared to most of my german teachers. In Germany it’s more like 2 teachers that I LIKE. And the rest I don’t. And the interesting thing is that these teachers have something significant in common. They took us serious. They treated us like grown ups and not like “stupid teenagers” that don’t deserve to be treated the same because of their lack of experience in life. (time spend on earth = important life experience (?) ) They respected us. And mutual respect is the most important thing in a relationship. It’s not working without mutual respect. I don’t like to interact with people that don’t respect me and don’t see me as a reflective human being, that is able to make her/his own decisions and to take responsibilities for her/his actions. Nobody does. MUTUAL respect, come on, it’s not that hard. In Sweden the teachers respect you, no matter how dumb you might be. They see the strenghts of every student and support them. Which is definitely not the case in german schools. Sweden helps their students to build up self-confidence, apart from grades. If you fail a test, the teachers don’t tell you you should have studied more, but they ask you if you’re doing fine, why that happened and so on. They show that they care and want you to do good in school and feel good in general.

It’s not the case in german schools. The teachers don’t care if you’re stressed out because you have a couple of tests in a week. I have never heard my german teachers saying: Good job guys, I know you have really worked hard. I hear this every week here. Instead my german teachers said:”I have so much work to do. I work so hard.” And they just don’t see that we have worked hard. The teachers get their encouragement through their salary. We don’t get any. We want our hard work to be appreciated.

Everyone is so stressed out, teachers don’t respect their students, so students have a hard time respecting their teachers, there is no good relationship. It’s simply a cold and bad atmosphere in our schools and I really don’t look forward to going back.

Ask any student in Germany if they like school, the answer will never be yes. In Sweden it is different. Most people like school. It’s a nice environment. You don’t only go there to learn, but they educate you in so many ways, they actually have an impact on you and your personal growth.