The Evangelical Lyceum in Bratislava

Before we update you on our activities, we invite you to read the printed version of the report “A Decade of Miracles and the Role of Education in Renewing a Post-Communist Society” (click on the title in the left sidebar to be taken to the website) delivered by Dr. Michal Valcho at our orientation training. It is a quick survey of the history and role of the church, especially in its Lutheran form, in Slovakia and includes a call to mission that many of us in the orientation program found helpful as we began our work.

The purpose of our year in Bratislava is to teach English to the students at the Evangelical Lyceum. We’ve spent the last week preparing for our classes, attending school and department meetings, and generally dealing with the bureaucracy of the school and the state. We will begin a full schedule of teaching next week (7 September), so we still have some time to get ready and to build strong working relationships with our colleagues. Now is a good time to tell you what we know (or think we know) about the history of the school, its organization, and our responsibilities as teachers.

The school was instituted in 1606 shortly after the establishment of the first Lutheran congregation in Bratislava. The school was modeled on the German secondary school (Gymnasium) and flourished until 1672, when Hapsburg Emperor Leopold authorized the takeover of the school by the Jesuits as part of the Counter-Reformation. The school reopened again in 1681 and grew in prominence as well as enrollment into the early 20th century. In 1923 the school was taken over by the new national government of Czechoslovakia and transformed into the State German Secondary School. In 1944, even this form of the school was abolished and the school remained closed until September 1991, when it was re-established by the Slovak Lutheran Church in cooperation with the national Office of Education. Speakers at the opening service on 2 September, 1991 included General Bishop Uhorskai of the Slovak Lutheran Church as well as Alexander Dubchek, President of the Czechoslovak National Assembly. The presence of these individuals and others shows the deep respect that the Evangelical Lyceum attracts within Slovakia.

This respect is due to the excellent education that has been offered to many students from around the country as is evidenced by the many leaders who have taught and/or studied at the school. One such teacher was Ludovit Stur (1815-1856) who was a poet, teacher, and national leader best known for organizing the form of the Slovak language that is currently in use. A Lyceum student of note is M. R. Stefanic (1880-1919), an astronomer, aviator, and diplomat who was one of the group of three leaders who developed the plan for the nation of Czechoslovakia after the end of WW I. One of the early school buildings contains a plaque listing the names of many national leaders who have been affiliated with the school.

Today’s Evangelical Lyceum consists of two units with a total enrollment of around 840 students. One of these units, the eight year gymnasium, is split between two campuses with students in the first four years (what we would call grades 5-8) attending classes in a building near the Bratislava castle and the students in the final four years (comparable to our traditional high school) attending classes in a building in the neighborhood called Petryshalka, a sprawling complex of 13 story Communist-era apartment blocks. The five-year bilingual English program in which we are teaching is also housed in this building and we believe that, while a few of the classes are taken by both bi-lingual and gymnasium students, the programs are for the most part independent.

The reason for the extra year in the bilingual English program is that, in addition to the regular high school courses that the students all take, the students are exposed to essentially a full extra year of English-intensive coursework. In addition, many of the students spend a year studying abroad in either the US or Great Britain, so their secondary education is much extended. First year students take half their schedule of classes in English and, in the remaining years, nearly a quarter of the coursework is in English, generally in courses taught by American teachers like us. These classes have very low class-size – only 10-13 students to allow for close interaction with native English-speakers.

The English Department at the Lyceum consists of nine American teachers and four Slovak teachers. All first year English grammar classes are taught by the Slovak colleagues, some of whom join the Americans in teaching the rest of the course offerings. These include Literature and Language courses in each of the remaining four years; courses that include a component of conversation. Other courses taught by the department are American Social Studies to first year students and British Social Studies to second year students. Some of the American colleagues also teach other subjects in their areas of expertise, so Sue is teaching Informatics to first year students while others are teaching religion and mathematics. We have enjoyed getting to know our English Department colleagues during the last week and are looking forward to working closely with them over the coming year.

The bilingual English program is highly selective, accepting only about 72 students per year into the first year of the five-year program. These students are divided into two “classes” (A and B) of size 36 each who remain together for all five years in the school. Each class has a Class Teacher (much like our home-room teacher) who stays with the class for its entire time at the school and, in addition, each class has all of its classes together. That means there are no electives and the students get to know their classmates (at least from their class) extremely well! So we have 10 “classes” – 1A, 1B, 2A, …, 5A, 5B each going through the curriculum in lock step. As we noted earlier, our English classes are small (10-13) and this is accomplished by further subdividing each class, more or less according to their English language abilities; e.g. in the first year, classes 1A1 and 1B1 would have the best English language abilities while 1A3 and 1B3 would be the weakest (of a group of very strong students). So Phil is teaching American Literature and Language to class 3A1 and Sue is teaching American Lit and Lang to 3B1 – this means they are both teaching the top group and can plan their lessons together. This is important, because the 3A2’s and 3B2’s are studying the same topics as our classes but in a different order, as are the 3A3’s, etc. so that we can all have access to the limited teaching resources. I hope you’re all still with us!

The teaching day is divided into 10 periods of (almost) 45 minutes each, beginning with 0 (zero) hour at 7:20 and ending with 9th hour from 3-3:45. We will have a different schedule each day, since Sue is teaching one class (Lit and Lang) that meets every day as well as six Informatics classes that each meet one hour per week. She will spend her copious free time working as the English Librarian (more on that below). Phil has the Lit and Lang class that meets daily, but also five other social studies classes that meet three days per week each for a total of 20 hours in the classroom. We still don’t know when the classes will meet, but hope to find out soon.

The class meetings have some similarities to US classes but also contain interesting differences. At the beginning and ending of each class, the teacher rises and greets (or dismisses) the students and the students similarly rise and formally greet the teacher. The actual lectures, discussions, and student recitations follow the American model but some of the administrative issues are different. For each class period, the teacher is expected to enter data into the “class book” – students who were absent or tardy, and the topic taught. This book is carried into the classroom by a student called the “weeker”, a student who has this and other responsibilities for the current week. In addition to delivering the class book, the weeker also cleans the board and does whatever other small tasks the teacher needs to have done ( a great idea that we should adopt in the States.) Grading is on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being high and 5 indicating abject failure! The traditional Slovak grading scale converts percentage scores on tests and other activities as follows: 60% = 1, 50% = 2, 40% = 3, etc. Several years ago the Americans rebelled at this system and argued for much stiffer standards – 90% = 1, 80%= = 2, etc. , somewhat corresponding to our letter grade system. They prevailed with the argument that, if the successful students were to attend college in Great Britain or the US, they needed to be used to such a grading scale. The actual grades at the end of the semester are assigned in a “classification meeting” where all the teachers discuss the grades to be given to each student and where the class teacher may have some influence in the determination of the final grade. We’ll see how this all works out later in the semester.

Substitute teaching is also handled in an interesting way – there aren’t any substitute teachers! Actually, we will each be assigned four hours per week outside of our normal teaching responsibilities when we might be called on to sub for an absent teacher. If the class is an English class, we should be able to teach it. If it is in our area of expertise, we will be able to teach it; otherwise, we give the students a study hall. The good news is that four of these substitute sessions earns one day of dovilenka (holiday); the bad news is that we don’t yet know how we can use that.

Sue has had a couple of interesting experience regarding her duties. She got a shock when, on checking in the computer labs, she discovered that all the programs she was expected to teach were in Slovak! Imagine Microsoft Office with accents, diacritical marks, and un-understandable commands. Fortunately she contacted the IT guru and he was able to convert everything in the lab where she will be teaching to English, so she will have a reasonable time even if the Slovak students struggle with language. After all, this is a bilingual school!

Sue’s other responsibilities include serving as the English language librarian. The library contains all English language texts, references, supplements, teacher resources, and general reading material. She has had to learn the circulation system, print library cards for all new faculty and students, and add new books to the collection. In addition, she is working with the faculty to determine ways to track materials so they are available when needed. This is a job that calls on all her organizational skills but she is up to the task.

Since it is the beginning of the year, there are initial faculty and department meetings to attend. Imagine a faculty meeting where the student “Code of Conduct” is being word-smithed, in Slovak! Fortunately, the Lyceum Director has shown mercy on us, so the American teachers meet separately to discuss issues which are then communicated to the rest of the faculty for their consideration. We are impressed with the quality of our American colleagues, especially those with several years of experience in the school. They show a genuine concern for the students and have good ideas for ways that we can better serve the students as we teach them English. Other aspects of school procedure include the necessity to obtain all school supplies from the Director’s secretary, even including the occasional roll of toilet paper. Also, Phil can only imagine how his colleagues at Akron would have enjoyed the day when the Associate Director went to some mysterious office in the Ministry of Education to acquire old furniture for the use of the school. We Americans all stepped up to help move these treasured pieces into the offices. It reminds him of the ways we used to scrounge equipment and cooperate to make the working environment better for everyone.

Finally, we have begun to deal with the Slovak bureaucracy as we go through the steps to get residence permits, work permits, and visas. Before leaving home, we had submitted certified copies of our birth certificates, marriage licenses, notarized copies of diplomas, and had undergone FBI criminal background checks. On arrival, we first took a trip to the Magistrates office for Slovak criminal records check – Sue’s middle name was written in by folks in the magistrate’s office in a different color ink, so the Police thought it was a fraudulent document. Peter cleared this up. Next, Peter took us the office of the “Foreign Police” to apply for residency permits. Another day he took us to the Office of Foreign Infections Disease for blood tests, urine tests, medical interviews, and chest x-rays. Our first encounters with Socialized Medicine proved to be uneventful and quick. We also need to open a bank account to prove that we have income. We hope that, with Peter’s help, we have visas well before Christmas. Who is this Peter? He’s a fellow teacher (of German) at the Lyceum who knows how to negotiate the bureaucracy and who helps foreign teachers get through the morass of governmental paperwork and folderal. We don’t know what we would do without him and have much greater appreciation for the difficulties that foreign workers in our own country must encounter in the immigration maze.

There will be more news in a week or so after we encounter our students.

Settling into Bratislava and Orientation

After landing in Vienna in the afternoon of Sunday, August 16, we were taken by van to Bratislava, about an hour away, and brought to our apartment on Svardova Ulica. This is a 70 or 80 year old apartment building that has served several purposes in the past, including as housing for the faculty and students of the Lutheran Seminary. We are housed in the “Penthouse” located on the fourth floor – that’s four fights up in the European system – so we get lots of aerobic exercise every day since there is no elevator. The apartment consists of two large rooms that we use as a bedroom and a living room/study, a small kitchen with all the usual appliances, and a bathroom with tub and washing machine. The toilet is situated separately off the kitchen, of all places! The apartment had been thoroughly cleaned thanks to the efforts of Claudia and David Nelson, and was easily ready for move-in. We’re still shopping for gadgets, plants, and artwork to make it our own, but we’re confident that it will be a wonderful place to live during the coming year.

It is very easy to get to the most interesting parts of the city since we live only two blocks from the old town (Stare Mesto), and a similar distance from the edge of the shopping district. We have spent almost every evening walking in this very charming district. It is full of twisting stone streets with several beautiful, large squares, all surrounded by buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries. This part of town contains restaurants, shops, and hotels as well as buildings that reflect the fascinating history of Slovakia. These include the cathedral where the Austrian and Hungarian monarchs were crowned including Maria Theresa who built the castle that overlooks and dominates the city. On a walk through Stare Mesto a couple of nights ago, we encountered many musical events including Roma street musicians, a violin duo playing in front of a restaurant , a Christian rock group at one square, and Brazilian music at another. The hall where the Slovak Philharmonic performs as well as the Opera House and National Theater are also included in this part of town. These all reflect the variety of people and experiences that we hope to encounter in the coming year.

We began our stay by shopping for some of the staples that we didn’t find in the apartment. There are good size grocery stores within easy walking distance, including a TESCO that was apparently purchased from its previous owner, K-Mart. Shopping is only a little bit of a mystery, since we can rely on the pictures on the packages and can generally tell the cuts of meat from past experience. We’ve not had any real surprises so far, except that decaffeinated coffee is unavailable – I guess we’ll go through our days with a “buzz”. TESCO is somewhat like a super WALMART, so we have also found some of the items we needed to settle into our apartment there. Today (Saturday, August 21) we went to the AU Park Shopping Center and found it to be very similar to large malls in the US. There were many shoe stores, teen clothing stores, etc. but a feature that we liked when Phil shopped for a pair of hiking boots was that all the sporting goods stores were located in the same area and this seemed to be true for other types of stores. For larger pieces of equipment like lamps and pictures we’ll be taking a trip to IKEA in the near future.

Our travel has been primarily on foot, supplemented by trips via bus to the places more than a half mile away. The buses are very convenient and of three types – regular buses (autobus), electrical buses (electriky), and trams (electrical buses that run along tracks). Both of the latter two are powered by overhead electrical lines are quick and quiet. We purchased three month passes (~50 euros) that allow travel on all three types of vehicle and find this an incredibly reasonable way to get about. We’ve never had to wait more than about 5 minutes for a bus and generally don’t have to walk more than a couple of blocks to catch one or to reach our destination after getting off.

Restaurants and cafes are also very convenient to our home. We’ve found places where you can get a good dinner and pivo (beer) for about 5 or 6 euros and some charming restaurants in the Stare Mesto where a very nice dinner can be had for about 15 euros. The food is heavily oriented toward meat and potatoes, but vegetables and salads can be had without too much difficulty. We ate many lunches (obed) and dinners (vecera) at the Evangelical Theological College (Faculty) facility of Comenius University during our week of orientation at this school. The lunches were served as the main meal of the day and consisted of soup, main dish and side dish, and fruit or salad. Dinners were slightly lighter but still very filling. Were it not for the four flights of stairs and mile or two of walking each day, we’d probably have gained several pounds by now, but we’re actually feeling very well and getting into fighting trim.

The weather is similar to that at home in the Cincinnati area although perhaps a bit more windy. The temperature was in the mid-80s most of last week with clear blue skies and moderate humidity. Our apartment isn’t air-conditioned, but two fans help to keep it comfortable. The weather changed dramatically yesterday (Saturday) as a cool front moved in resulting in drizzly conditions all day with dropping temperature. This morning, we awoke to clear blue skies and temperatures in the high 60s; very pleasant. Since Bratislava is located in the Danube valley, up against the small Carpathian Mountains, there always seem to be cool breezes that moderate the temperature. We’ll see what effect they have during winter.

Most of our time during the first week has been spent at the facilities of the Evangelical Theological Faculty concentrating on orientation to teaching in Slovakia (and Poland). We were joined by six other new teachers as well as several returning teachers in a program that introduced us to teaching English and other subjects to students with other first languages. We are the only two new teachers assigned to the Evangelical Lyceum in Bratislava this year, three of our fellow students will be teaching in Ticovits in the foothills south of the Tatra mountains, one will be teaching in Kocice, and the other two will be teaching in Cecien Poland (a first-time site for ELCA teachers, previously staffed by Missouri Synod personnel). We were all engaged in hard work and developed strong friendships during our time together.

The training for teaching was led by Claudia Nelson, an experienced ESL teacher who had been one of the first American teachers to teach at the Lyceum in Bratislava in 1991. She gave us a deep understanding of the issues of sounds of words, grammar, and vocabulary that challenge English language learners. She also modeled many effective methods for working with these students as she taught us. We were given techniques for classroom management as well as for grading and assessment that are appropriate for the students who we will teach. While our heads were spinning after the three to four hours a day of intensive engagement with Claudia, we all left with much more confidence in our ability to face the tasks ahead in the coming year. Sue especially came away with an understanding of how differently high school students are taught today compared to how she was taught in high school. Phil thinks of the difference as between the “guide on the side” and the “sage on the stage” and, since mathematics is still taught primarily by the latter method, he also appreciates the challenge ahead.

Other aspects of the orientation involved language training, an orientation to post-communist Europe, some hints on living in Central Europe, regular devotions, and social times. Jana Hoschekova, a local language teacher introduced us to Slovak through simple conversations and a brief introduction to its grammar. We appreciated her enthusiastic approach but came away realizing how much work we’ll need to do in the near future to understand and be understood. Dr. Andrej Postrednik, Dean of the Evangelical Theological Faculty gave us a presentation on post-communism that highlighted the advances and difficulties that have followed both the conversion of Czechoslovakia from a communist form of government to a democracy in 1989 as well as the “Velvet Divorce” that generated the separate Slovak and Czech Republics. Among the positive features he cited are the emergence of an active civil society, the use by churches of their facilities in more creative ways than was allowed under communism, the rapid growth of the economy, an open cultural space to exchange ideas, and especially the freedom of travel and exchange. He stated that “Had someone told him thirty years ago that today he could travel anywhere in Europe without border checks and use the same currency throughout; he would have thought that person to be crazy!” We also heard a presentation from Dr. Michal Valcho, Director of the Martin Bible School, who spoke on the role of religious education both historically and specifically in post-communist Slovakia. He reminded us that, before the Counter-Reformation in the 17th century, nearly 90% of the people in Slovakia were Lutheran, whereas that number is only 7% today. He took us through the struggles of Lutherans from that time, through the domination by Hungary in the early 20th century, the Nazification following 1938 when Slovakia was a puppet regime of Hitler’s Germany, and into the time of Communism. Especially in this latter time, the churches were used only for Sunday worship and for funerals; all other services were taken over by the state, making religion irrelevant. Out of this heritage comes a variety of attitudes – one is reflected in the quotation from communist times, “If you don’t steal from the state, you are robbing your family.” This helps explain the attitudes that our students may have toward cheating and plagiarism. He also noted the weakened sense of responsibility of citizens for their and other’s well-being due to the earlier government control. He sees the role of the church in the future as expanding into the areas of social service so the churches members are providing Christian love in showing care for others. We also experienced daily devotions and insights into adapting to Slovak life from Rev. Arden Haug and Rev. David Nelson. Arden is currently the Resident representative of the ELCA in Europe (as well as our link to the ELCA) and David previously had held a version of this position. Both shared valuable thoughts on our spiritual growth and impact here as well as on customs and practices in the region.

We finished our time of orientation with a commissioning on Saturday led by Rev. Haug and Bishop Klatik, the General Bishop of the Slovak Lutheran Church (Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession). After a group photo and a final lunch together, we bid our fellow students safe travels as they headed out for their assignments. We were fortunate that one of our colleagues from the Lyceum took us by bus to school where we will begin our preparation for teaching next week.

The Evangelisky Lyceum is located on the opposite side of the Danube from the old town area of Bratislava in an area called Petryzalka; the site of many huge Soviet-style apartment blocks, but now a prime residential district of the region. It’s only a short bus ride from our apartment and we’ll begin making that trip regularly beginning with this coming Monday. We have received our teaching assignments. We will both be teaching an English class that meets five days per week and that focuses on American Literature, but also contains components of grammar and conversation. Sue is also teaching six sections of an informatics (computer science) class for first year students, but each section only meets for an hour each week and consists of just 12 students. She will fill in her twenty hours of teaching responsibility by serving as the English language librarian, with primary responsibility for keeping track of the English language textbooks and other resources like novels, magazines, and newspapers. Phil will also teach two sections of American Social Studies to first year students and three sections of British Social Studies to second year students. We knew of these teaching assignments earlier in the summer, so we had begun collecting materials and doing some preliminary reading. For now, there are only ten days left until we meet our students for the first time, so we are busily preparing for our classes.

Preparing to leave for Slovakia

We were comissioned for our work in Slovakia during the church service on August 2 led by Pastor Vicki Garber at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. We were blessed by the presence of so many family members and friends at this service.

We're leaving on Saturday, August 15, for Bratislava, flying from Detroit to Chicago, then to Zurich, then to Vienna where we'll meet some folks from the school who will take us to Bratislava. We'll spend the first two weeks with an orientation to the country and then in working with the other teachers at the school.

We are very excited about the opportunity to serve and know that, while we miss our family very much, their thoughts and prayers along with those of our friends will be with us.