Journal Entry, written on March 8, 2016:
Today amazed me about Scotland and the culture surrounding it. We sat down with the Pupil Voice Groups from both the Food Production and the Wildlife categories. The kids were so energetic and were so curious about us Americans. They had many different questions about dinosaurs, to temperatures, to Florida and so many other things. One that astounded me most was “Do you like Donald Trump?” The first one caught me off guard because these are children, asking about our politics. Many American
citizens don’t keep up with our political realm, but here is this Scottish kid that is very knowledgeable of the subject. Luckily, we were able to defer that question. All these little questions made me realize that world we live in is so much different than theirs- I mean yes we have water and wear similar clothing (minus the kilts), but this is when I really noticed our cultural differences- ones that I never thought would come up.
After these questions, we started coming up with plans and ideas of what needed to be done and when, as a group- which I thought was key to get anything done. So we sat around and conversed about everything. We started making plans, sketching out ideas and themes from the voice groups and the school garden. But as we were talking about ideas and propositions, Dr. Fuhrman kept on saying that we need to check with the kids and get their take on it. Which was so crazy to me, we were having to get approval from kids a third of our age and a fourth of our size. I noticed that this is yet another difference from Troqueer from many other primary schools in America because normally we have to pass ideas through the principal- not the pupils. Another thing I LOVED was the school lunches, they were sooo good. I could not believe the wide array of the fruits, veggies, and entrée selections. This country’s education was different- but a positive difference. If I were to be a teacher or have my kids in a public school system- this is how I would want it to be.
Kids rock and so does the power of education!
With a full heart,
Hannah Rull
