work load of school teachers

Christine Happle (chapple who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Fri, 6 Feb 1998 22:47:18 -0800 (PST)

Hi, Angel Lin,
Sorry for not replying sooner.
This topic is one where I can easily overcome my lurker status that I have
since November 1997.
I taught as an elementary school teacher for eight years in
Switzerland. Switzerland has a federalistic political system. It is
divided into 26 cantons, and four regions that speak four different languages.
Due to this, every canton has its own educational system, including teacher
training, curriculum, books, schedule, responsibility and so on. So I will
now describe just one canton in the German part of Switzerland. I taught 32
lessons (each 45 minutes long), 5 days a week. The classes can vary from
15 to 30 kids; mostly they are around 20. Teachers in the elementary school
teach every subject (German, Mathematics, "Human and Environment", Sports, Art,
Music, Swimming). Religion, German for non-native german speakers, and
different kinds of Therapies were taught by teachers specializing in those
areas. The teacher's duties include preparing, going to teacher's meetings,
individual talks with the parents every semester, and taking courses in
education.

There is at the moment a wide discussion about 'burn-out' syndrome in
teachers. Recently researchers and teacher communities compared the
different workloads. In my experience it is more the unsolvable task of the
school situation connected with an inner commitment or high idealism
which leads to a high workload for teachers.
Chrisitne Happle