Out of School Education

In next class, we will talk about four different ways to get an education outside of a classroom. Check out the links below and then in the comments tell us about something interesting you found.

Volunteering on a kibbutz

The Book Bus

Outward Bound

WWOOF

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Case study: Westminster College and Colorado Free University

I went to Westminster College and got a Bachelor's Degree in International Studies. The college is in Fulton, Missouri. It is a very small town, but there are six universities in the area so there are lots of young people and hundreds of bars.

I liked this school for many reasons. I enjoyed the historical atmosphere and the old buildings - each had an interesting story. Also, most classes were small so I got to know all of my professors very well. My French professor sometimes cancelled class and we would go to her house to cook dinner, drink wine and practice our French. The social life at Westminster was very active. Most students lived on campus so my friends were always close. I joined a fraternity and lived in the "Beta House" with about 30 of my "brothers" until my last year when I got my own apartment near the campus.

My part-time job was giving tours of the Churchill Memorial - a museum for Winston Churchill. It was great meeting many tourists from all over the world!

After graduation, I moved to Denver, Colorado and started working. I missed school so started taking classes at the Colorado Free University. Unfortunately, it isn't "free", but it was very cheap. I took a German class and a beer-making class. The cool thing about this school is that they offer many kinds of strange and wonderful courses and anybody can teach there. If you have a skill you want to share, you can start you own classes and if people sign up, you get paid!

Have a look at the websites for these schools and answer one of the questions below.

1. What information was interesting for you?

2. What would you like to know more about?

3. Do you know of schools like these here in Japan?

Studying Abroad

Hi everyone!

One summer, when I was a 3rd-year student at university, I studied at IES in Vienna, Austria and Budapest, Hungary. I made lots of friends, drank A LOT of beer and I learned about language and culture. Mostly, I drank beer.

When I moved to Tokyo, I enrolled at MLC and went to Japanese language classes twice a week. In my class there was a guy from Myanmar, a girl from Hong Kong and also the ambassador of Burkina-Fasso! My teacher was great, but I really learned how to speak Japanese by going to lunch with my classmates after each lesson. Sometimes the ambassador drove me home in his limousine!!

In high school, I begged my parents to let us host a foreign exchange student. We never did. I'm still sad about that... :(

Please briefly answer ONE of the questions below in the comments:

1. Would you like to study abroad? Where would you want to go? What would you want to study?

2. Have you studied abroad already? Tell us about it!

3. Have you lived abroad for a long period of time? What was school like?

4.Do you know of any foreign students in Japan? What is their experience in Japan like?

5. Has your family ever hosted an exchange student? What was that like?

Also, we'll be reading part of this article in class (click here) so check it out if you have time.

Sharing Our Experiences

In the next class we will be reading about people's experiences in education and sharing our own. Please think about the following questions and be prepared to share some stories, opinions and examples from your own experiences. In the comments, please briefly answer one of the questions.

What is your first memory of school?

What teacher influenced you the most?

What is your favorite/least favorite thing about school?

How do you feel about club activities?

How do you feel about the importance of testing?

Did you have a native English teacher in your school? What were they like?

Did you go to cram school? How was your experience?

Were there any foreign exchange students at your school? Did you learn anything from them?

Have you ever studied abroad? What did you learn from your experience?

What are some of the good/bad things about your experiences at TUFS?

Would you like to continue your studies after TUFS?

How will you continue learning as an adult?

What are some issues in education that concern you?