Visit to the East Coast - Connecticut and New York

With the help of my American friends, I have also been able to organize some schools visits outside the Midwest, which is providing me with wonderful opportunities to learn more about the U.S. education system. Last week I had the privilege to fly all the way to the East Coast and visit a few high schools for my project there. I was able to visit two private boarding schools in Connecticut, one of which is one of the most elite and competitive boarding schools in the whole country, and also two public schools in New York City.

Connecticut and the other New England states on the East Coast are famous for their highly respected private schools. Since we don't have private boarding schools in Finland, it was very interesting for me to get to visit these schools and to learn more. The tuition fee at both boarding schools I visited is around 60,000 US dollars per year. It's a staggering amount, but knowing that, it is easier to understand the amazing resources such schools offer their students. At both of these boarding schools there are only about 10 students per class, which means students often get more personal instruction than at most regular schools. The schools have their own campuses with incredible facilities on beautiful locations. Both schools also offer very specific classes, anything from ornithology (study of birds) to architecture.

It was clear right away that the teachers are really dedicated to their work, they live on campus and therefore practically work 24/7. They have evening shifts at the dorms, they often help their students with their homework, they teach classes even on Saturdays and have other duties on many Sundays. It is definitely a way of life both for the students and for the teachers. As my friend who works there said, they really do "eat, live, and breathe" the school. There was a great sense of community and think living at a boarding school must feel like being on an ongoing camp! Just a minority of Americans go to private schools, obviously because of the extremely high costs, but these schools are often seen as alternatives for American and also international students who are looking for more individual instruction, very specific high level classes, and who can afford to pay for that. 

On a different note, Connecticut is also famous for the beautiful coloured leaves on its hills in the fall, people travel there to admire them. I also admired the pretty white wooden New England houses you could see everywhere. I happened to be there at the perfect time!

It was also very exciting to get to visit two public schools in New York City. The United States is often described as the melting pot of different cultures and this is very vividly seen in NYC. The schools I visited there have lots of students with an immigrant background. Since the student population is so diverse and most of the students are so called English language learners, the teachers work hard to differentiate instruction based on their students’ native languages and skills. The students seemed to love their teachers and hang around at school even after classes. Since living in a new country isn’t always easy, the teachers put a lot of effort in making everyone feel welcome and they really were lovely. This was not my first visit to New York, but I had never seen everyday life at schools in such a big city before. It was really exciting and also reminded me of how diverse the United States really is.

The United States has, of course, a long history of immigration and all Americans have a story of their ancestors and their different roots. I've noticed that people here, especially those of European descent, might still identify themselves as Greek, German, Norwegian, for example, even though they are all American and their families have lived here for decades or even centuries. The roots still stay with them. I had a couple of days to explore exciting New York City after my school visits and I also visited the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island. I had a personal interest in seeing that place since also a great number of my relatives travelled to the United States as immigrants in the 1800s, many of them stayed here, some came back to Finland years later. Even my great-grandmother was born in the U.S. Walking around in the building where many immigrants had waited for their official entry to the new country, I couldn't help but think, how much courage it has taken to leave everything familiar, spend weeks on a ship across the Atlantic, and enter a country you knew hardly anything about and where people spoke a different language. Even though times have changed, the world has become smaller, and travelling a lot easier, there are still many courageous people leaving their home countries today, some of their own will, but many because they are forced to do so. Schools play a key role in helping young immigrants feel at home in their new countries. 
 

During the week I also walked around visiting all the major sights in New York and was once again amazed by the size of the city. It's something you just have to experience yourself!