ECLA and School Systems

(this is an informational entry.)
Today I visited ECLA which is a one year university program started because there are so few places where students in Europe can go and have the experience of a liberal arts education. Unlike what we are used in the states (bursting with small liberal arts colleges) that type of integration of subjects is exceptional. Normally, studies are very delineated. When you begin at universities you choose a certain program and you can pretty much only take classes in that area. On average, because of the structure of the school system, students are a little older in Europe when they start universities, but still they don’t have this ‘discovery time’ where they can try out all different areas of study (like, oooh I’ll take gamelan, and environmental ethics and acoustics and revolutions…).
That’s the way it’s been, but attitudes are changing all around Europe, coming concurrent with a shift of the degree system (in Germany anyway) to include BA’s: towards more transnational system.
So
I visited this Central European University, which happens to be in Berlin, since that is the center of Europe, and liked everything about it immediately. Maybe it reminded me of bard (small, slightly isolated and strewn with drying maple leaves) except with less awkward architecture and generally in miniature. The 39 (!) students come from all over Europe (a few from Asia). They all take essentially the same ‘core class’ and then a couple electives. Everything (except language classes) is conducted in English. I sat in on one seminar, (which was supposed to be about Thucydides but ended up being more about translation ethics and why Sappho is married). I was impressed, and depressed. Everyone spoke intelligently and it’s hard enough to talk in a seminar, so imagine everyone is doing it in their second (maybe third) language. The German boy sitting to my right had such a perfect British accent I was convinced he was English for almost the whole class. Why can’t I speak four languages? Or even two that fluently?

Two things found out, first, the school is technically a non-profit company and also, students have their credits recognized by, and are provided with an extra transcript from guess who…Bard. Leon’s long fingers far reach.