Last Friday I took my older students at FOREL on a field trip to downtown Bratislava. Our main goal was to visit the Slovak National Bank (NBS) With the world-wide economic crisis and Slovakia's conversion to the Euro in January it seemed like a pretty relevant time to make a visit. The problem with education sometimes it that it can just fill your head with info. And although modern pedagogical methodologies are great, they simply can't replace 100% our natural, firmly established paths of learning - primarily experience. Take language for example. When we learned English (or Slovak...) as a child our parents didn't had us a text book and expect us to be fluent in a few months. No, we had repeated experiences which made sounds and gestures meaningful to us. I believe that other areas of study can follow suit. Basically, get the info, then experience it in real life so that it has impacting meaning. Hence, we visit the NBS. Economy in the round.The NBS was pretty cool. A public relations officer gave a good and highly informative presentation of the upcoming Euro conversion. Then the students were able to explore a few interactive exhibits on the Euro, the development of currencies, and the history of currencies in Slovakia.
Fortunately, I have a friend at the NBS. Sometimes Slovakia works on the very practical principle - "It's not what you know, but who you know." So, we got the VIP tour to the top of the NBS tower, which is the highest building in Slovakia. Although the weather was very foggy and cold, the view was still great. Here are some birds eye photos.
