Neil Franklin's Education Page

Playshool, from 1969.xx to 1971.10

I don't know the beginning month, it is too long ago:-)

Primary Shool, from 1971.10 to 1971.11

Aborted after 1 month because of move to Switzerland

Kindergarten, from 1971.11 to 1972.04

Only 5 months of the usual 2 years. I spoke no word of German when I moved to Switzerland and had lots of difficulties learning learning it

Primarschule, from 1972.04 to 1978.04

First 3 months with a teacher who spoke english, but we didn't get on well, so I was put in a different class with an German-only teacher

Repeated 6th year Primarschule, from 1978.04 to 1979.04

Because I was still weak in German (it is a very difficult language). As I was one of the best in all other subjects (from being alone and introverted) this was an extremely boring year, and it lead to...

Gymnasium am Rychenberg, from 1979.04 to 1980.04

The top of the 3 possible shool levels after the Primarschule. I believed from my last years experience to be good enough for it. The combination of 3 languages (German, French and Latin) quickly taught me that that was wrong. I fell out with an mark of 3.5 (on a scale of 1/bad to 6/good, 4 is required for promotion to the next year)

Sekundarschule, from 1980.04 to 1981.04

The medium shool level. I was only there for the 2nd of 3 years (1st in Gymnasium, 3rd see next entry)

Mathematisch/Naturwissenschaftliches Gymnasium (MNG) im Lee, from 1981.04 to 1982.04

Back up top leage, 2nd attempt. The MNG only has 2 languages (no Latin) and values Maths and Sciences higher. I fell out with 3.95, the highest mark to be able to fall out with. But this is where I first met a computer and found my lifes carreer so it was a very good year for me

Berufschule Sulzer, from 1982.04 to 1986.04

Parallel to my apprenticeship at SR I went to the obligatorical 1.5 day a week technical college

Berufsmittelschule (BMS), from 1983.04 to 1986.04

In addition to the Berufsschule I also from the 2nd year on visited this 1 day a week facultative shool. If you end this with a good enough marks you can enter BSc study without taking exams, which I did

Technikum Winterthur Engineeringschool (TWI), today Zurich University of Appied Sciences (zhaw), from 1986.10 to 1989.10

At this Engineering shool I studied electrical engineering and got a HTL title (is roughly a BSc). It was not really my thing (analog electronics, not computers or software), and underchallenging, so I was a bit bored. It was a typical get a title to impress bureaucrats type thing. The best "lessons" were the visits to the large library over the long (90min) mid day break. Later title officially converted to an FH diploma (requirements HTL diploma and 5 years experience on the job)

Autodidactical Learning, from before 1980 to today

Schools may hand out nice certificates, but in the end far more than 90% of my Knowledge comes from decades of learning on my own, be that reading theory or practival experience

This page is by Neil Franklin, last modification 2008.12.04