One thing that I notice almost every day when I enter the classroom (always on time, whether or not my fellow students observe the "academic quarter" that passes before the lesson actually gets underway) is when the building's caretaker comes into to perform one of her many responsibilities. She effortletlessly boots up the computer, turns on the projector, and makes sure the classroom is completely ready so that when the professor walks in s/he can go right into teaching. This is a setup I think many US professors would love to have. These building caretakers are in most buildings I have ever been taught in here in Finland, as well as many other types of buildings. The thing that really gets me about th
em, though, isn't their renaissance- woman- specialist efficency...it's their uniform. And it's not just the building caretaker (as pictured here)-- it seems like every profession in Finland has a special uniform. It's true, in the US doctors and nurses wear scrubs, lawyers wear suits, etc. But here it seems to me that things go much further... Blue collar workers dressed uniformly in their (appropriately) blue carhart-like overalls with green (as opposed to orange) reflective vests. Students have special uniform overalls depending on the faculty (though they only wear them on party days). Eh I know it's not much, but I'm quite fond of uniforms as a mark of solidarity, so I still smile whenever I see them. And we all know what a Finnish smile looks like....
One thing that I notice almost every day when I enter the classroom (always on time, whether or not my fellow students observe the "academic quarter" that passes before the lesson actually gets underway) is when the building's caretaker comes into to perform one of her many responsibilities. She effortletlessly boots up the computer, turns on the projector, and makes sure the classroom is completely ready so that when the professor walks in s/he can go right into teaching. This is a setup I think many US professors would love to have. These building caretakers are in most buildings I have ever been taught in here in Finland, as well as many other types of buildings. The thing that really gets me about th
em, though, isn't their renaissance- woman- specialist efficency...it's their uniform. And it's not just the building caretaker (as pictured here)-- it seems like every profession in Finland has a special uniform. It's true, in the US doctors and nurses wear scrubs, lawyers wear suits, etc. But here it seems to me that things go much further... Blue collar workers dressed uniformly in their (appropriately) blue carhart-like overalls with green (as opposed to orange) reflective vests. Students have special uniform overalls depending on the faculty (though they only wear them on party days). Eh I know it's not much, but I'm quite fond of uniforms as a mark of solidarity, so I still smile whenever I see them. And we all know what a Finnish smile looks like....
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