Election posters support preserving the Gymnasium in Germany

Today I’m writing my last post for this blog. For two months we’ve been blogging about education in our home countries. I’ve learned a lot about education in other parts of the world, but also about the German system.

When talking about these subjects, I recognize a certain pattern: Often an education system’s performance is only evaluated by looking at the numbers of students who go on to get higher degrees or earn better marks – in other words, those who seem more prepared for the job market. But there is another factor that makes the educational system tremendously valuable to a society. And this factor is related to the discussion with my friend Katharina that I posted: Pre-schools and schools offer a very important opportunity to bring the members of a society closer together. Yet, Germany doesn’t fully seize this opportunity. On the contrary, the three-tiered school tracking system in many German states furthers the division of our society.

While I had contact with children from all across the social spectrum during my time in elementary school, I stayed friends mostly with students who were also able to go on to a Gymnasium after fourth grade (To have a better idea of what I mean, have a look at my overview of the German school system here). Only at 17 did I hang out with my old classmates again. By then, they had finished other kinds of schools known in German as Hauptschulen or Realschulen. These reunions are traditional in our village: Those who are 18 years old organize a festival each summer. In many cities, traditions like this don’t exist anymore, and neighborhoods and social clubs tend to be divided up along class lines. Schools could be one of the few places left to work against our society breaking apart into separate classes because all children have to attend them.

Politicians often neglect this fact. In the state of Rhineland Palatinate they have abandoned the concept of the Hauptschule. There wasn’t a lot of resistance against this reform. The existence of the Gymnasium wasn’t questioned. Many students attending a Gymnasium and their parents regard their school as a symbol of their achievement and status. Yet, these students miss a lot of opportunities for learning how to socialize with other groups of people. They can also lose sight of the realities faced by many people living in their country.

My high school - a gymnasium - offered a rather cloistered environment

It is still understandable that many parents don’t worry about this as long as their children will have better chances in the job market. They think that their children will learn more easily in this protected environment. Research to the contrary is often powerless against such convictions. For this reason, many parents organized demonstrations when the Gymnasium was to be abandoned in Hamburg. And politicians in Germany’s liberal party proclaimed on their posters during the election campaign in North Rhine-Westphalia: “Keep the Gymnasium!”

Can we thus regard the fact that politicians don’t touch the Gymnasium as an election strategy? After all, the most politically active people usually send their children to one. In the socially disadvantaged parts of society, on the other hand, children often don’t make it to a Gymnasium, and there are very few people who would organize any kind of demonstrations or collect signatures or step up in front of a camera to make their point. Additionally, these people vote less often than those with a higher income and a better education.

I would like for committed politicians throughout Germany to no longer regard the Gymnasium as “untouchable” in the future. I also want them to support reforms that will really bring about fair opportunities and stronger cohesion in our society. After all, we have so many more financial resources in Germany than many other countries have. Shouldn’t it be possible to come closer to realizing these goals?

Bild1: FDP-Wahlplakat währen NRW-Wahlkampf

Bild2: Mein Gymnasium bot ein sehr behütetes Umfeld: Es war ein katholisches Mädchengymnasium

My friend Katharina at the head of the line

During the Global Media Forum (GMF), I met the students Hendrik and Isabelle who go to a school for physically impaired students. They participated in an exchange program between their school and a Tunisian school. Right now, Germany is talking a lot about the issue of education for the disabled because two years ago the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities went into effect – including in Germany. It stipulates that disabled children should attend so-called regular schools and should no longer be left out on the basis of their handicaps. As it stands now, the non-disabled have little contact with disabled students. Personally, I just have contact to an uncle of mine, who attended a regular school years ago, but today lives in a facility for the disabled and works in a factory with other workers with handicaps. My friend Katharina also gives me some insight into the daily lives of people with disabilities. She is preparing to become a teacher specialized in working with the disabled. So she was exactly the right person to talk to on the topic of educating the disabled in Germany.

Katharina, during the GMF a Tunisian teacher said that mentally-handicapped children have disadvantages when they go to a regular school instead of a special school for children with handicaps. What do you think about this statement?

Actually, I think she’s right. In my class, I had two children with Down syndrome. They came to our school after finishing fourth grade at a regular elementary school. Both have learned, for instance, the technique of reading, but they don’t understand what they read. They’re too preoccupied with the process itself. The same happens when they do arithmetic: They haven’t acquired the basics.

Do you think that would be different if they had gone to a school for handicapped children earlier?

Probably. Because we aim at teaching each child individually. The whole class works on one topic, but each child works according to his competencies. If we notice that a child doesn’t have the basics of math down, we don’t teach him more advanced topics because it isn’t relevant at his development stage. At normal schools, in contrast, certain basics and development stages are taken for granted. There, teachers don’t have the time to concentrate on a handicapped child and teach him according to his needs.

What kinds of basics do you teach children before they can move on to more advanced mathematical techniques?

What is important is recognizing patterns and rules. We work very playfully. Our students, e.g., thread pearls on a string in a given order. At first the aim is that they recognize that the colors of the pearls follow a certain pattern: A yellow pearl is always followed by a red one which is followed by a blue one and so on. Later on students will be able to recognize succession patterns of numbers.

You work only with handicapped children at your school. But according to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, children with and without handicaps are to be taught together in the future. Do you think this a good decision?

Inclusion should be the watch word for school activities

Generally, this decision is overdue. In Germany, persons without disabilities don’t really know about the lives of handicapped persons. But they are part of our society! For several centuries, our state has excluded them partly by establishing special institutions for the handicapped: kindergartens, schools, workshops and so forth. When that’s done just to make sure we don’t come in contact with persons with disabilities, I think that’s wrong.

Do you think German politicians are taking the right steps to realize the convention’s aims?

It is good that they have recognized the need to change something. Yet, no additional money is invested into education, but we would need this money in order to make individual support of children possible. Often schools don’t have enough means to work with given children individually – particularly, at regular schools. Behind all of the political reforms that have been started, I don’t see any real strategy.

What is needed to support children with disabilities at regular schools?

First, smaller classes are needed! 15 students would be perfect. Research shows that all children profit from smaller groups. Additionally, more personnel is necessary, especially if we want to include children with disabilities in regular classes. In addition to a regular schoolteacher and a teacher trained to work with children with disabilities, an additional expert on relevant pedagogical issues is needed. With smaller classes and more personnel, inclusion would no longer be questioned but taken for granted. We should enable everybody to study according to his abilities. Our whole society has been called upon to realize integration. In schools, integration has just been started. But we have to fully accept persons with disabilities in our society, also outside of our classrooms.

Emmy, María, Hellgurd and I during the boat tour on the first evening of the GMF

After having spent three days at the Global Media Forum, my feelings remind me of those after a class trip or a big festival: I’m very exhausted but at the same time all wound up.

Emmy, María, and I have already talked a little about the discussions and workshops we participated in. Our entries show how different the workshops were. Some topics actually appeared to be too complex to be discussed in depth within 90 minutes. But I’ve got a lot of food for thought out of all of them; I’ve discovered new organizations, approaches and people. For example, the pupils Isabelle van der Valk and Hendrik Rösler who go to the Christophorus School for physically impaired children in Bonn. Their school organizes an awesome exchange program with a Tunisian school for kids with handicaps. This program enables the German students, on the one hand, to smell the salty air of the Mediterranean and the Tunisians, on the other hand, to see Germany at least once in their life.

Besides the vice principal of the German school, the president of the organization UTAIM El May, which the Tunisian school belongs to, and a Tunisian teacher were in Bonn. They had come directly from the Tunisian island Djerba to Germany. Isabelle and Hendrik have done the trip before – to Tunisia and back again. Isabelle especially liked the Medina, the ancient town. Hendrik had a lot of fun during the bus trips: “It was pretty cramped in the small bus. But we all got closer to each other on the way.”

Vice principal Jürgen Hammerschlag-Mäsgen talked about reciprocal learning: In Tunisia, he discovered that a German method of construction had been used there. His colleagues have shown him ways to prepare his students for the regular job market. Without special workshops for the handicapped, Tunisians have to find other kinds of work for their graduates. “With little resources, we’ve got to think of new ways and be creative,” said Rabiaa Ouerimi, teacher in El May, thus showing a striking difference between Tunisia and Germany: Her school doesn’t get governmental funding except for the teachers’ salaries.

Jürgen Hammerschlag-Mäsgen from the Christophorus School

The children profit a lot from the program, too: They get to know a new culture, practice English and can do exceptional things – such as picking olives in wheel chairs. And, of course, media plays a role in the exchange, too. Via Skype, the kids establish and keep contact with each other. They send e-mails with texts and pictures. And, as teenagers, they stay connected via Facebook, of course.

This project showed me again how important the commitment of individual persons is. If the teachers hadn’t put so much energy into realizing their dream of a German-Tunisian exchange program, it probably would have never come true. To reach this aim, collecting donations and filling out grant proposals was decisive, but also convincing parents. In the beginning, many were skeptical about the program, Ouerimi says. But in the tenth year of the cooperation, people can see how good of an opportunity it is. Now parents come and ask to have their children participate. In Germany, the program is supported by ENSA, an organization that promotes educational exchange between Germany and developing countries for the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

I definitely want to talk with my friend Katharina about this program and about her opinion on Ms. Ouerimi’s statement that mentally disabled children are discriminated against at normal schools. I’m curious about Katharina’s opinion, as she is becoming a teacher for handicapped kids.

The anticipation builds ahead of a panel at the GMF

Wow! I’ve found the Global Media Forum really interesting so far. The first thing that stood out to me was the diversity on display – people from lots of different countries mix at the conference, some in suits, some more casual or in business wear. There are lots of colorful dresses, men from Africa in robes and women in headscarves. The clothing is just an outer signal of how many cultures are represented here. And in the middle of it all are my fellow bloggers and me.

Emmy, Hellgurd, María and I met up for the first time here. But I have the feeling that we’ve known each other for a while now. We’ve given each other insights into our lives and the educational systems in our countries here in the blog, so we’ve gotten to know each other a bit along the way. But it’s a real shame that visa problems prevented our fifth blogger from being here: Pavel was unable to leave Russia.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I went to a workshop yesterday that discussed how algorithms influence contemporary education and worldviews. At the podium were Falk Lüke, Mercedes Bunz and Marc Jan Eumann (State Secretary in the Ministry of Federal Affairs, European Affairs and Media of North Rhine-Westphalia). All three had interesting information to present, and the audience had plenty of comments and questions.

I especially liked Bunz’s idea that, with the Internet, we have created an additional public space, but until now, this space has primarily been shaped by economic interests. I think she gets at an interesting point there. Of course there are lots of publicly sponsored content providers on the Internet, but they often play a smaller roll, largely because they don’t offer their own search engines that could provide an alternative to Google. Would it be possible to have a publicly financed search engine? After all, here in Germany we have public broadcasters that offer an alternative to private stations.

But instead of giving the state the task of developing algorithms that deliver search results, I found Eumann’s approach better. Being aware and critical are just as important online as they are in the analog world. Schools could support these values by putting information online that helps people understand power structures and interests better – including those of Google or even of traditional newspaper publishers, for example.

Critical analysis of these topics and of technology in general is very important, which Bunz also discussed, saying that although we continue to conceive of technology as the “other,” it is constantly with us. Conferences like the Global Media Forum are a great way to take up this topic, and the opportunities for international exchange are especially good.

The GMF brings participants from around the world together

The global exchanges taking place here in Bonn are really extraordinary. At a workshop yesterday afternoon, the participants were from India, Malawi, Colombia and North America! Everyone talked about their experiences with free radio programs that are co-produced by lay people. These programs provide important information. Since many people take part in the production process and get to have a say in the programming, the interest in the result is much higher, and listeners find the statements contained therein more trustworthy.

Charles Simbi of Story Workshop Educational Trust presented a “message matrix.” It’s a systematic table in which, for example, one can work out the topics that should come up in radio programming for a given community – and how these topics should be presented. The tool is structured for topics that have social advantages for the community, such as medical help during pregnancy. I think we can learn a lot from practical tips like the message matrix and that we should try to incorporate them into other projects.

The Internet makes learning easier - for those with access

Before I talk about paths other family members in my generation took in the German educational system, I want to come back to what my cousin Thorsten said in his interview: “The future of education is in Web.2.0.”

Many of the other bloggers and I have already written about this: No matter whether in Kenya or in Germany, technology opens new doors to education everywhere. But these don’t overcome old problems.
As I wrote in May, the higher your level of education already is, the better you can profit from the opportunities the Internet offers. If I only speak one langue, I can understand only a small fraction of what is available online. Speakers of economically important and widely-used languages – such as English, French, and German – are still in a better position: In their languages you can find so much more than in languages of smaller language groups. So you will find almost four billion English articles on Wikipedia but only 361 in Swazi. There are many more examples of this. They show us that people who don’t know English are disadvantaged in the digital world, too. Therefore, inequality in access to education can’t be completely balanced out through technology. On the contrary: Sometimes it is even exacerbated!

Technical prerequisites must be in place to open websites at all. But lacking Internet access, rural areas or countries with poor infrastructure are more left out than before. In these areas, companies can’t profit from installing wires or radio towers. Costs may be too high, or there may just not be enough people who’d pay.

An e-book: new technologies make masses of information available

Economic interests don’t only determine who gets Internet access. They also influence what we can read online. If we trust in “googling” our knowledge, the risk is high of the first results being those manipulated by companies who have paid their online marketing and search engine optimization specialists to get their sites placed highly. Of course, the crowd of “normal” users has a certain power, too – but is it strong enough to counter economic – and often also state – interests?

I find such questions very interesting. And I think all of us in society and politics have to grapple with them. That is why I’m looking forward to next week’s Global Media Forum that starts on Monday in Bonn. During this international media conference hosted by Deutsche Welle, I’ll be able to discuss live with the other four bloggers and listen to experts. This year’s motto is “Culture, Education, Media.” I’m especially excited about having the opportunity to participate in the different workshops. Some deal with my new blog post’s topics, e.g., “An Algorithmic View of the World: How Google and Others Shape Awareness and Education“ and “Learning Is a Two-Way Street: Participation in Communication and Education.“ I’ll write next week about my experiences from the conference.