August 24, 2007

Hello everyone! I leave on Tuesday the 28th, so I just wanted to provide you all with some beginners information! Enjoy!


Many of you may not know that I have been placed in Northern Germany. Kiel to be exact. It is located in the much historically disputed and trouble-causing Schleswig Holstein that was formerly part of Denmark. This means that I am of course very close to Denmark and for you beach lovers, it has many beaches since it is on the Baltic coast. In addition, it is a large harbor city and the capital of the state.

Here is the website for my school if anyone would like to check it out. Of course it is in German, but if you click on "Neu am EBG" on the left side (it is under Start) then you can see pictures of the school at which I will be working. Because of the research I proposed to do on Turkish Immigrant Youth, I was placed at a school with a fairly high immigrant population. This is perfect for me as I will get to observe first-hand how well the students are integrated and hopefully be able to interview them.

www.ebg-kiel.de/


My school is a Gymnasium, which means that it is the highest level of high school you can attend in Germany. For those of you who don't know much about the German system, it is broken down into four different types of high schools. There is the Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium, and the Gesamtschule which is a combination of the three previously mentioned. Most of the time, only the students who attend the Gymnasium can proceed on to college, but there are exceptions if you meet certain standards and can prove yourself. Which school you will attend is decided around the age of ten. Yes, I said ten. And the person who usually decides this is a teacher of the student. So basically they determine whether your kid is smart or not at a very young age, nevermind the fact that they still have plenty of time to grow and learn. The Germans love structure, so I doubt this will ever change. I myself as you can already tell am skeptical that this hasty decision is a good thing. I believe it does not allow enough room for children to reach their potential or motivate them in any way. If they are told that they will be attending the Hauptschule then they will mostly assume that this is their destiny and will live with whatever jobs are thrown their way, not caring to advance because they have been labeled 'stupid.' When you are told something long enough, you are likely to believe it. I feel that the students who are placed into the lower level high schools do exactly this.


Anyway to continue, the Hauptschule is like a vocational school training its students in a technical skill so that they can enter the work force after grade 9 (most students enter technical training following this under apprenticeships. The Realschule goes until grade 10 and therefore lies somewhere in between and the Gymnasium usually goes up to grade 13. At the end of the 13th year the students at the Gymnasium will take a very important test which will determine what subjects they will be allowed to pursue at the college level. Preparation is long and arduous and the outcomes can be disastrous if a student fails to achieve a certain percentage in a field they are interested in.


So the system is flawed just like anywhere else, but perhaps in different ways. One thing's for sure the German education system knows what they are doing in terms of World Language studies. Most students will learn