It was, what, just a few days ago that I was saying that I had finally gotten all caught up with my blogs. Well that didn’t last long, now I’m behind again, so I am going to (try ) and keep them shorter.
So Wednesday we were back at the Realschule for the second day. In the morning when we got there we first met with some of the members of the student government. We asked them what they thought of the tracking system and they seemed to have the same opinion as the principal talked about the system. Most said that they were content with being placed in the Realschule. Their opinion of the kids in the Gymnasium was that they don’t have a lot of free time because they have so much school work to do. They told us how they would rather complete the Realschule and then go to 2 or 3 extra years at the Gymnasium afterwards. All of them said that they had plans to go on to a gymnasium after they graduate.
They seemed to think that there was not much difference between the students at the gymnasium and them. At first when the students were placed into the schools some thought they were better than others because they were placed in the gymnasium but as they got older it became less of an issue. Interestingly enough though, when we talked to the students at the gymnasium they said they were better than the students at the realschule and weren’t friends with many students from either the realschule or hauptschule. I think this shows the placements in different schools at such a young age can create an issue of labeling.
After that we observed in two more classes. I saw a math class and a sewing/textile class. The sewing class was really very cool. All the students were working on different projects. One which was very neat was they made a bag out of different wrappers such as Capri sun or coffee bags. There were others that were knitting, crocheting, stenciling and painting on silk. In the spring the students are in the sewing part of the class and in the winter they learn to cook.
There were only two boys in the class, they said they took the class because of the FOOD lol. They also said that they like the way the German school system is set up. They seemed to think the biggest difference between the schools was the speed of learning. One of the boys said that after he graduates in a year he will look for an apprenticeship. The projects they were working on all seemed really cool. I want to make them all! I am definitely going to make the bag they were making, hopefully lol.
After we got done at the school, Tasha and I did laundry and went for a run. I love running here! It’s so pretty and there’s so much to look at as well as some kick butt hills! Laundry was kind of expensive, :/ sad necessity. Oh well.
For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant with Kegeln, which is traditional German bowling. I wasn’t any better at this than American bowling but it was still a lot of fun. In Kegeln there are 9 pins which are set up in a diamond shape. The pins are attached to strings which reset the pins after each throw. The balls are smaller, have two wholes and not heavy like in bowling. There are a couple different versions of the game you can play with big teams. We were STARVING when we got there, so as soon as we got our food the game was put on hold (obviously we have our priorities straight) and we chowed down! It was yummy.
<3
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