I think that a lot of us were very much looking forward to observing a gymnasium. This school could be compared to an elite secondary school in the States. Serving grades 5-12 (formerly through grade 13), every student and teacher is required to learn English starting at grade 5 (if not earlier), and in the upper grades students must also choose to learn one of the following: French, Spanish, Latin or Italian. All students experience a bilingual education, meaning that they not only learn 2 additional languages, they also have classes taught in English or French. For example, a student might take economics or chemistry, but several days a week they learn the subject in a second language. This is a very authentic way to learn another language, and it appeared to be very effective in creating bilingual students.
The majority of students at the Gymnasium level must attend their local school. This particular school, however, has an excellent gifted program and can accept students from other states just for this specialized program. Grades are determined as 1 (equivalent to approximately an A) through 6 (failing).
In year 10, students receive a 2-week work placement in Germany, England or France. Students here often become so proficient in French that they will take the French exit exam in addition to the Abitur; this ensures that they can seamlessly attend post-secondary education in France, if they desire to do so. The Abitur counts for 1/3 of the graduation score, and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate is the only one of the 16 states to offer un-centralized graduation tests. Teachers create several tests to be sent to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry chooses the test to be administered, and the teacher receives the assessment right before they must administer it to students.
A typical schedule is structured like this: Monday-Thursday classes run 7:55-4:05 and Friday 7:55-12:55. Most lessons are in the morning before lunch, with sports, art and clubs taking place in the afternoon. Most homework is completed during the school day when students have study or tutoring breaks. This school also follows the MINT program, which stands for math, ICT, science and technology, which sounds much like the trend for STEM education in the US. Students also must choose three areas of focus, almost like majors, in order to complete their program of study.
Several of us had the chance to observe a religion class during which a student presented information on Chagall. Mainz is home to a chapel with Chagall glass windows adorning each wall, and so students will visit the chapel next week to see the work in person. Students analyzed the work projected onto a screen using the stylistic and biographical information provided by the presenter. At the end of the presentation, the teacher asked students to offer an evaluation of the presenter, and students very professionally offered both praise and criticism.
The students we spoke with were very impressive. It was clear that these students were very bright and had experienced an excellent education. Their English proficiency was impeccable, and each of them had spent a significant amount of time in the US. All three of them were serious students, but with different majors of study and interests outside of school. All of them plan to attend Universitat after Gymnasium, although only one of them seemed to know where she would like to attend after school.
This school was also the first public school we visited that offered a traditional school library for students. The book cataloging and management of the library is performed by parent volunteers. The mother running the desk during my visit very kindly answered all of my questions about school libraries in Rhineland-Palatinate. She had been helping with the school libraries since her children were young (their primary school had a library, as well). Libraries are traditionally run by mothers in two-hour shifts. This one had 11 computers for students to use in order to create projects or type papers. There were volumes of popular fiction and materials for research. The mother running the library confirmed what student had mentioned to me; teens seem to prefer to buy their books rather than borrow them from the school library. I do not know if this is typical of German teens in general, or just of the teens in the schools we visited.
Overall, it was a fantastic visit, and I especially enjoyed speaking with the panel of German students.
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