School Days

Now that little A.'s firmly settled into 1st grade, it's time to start prep for P.'s transition to his new school. This is a big step - not only will he spend the next 8-9 years there, but in my darker moments I think it will determine his destiny.

First some background: Germany has traditionally divided its post-primary school school system into 3 tracks: Gymnasium, the highest level whose Abitur certificate is required for college entry (and which goes to grade 12 or 13), Realschule, where the focus is on practical training (and which goes to grade 10, with the possibility thereafter to finish at a Gymnasium), and Hauptschule (main school), whose purpose is to get a basic education into the students. Additionally there are special needs schools as well as continuing ed. schools.

The kids are channeled into one of these schools via a recommendation from their teachers in the 4th grade; in NRW these 'recommendations' are still binding - that is, the parents cannot overrule the recommendation and apply to a higher school.

This system strikes many Germans as less than ideal. Reform is remarkably difficult, though, as anyone whose ever been involved in education can tell you. In recent years the trend has been toward a half-way reform: Gesamtschule, which offer 2 or more of the above tracks. Theoretically, the pupils have mixed classes through 6th grade, at which point they are put into one of the traditional tracks (this eval also happens at that point in the other schools). The advantage is, with the Gesamtschule you don't have to change schools, only class.

In our city (of just over 100,00 people) we have 4 Gymnasium, 2 Gesamtschule, 2 Realschule, and 1 Hauptschule. The Hauptschule are falling out of favor as ever higher standards are set by employers for new hires.

Now, this may seem all very complicated. And it is. But that's only half the story. For once we have the recommendation for our son, we have to apply to an appropriate school. How to choose a school? Well, of course you visit them to find out how much of glowing text from the school's homepage is true. To help us out, all the schools will be having open houses over the next 3 months, during which the kids can even take part in sample classes. Somehow we must get past 'the architectural sins of previous decades' (as one newspaper article put it) to figure out if P. fits there.

Of course I'm asking everyone I know why they picked the school their older children attended. The answers seem to fall into a few categories:

1. It is closest to home
2. I/my spouse went there and it was a great place
3. My child felt most comfortable there
4. It had the best X program (gift children, special needs, technical, music, etc)
5. It had the best rep.
   

Since the school 'diplomas' are standardized here, the meaning of a schools' reputation seems to mean more, how many students learn enough to get the diploma with good grades, versus how much the school's name will help you later to get into a university or get a job.

Now that I've given you a nutshell explanation of the entire German secondary school program, I'll leave you all in suspense until after the first visit: Saturday, to the city's bilingual (German/English) gymnasium. The week after comes parent-teacher conference, where we'll get an unofficial, preliminary, we-ain't-promising-anything hint as to perhaps what kind of a theoretical recommendation our son might possibly receive.

Fingers crossed. For what - that he'll get a certain kind of recommendation? No! That I'll stay sane through this process.