Just thought I'd stop by and write a little bit about two features of German schools that I've learned about this year--Klassenfahrten (class trips) and Kurstreffen (course get-togethers).
I already wrote about the class trip to Spain, which is called a Klassenfahrt in German. The whole class travels together generally every two or three years starting in the 5th or 6th grade. Popular destinations include Spain, France, Berlin, and Prague. Students experience culture and history during the day and the teachers have their hands full with mischevious students at night.
A get-together of all of the students and the teacher of a specific course, called a Kurstreffen, takes place in the higher grades of the schools. A course, for example the music course in the 12th grade, will meet up at someone's house or a bar, drink a beer, and converse. I was at my first Kurstreffen last Wednesday. It was held at a friend's house and turned out well.
The Kurstreffen illustrates a few differences between Germany and America that I've noticed all year. Germans and Americans deal with alcohol completely differently. In Germany, beer and wine are legal at age 16, spirits at age 18. It's not unusual for teenagers to have a few drinks with adults, and above all, alcohol is not nearly as taboo.
The result: a teacher drinking alcohol with students is a customary occurence in the higher grades once a school year at the Kurstreffen. I feel like something like that could get a teacher fired at an American school. It's really just a matter of different perspectives.
What do you think of Klassenfahrten and Kurstreffen? Would it be good for classes at American schools to travel for a week, or is it unfair to expect that all of the students pay so much to travel? Do course get-togethers blur the line between school life and personal life too much? Do these two activities contribute to a better school community?
3 comments:
I think that the allergic reaction that Americans have to teens and alcohol is a disaster--it only encourages irresponsible and dangerous drinking (gotta drink the evidence mentality)...
As for school trips, I'm all for them, as long as they are ways for the less fortunate to get help in paying for the trips
I'm definitely with you on the effect that the American laws and mentality have on teen drinking.
It also encourages secret binge drinking outside of adult supervision instead of safer drinking while adults are around.
-Kevin
Is it the drinking in the US that's the problem, or is it the combination of drinking and driving?? Here in Illinois, we're quite at wits' end about what to do about teenage driving fatalities. On the trips and informal get-togethers, I think both are wonderful ideas, and the US schools ought to do more.
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