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Teacher Mengel in his school in Rostock
Photo: private
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Mengel, testing has been going on at your school for a long time.
Why is it that it is different in many schools?
Gert Mengel:
The cacophony in the test debate.
We have reached a stage of irresponsible talk.
Politicians need quick successes in testing, but hoppladihopp is not possible with schools.
We experienced that for ourselves at the Don Bosco School, where testing runs like clockwork today.
To person
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Gert Mengel, 49, is a teacher of history, religion and social studies at the Catholic Don Bosco School in Rostock.
There he is the head of the grammar school and the regional school.
SPIEGEL:
How did you manage testing?
Mengel:
We carefully carried this through our committees, step by step.
You first have to make friends with the school family that there are tests - and the students do it themselves.
This requires a lot of discussions with students, parents and teachers.
SPIEGEL:
Is it mainly because the teachers are blocking?
"The teachers' responsibility is huge, but they got practically nothing for it."
Mengel:
Nobody is blocking, but everyone needs an explanation.
In fact, the sensitivities are most clearly felt in teachers.
I understand that by the way.
The teachers have had to cope with a host of new challenges in the last twelve months, for their students and for themselves - and now corona tests.
The teachers' responsibility was and is huge, but they got practically nothing in return: no recognition, no vaccination priority, and the service laptops are still not there either.
So it would be very wrong to pillory educators.
Without the teachers, the Don Bosco School would not have taken a single test so far.
SPIEGEL:
Yes, but do we have that much time for palaver?
Mengel:
No, not really.
But you have to explain the sense of testing in the school community.
This is important!
To take everyone with you.
To make it clear that you can then get students back into the classroom with more certainty.
And in these conversations you have to show in a very practical way how testing works.
SPIEGEL:
Because you don't have any rapid tests?
Mengel:
Every test needs to be explained - especially when it comes to life and death.
But it is true that we do not use rapid tests, but reliable PCR tests.
Our students test themselves, in some cases parents help their children.
But it works.
Of the 5,000 tests our students have taken since August, just eight were not evaluable.
The close cooperation with the company Centogene, which provides the tests free of charge, was also important.
This is the only way to turn this safe, somewhat slower PCR test into a de facto rapid test.
SPIEGEL:
Isn't it risky for students to test themselves?
"The students notice that they can suddenly do something."
Mengel:
On the contrary, including students in the test enhances them.
It turns them into responsible partners, even contributors to a good solution.
They realize that suddenly they can do something about a virus that was previously a sinister threat.
I can therefore in no way confirm the thesis of the Association of Pediatricians that rapid tests make children more careless.
Students are sensitized, they are more mindful - and at the same time they are empowered.
That's a very strong feeling for young people.
SPIEGEL:
What is your tip: How can you make your own test out of someone else's?
Mengel:
I actually think that in the current situation you have to make top-down decisions.
The education ministers slept through many things and looked too little at lighthouses like the Carolinum Neustrelitz grammar school, which was our role model.
Politicians now have to make decisions - but then of course they also have to deliver.
SPIEGEL:
Is that what she does?
Mengel:
So-so.
She really needs to bring the quick and self-tests to schools.
And the school authorities, i.e. the municipalities, also have to play along.
They have to send advisors to the schools.
We need multipliers who explain this on site.
I am always ready to pass on our example to other schools with my teachers - like in Rostock, where the city and schools are pulling along.
Incidentally, I think the media also have a great responsibility.
It is certainly the job of newspapers to criticize.
But you can accompany such a process with good communication.
We all have to get out of our roles a little.
SPIEGEL:
What does that mean?
Mengel:
Tests are there to specifically detect the virus - but not to accuse others of inactivity.
An intensive discussion is required, which must always be constructive, even when resistance arises.
In our case, too, there were people who were insecure and who expressed themselves critically.
That is normal, nobody knows exactly the right way at the moment.
We got a real shit storm with all possible and impossible reservations: against us as a free Catholic school.
Or precisely because we have taken our fate into our own hands.
Crazy, but we didn't allow ourselves to be put off, and that was a good thing.
We are no longer afraid.
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