Hesse is out.
It is the only federal state that does not have a holiday on Reformation Day or All Saints' Day.
In Berlin, these two public holidays do not exist either, but there, as in almost half of the federal states, there are still autumn holidays.
So many of you can look forward to free time.
Children and teachers in Hesse, on the other hand, have to console themselves (like me) with Halloween candy.
Actually, this would be a nice transition to report on the adversities of the federal education system.
But I don't want to do that (this time).
There are other problems around day care centers and schools.
About two weeks ago the devastating results of the IQB education trend were published.
There was talk of a Pisa shock 2.0 afterwards, and it continues to have an effect.
There is intensive discussion about possible causes of the performance drop in fourth graders.
Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of Education, Karin Prien (CDU), cited the progressive inclusion, which a team of scientists strongly criticized in a guest article for SPIEGEL.
The claim that the poorer results also have something to do with the fact that more and more children with and without special educational needs are learning together in one classroom is untenable – and risky.
The IQB study and the grievances in the education system also concern numerous SPIEGEL readers, as can be seen from the hundreds of e-mails that reached us after the "little break" two weeks ago.
Many thanks at this point!
Unfortunately, we cannot publish all letters.
The bottom line is that a lot of frustration can be read from this, but there are also a number of constructive suggestions as to how the misery could at least partially be remedied.
As an example, a school principal from Lower Saxony is to have her say, who, based on her practice, names very specific reforms in order to “have the chance to equip children and young people with the necessary skills for the future”.
(»Debate of the week«)
We look forward to further ideas, suggestions and feedback at bildung@spiegel.de.
We wish you – with or without a holiday – a good week!
Sincerely,
Silke Fokken
for the SPIEGEL education team
That's going on
1. What should change for the little ones?
The foundation for education is laid with the youngest.
This finding – some say it is a truism – has come into focus after the publication of the IQB results.
The drop in performance has fueled the debate about what needs to be improved in day-care centers and how children with difficult starting conditions can be reached.
The former SPD Minister of Education for Saxony-Anhalt, Stephan Dorgerloh, had pleaded in SPIEGEL for compulsory daycare from the age of four.
Others at least want to establish mandatory language tests.
The whole thing triggers strong controversy;
including the question of whether the ideas are not completely unrealistic: there are already no daycare places.
In the coming year, the gap is likely to be almost 400,000, according to an analysis by the Bertelsmann Foundation.
Accordingly, there is also a lack of child-friendly group sizes and, above all, of staff.
"Should I laugh or cry?" a teacher wrote to SPIEGEL on the occasion of the proposal for compulsory daycare.
My colleague Swantje Unterberg summarized the discussion.
A Berlin teacher is annoyed because the work in day care centers has not been taken seriously for years.
She misses significantly better equipment to be able to fulfill her growing tasks in a child-friendly way;
for example with a view to inclusion.
I was able to see how their everyday life works and what day-care centers can do for children over two days.
2. How do we (at best) deal with multilingualism?
A primary school student had to write half a page of punishment because she had spoken Turkish in the schoolyard in Baden-Württemberg: that was illegal, according to a comparison with the school authorities.
Read the details here.
The case generally touches on the handling of children's multilingualism, which is often perceived as a risk factor.
The German school portal has compiled central research results: "The human brain is easily able to learn more than one language very well from birth - as long as it receives enough input," it says there.
And there we are (among other things) back to the day care centers.
The portal also offers specific tips for schools.
3. Where will savings be made when food becomes more expensive?
Everything is getting more expensive, and in many places this is affecting the food in day-care centers and schools.
As the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reports, the state parents' representation in Thuringia warns that the cost increases should not be passed on to the parents: "It's all culminating in the families at the moment." "Zeit" has explored the situation in daycare centers.
There, the quality of the food is now “sometimes dispensed with”.
Or parents should pay higher meal prices – with the risk that they would rather leave their children at home or reduce childcare hours in order to save money on childcare and food.
And anything else?
A new book will be published this Tuesday: »Women and digitality – now.
How educational transformation benefits from female perspectives.« It was written by the former headmistress and school development consultant Kati Ahl.
»My father was a feminist when it came to technology.
And that makes a difference!” she explains in her introduction.
»What keeps women, what keeps teachers from becoming more digitally professional today?
Why is almost every IT officer one of those rare men in a school?
How should role models change for the future if half of society, the female teachers, is little involved in the cultural change towards digitality?” asks Ahl – and provides around 160 pages with interesting answers that are worth discussing.
debate of the week
»Children with disabilities are not a brake on learning!«
After the publication of the IQB results, Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of Education, Prien, called the "progressive inclusion" as a possible explanation for the decline in the school performance of children in the fourth grade - and thus caused anger among some experts.
Menno Baumann, Markus Gebhardt, Conny Melzer and David Scheer, who all have professorships in education, write in a guest article for SPIEGEL: "Overall, we consider it highly problematic that political arguments were and are being made in this direction."
Contrary to available knowledge, parents who are worried about their children's educational and future opportunities are suggested that the inclusion of children with special educational support needs or disabilities harms their children's acquisition of skills.
"This is not only inaccurate," writes the team, "it also carries the risk of social division and questioning of the central human right to inclusion." You can read here how the four experts came to this assessment.
Inken Frercks, director of a secondary school in Bleckede, Lower Saxony, is also concerned with the debate about the IQB results.
She wrote to SPIEGEL what she believes needs to change as a practitioner in schools.
An excerpt: »If it is not possible for education to become a generally recognized value in society again, it will also be difficult to change something at school.
School alone cannot prevent the educational misery.
Nevertheless, in my view, the following points must change:
The class size must not exceed 20 students.
We currently have a 5th grade with 29 children.
How are we supposed to convey content sensibly under these conditions after the school closures caused by the corona pandemic?
If you want to stick to the idea of inclusion, there MUST be school support for every child with special needs who is well trained and reasonably paid.
We consider what is happening at the moment to be downright negligent.
Politicians urgently need to invest money in the school environment.
I once read that every school should look like the premises of the local savings banks.
I have little hope that this will succeed.
But it doesn't have to be that the plaster comes off the walls.
We need attractive group rooms, reading corners, play facilities in the schoolyard, and spaces in which children and young people want to discover and learn something.
When they are lined up in the classroom, facing the blackboard, and with little room to move, how are they supposed to develop an interest in topics, be curious, and independently work on something that they will remember?
We need to teach children media literacy and better explain what information they can find on the internet, what facts they should know without researching the internet – and what skills they should acquire.
Based on this, the curricula must be completely reconsidered.
An example: I wanted to explain to a schoolgirl that calculating percentages makes sense to find out how expensive a pair of jeans is when they are reduced by 30 percent.
Her irritated reply was, 'Huh?
I googled that.'
If we had all of that, we would have a better chance of equipping children and young people with the skills that would enable them to gain a foothold in our democratic society.
Society has changed a lot, schools have to do the same.«
That's it for this week, the next "little break" will be released on November 14, 2022. Until then, all the best!
Ideas, suggestions, feedback? We look forward to mail to bildung@spiegel.de
