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Elementary school class in Hamburg (symbol picture)
Photo: Christian Charisius / picture alliance / dpa
In the winter before I started high school, I went to my future school with my parents and my best friend.
I still remember the map at the school gate: I was able to choose between about 20 stations that I would like to complete that day, trial lessons, experimental groups, acting, discussions with students, the parents' council.
Photo: Lina Moreno / DER SPIEGEL
Sarah Wiedenhöft
, 28, is a freelance journalist and doctoral candidate.
As a young, queer, single mother of a black child, she is often confronted with prejudice.
In her column she writes how she deals productively with the injustices of everyday life.
Today, 18 years later, I am looking at schools again, this time for my son: He is in fourth grade, and in the summer, like more than 700,000 children in Germany, he will switch to a secondary school.
This time I just scroll through various websites of secondary schools in our area.
Because there is no open day in the corona pandemic.
Secondary school is where my child will study for the next six to nine years, up to eight hours five days a week.
I wish that he can spend this time well.
In a big city like Hamburg I can choose between different schools, which I consider a privilege - on the one hand.
On the other hand, I'm currently desperate about the choice: 158 secondary schools are theoretically open to my son in Hamburg.
How am I supposed to find the right one?
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