Susanne Kirchner is passionate about looking after German classes - children from all continents
Created: 11/19/2022, 2:00 p.m
By: Laura May
The children need individual care here.
© Michaelek
The children in the German class at the Erich Kästner School in Höhenkirchen could hardly be more diverse.
It is not easy to adapt the lessons to the needs of the children.
Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn
– 9.45 a.m. in the Erich-Kästner elementary and middle school.
Whispers, giggles and shrieks in a variety of languages fill the bright classroom.
Aisha translates instructions from teacher Susanne Kirchner for a new Romanian classmate.
"We're like the European Patent Office," she jokes.
Then the lesson can begin.
"One, two, three..." Kirchner counts firmly and secretively - until the 20 children in the elementary school German class rush to their school desks and stare at the teachers and blackboard with sparkling eyes.
Kirchner begins by asking about the days of the week, weather conditions and animal species that have already been learned.
Many of the students can hardly stay in their chairs.
They wave and snap their hands, desperate to say the right answer.
Everyone wants to learn German quickly
The children could hardly be more diverse.
They have different migration and refugee histories, age groups, educational backgrounds and traumas.
Brazil, India, China, Afghanistan, Palestine, Algeria, Egypt, Romania, Kosovo, the Philippines and Russia are represented in this German class – there is also a child from French-speaking Switzerland.
What do they all have in common?
They want to learn German quickly and go to school “normally”.
The German class should help to find a smooth entry into the Bavarian school system.
Some children have never been to school before, others have been taught since they were four years old.
“It makes a huge difference whether children from engineering families are used to the school system or whether they grew up somewhere in refugee camps or slums,” says Kirchner.
The standard textbook does not help here
So it is anything but easy to adapt the lessons to the different needs and stories of the children.
What is in the standard textbook often seems absurd here.
That's why many teachers shy away from German classes and the inevitable loss of control.
"You have to like chaos," says teacher Kirchner.
And she likes it.
As a former Montessori teacher, she also gets along well with the mixed age groups - that too is always too big a challenge for others.
All-day cross-level class
Here in Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, the German class is offered as a full-time, cross-level class.
Kirchner organizes the lessons with a colleague and a social worker who is financed by the European Social Fund (ESF).
Again and again they separate the class and work in small groups sorted by learning level, in which they practice what is currently pending in math or German.
The children have time here to prepare for their careers in the strict Bavarian school system.
Here they get space to learn, play and settle down in Germany - in a life that holds its own challenges for all of them.
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Offer is voluntary
But not all children who need it end up in the right class, says Susanne Kirchner.
The offer is voluntary, and even if the parents want it, there is often no place or school nearby.
In the northern district, for example, there is no offer for elementary school students.
If there is no good connection to the public network, the little ones often fail to attend class simply because of the way to school, explains Kirchner.
In any case, the children who have been given a place here are in good hands.
Susanne Kirchner teaches the diverse group with great passion - and in turn is rewarded with a steep learning curve for the children.
There is only one aspect of her work that makes her a little sad.
"If everyone can speak German, I have to let them go again."
Everyone learns German together here.
© Michaelek