A Walk Down Narulastraße: August 2010

A photographer came to Oscar's school last Friday to take pictures of the children with their Schultüten. Yesterday we got the prints. In the States, school photos are usually sent home as a proof and then parents have the option to order more. In Germany, they sent home a variety pack (several different sizes) and a bill for the photos (€10).

The photographer also took a class photo. The class photo is an interesting story. Students in German schools have the same teacher for all four years they are in elementary school. As they move to each successive grade, the teacher moves with them. The idea is that at the end of the four years, the teacher should know the students well enough to make an educated recommendation for each child's placement in secondary education.

Anyway, the class photo that is taken at the beginning of first grade follows the class around for the four years that they spend together. Yesterday at school I noticed that the fourth grade class down the hall from Oscar's classroom had posted their class picture from first grade on the door. For the next four years, I expect this class photo will give the students a daily reminder that they are in this adventure together.

When we moved here last summer, I tried to get Oscar enrolled in a German Kindergarten in our town. Unfortunately, we didn't move into our house until early August and by then it was too late -- the Kindergartens in our town started the following week and when I inquired about enrolling Oscar for Kindergarten, I was told they were all full. I could have pressed the issue and they would have found him a slot in a nearby town but it didn’t seem like it was worth the trouble.

One of the reasons I didn’t want to push Oscar into a German Kindergarten is because German schools are structured a bit differently than American schools. German Kindergartens are usually located near an elementary school (Grundschule) but they are not actually part of the elementary school. Kindergarten is for 3, 4, and 5 year-olds and is mostly just structured play. The five-year old Kindergarten children are given some basic lessons on letters, sounds and shapes but the preschool Oscar attended as a four year-old had already covered these topics. Formal education (with emphasis on reading and writing) begins at age six in first grade. If Oscar had gone to the German Kindergarten, he would have learned to speak German but not much else.

The end result from all of this is that Oscar went to the local American school last year. Overall Tina and I were both pretty satisfied with Oscar's Kindergarten experience at the American school but for first grade I wanted to try again with the German system.

I wanted to make sure I didn’t start the process too late in the year so in December I sent an email (in German, of course) to the secretary at the German elementary school in our town (Grundschule Nordenstadt). After some back and forth about when we could get an appointment, we finally met with the principal in February (our next door neighbor came with us to help with translation). The principal was willing to let Oscar enroll for first grade but she wanted three things. First, she wanted to make sure we understood that there wouldn’t be any special concessions for Oscar. Second, she wanted him to come in April for a short skills test that they do to assess readiness for first grade. Third, she wanted to move Oscar into the local German Kindergarten the next day (apparently there was now some availability). We made an appointment for Oscar come back in April for the skills test but the third condition didn't really work for us -- Tina was expecting a baby in the next two weeks and neither of us really felt good about pulling him out of the American school in the middle of the year. So I told her (through the translator) that we would talk about it and I would send her an email to give her our decision. I did send her a note that night declining her suggestion (and explaining why the situation would be difficult). I also said that I hoped she would still consider taking Oscar in the fall. I did not get a reply to that email so for several months I wasn't really sure where things stood with the German school.

I suppose that if I had been sitting in the principal’s seat, I might have been more than a bit annoyed with an American who had came to my office asking for my help but who then did not want to follow my suggestions for how to proceed. Germany is a very rules-oriented society (to put it lightly) so this situation left me wondering how things were going to play out over months that followed.

Sara was born a week and a half after that meeting with the principal so we became quite busy dealing with the new baby. Uncertainty with the German school remained but we had a lot going on so thoughts about school got pushed out of the foreground for the moment. Oscar still had the appointment for the skills test in April and nothing that was happening between February and April was going to change that.

Two weeks before the April meeting, I sent the secretary an email to confirm the appointment for the skills assessment in April. The skills assessment was pretty basic -- they asked Oscar to identify some letters, write his name, do some simple pattern matching, and to draw a few pictures. One of the teachers that administered the test was able to give Oscar instructions in English so that helped. Immediately following the skills assessment, I met with the principle for 15 minutes to discuss the results (my neighbor had again agreed to come with me to help with translation). It was clear that Oscar had the mental ability to be fine in first grade so she gave preliminary approval for him to enroll in the fall. She asked me to work with him on learning more German and to come back later that week to fill out some paperwork. She also gave us an invitation to come to a meeting in June for parents of rising first graders (Elternabend – "parent’s evening").

Tina and I attended the Elternabend with another person we know who speaks both German and English (our neighbor was out of town). At the end of that meeting, the principal announced the class assignments for each of the students. Each of the students also had a packet of papers to pick up. One of the things in Oscar's packet was an invitation (Einladung) from his new teacher to come for a 45-minute get-to-know-you meeting (Kennenlernnachmittag) with all of the other students in his class the following week:

The front of the invitation was drawn by one of the children at the elementary school:

What is in his hand?

Oscar's packet also contained a list of the school supplies he would need:

The packet also contained information about the first day of school. There would be an optional church service (Gottesdienst) followed by a celebration (Einschulung).

Oscar attended the Kennenlernnachmittag and I spoke briefly with his teacher afterwards. I did not have a translator with me so we talked first in German and then a bit in English when we realized her English was better than my German.

Two weeks after the Kennenlernnachmittag, I received a letter in the mail from the Wiesbaden Health Department (Gesundheitsamt) telling me Oscar had been scheduled for an appointment in July. They wanted to review his medical records and have one of their doctors examine him. I understood this to be just a quick physical examination (something akin to a sports physical) but it was much more in depth than that. They asked him to draw some pictures, to answer some mental questions (if I have six blocks and take two away, how many remain?), to do some puzzles and games, and they also did the physical exam I had been expecting. Nothing of significance came out of this appointment other than the Health Department officially granting eligibility to enroll Oscar in school.

German schools started last Monday (two weeks before the American schools) but the first graders didn’t start until Tuesday. The day started with a short ecumenical church service at 9AM.

Look at all of those cones...

We arrived 10 minutes early but were at least 15 minutes too late to get a decent seat. The church was very crowded and the only place we could find a seat was in the balcony. The view from the balcony wasn't very good so we didn’t see much of the church service. After church was over, everybody walked to a building that was near the school for the Einschulung celebration. All of the children from the other grades had lined the sidewalk between the church and the building where Einschulung was being held. They were clapping and welcoming the Schulanfänger.

At the Einschulung, the second graders performed a skit for the new students (I didn't understand all of it, but the theme was about putting new leaves on an old tree), the principal gave everybody a heartfelt welcome (Herzlich Willkommen), and then each of the students was called by name to come and line up behind their teacher. Then the teachers left with the students for a short lesson. During this time, the parents attended a reception in the school auditorium. It wasn’t until I saw most of them drinking champagne that I realized that the first day of school experience was a much bigger deal to the Germans than it was to me. The parents milled around sipping champagne and eating cake until the students were released from their classrooms about an hour later. With that, the first day of school was over. The whole thing lasted two and a half hours.

One constant throughout the first-day activities was the cone, or Schultüte. I didn't see any first graders who didn't have one. The Schultüte is traditionally given to German first graders on their first day of school. Parents fill it with treats, school supplies, and other gifts to celebrate graduation from Kindergarten and moving on to elementary school. We bought a Schultüte for Oscar at the local department store but most of the ones that I saw had been homemade and were more elaborately decorated. Here are some pictures of Oscar with his Schultüte: