Illustration: Mick Marston
school can be a nerve-racking time for
parents because their children’s “perfor-
mance” (Leistung) in this year will deter-
mine the sort of secondary school they
will attend. As a parent, you want to keep
many doors open for your children. Being
told that your ten-year-old son or daugh-
ter must attend a certain school based
on their academic ability within a very
rigidly structured school system can feel
as if they are already being excluded from
certain paths, or that those paths are being
made longer and harder for them.
In the UK, by comparison, big scary
tests are a rarity during the seven years
of primary school. Although British fam-
ilies might move house in order to be in
the catchment area of a secondary school
with a good reputation, once you’re at a
secondary school, you stay there until
you have completed that part of your
education. Not so in Germany, where the
threat of having to change schools be-
cause children aren’t performing to the
required academic level is ever-present.
If a child at a Bavarian Gymnasium, forarson [(A:s&n]
, Brandstiftung
catchment [(kÄtSmEnt]
, Einzugs-
expel [Ik(spel]
, hinausschmeißen
fate [feIt]
, Schicksal
harsh [hA:S]
, hart, streng
humiliated
[hju(mIlieItId]
, gedemütigt
lack [lÄk]
, Mangel
nerve-racking
[(n§:v )rÄkIN]
, nervenaufreibendexample, finishes the year with two 5s
or one 6 in a Vorrückungsfach, he or she
will have to repeat the year. The school
shirks any responsibility. Children may
have up to 15 subjects, but if they fail
one, this is the fate that awaits them.
A whole year of their life is spent repeat-
ing all the subjects, while feeling humil-
iated. It’s a pretty harsh, unsupportive
system, and yet it’s considered perfectly
normal — Es ist halt so!
In the UK, this wouldn’t be considered
normal or supportive. If a pupil fails a
subject, they are offered extra help and
can resit the exam during the summer
holidays. It’s very uncommon for a child
to repeat a whole year. And in order to
be expelled from a school, a child would
have to be involved in some sort of crimi-
nal activity, such as arson or drug dealing.
Once a school has accepted a child, it has
no grounds to exclude that child because
of a lack of academic ability. Understand-
ing the German education system isn’t
easy, but it certainly helps to explain the
phrase, “Jetzt geht der Ernst des Lebens los!”pretty [(prIti]
, hier: ziemlich
reputation
[)repju(teIS&n]
, Ruf
resit [)ri:(sIt]
, hier: wiederholen
rigidly [(rIdZIdli]
, starr-
scary [(skeEri]
, furchteinflößend,
beängstigend
shirk sth. [S§:k]
, sich vor etw. drücken
subject [(sVbdZekt]
, (Unterrichts)FachCULTURE 10/2019 Spotlight 67Endlich auch als Buch!
Dagmar Taylors Geschichten über
ihre amüsanten Erlebnisse in
Deutschland gibt es nun auch als
zweisprachiges Buch — im englischen
Original mit deutscher Übersetzung
(Spotlight Verlag, € 12 ,95). Neugierig?
Dann blättern Sie um!Bestellen Sie Ihr persönliches
Exemplar versand kostenfrei und
sparen Sie € 3 ,90 (D)!
http://www.spotlight-online.de/fettnaepfchen