The young people at the middle school in Großhadern have postponed the start of school. They sleep longer in the morning, come to the second lesson – and the best thing is that the students decided this themselves. Not entirely on their own, there were discussions with parents, teachers and the school administration, and of course the school lesson had to be added on at the end. But: It was an attempt to let the ninth and tenth graders have a say – and it worked, says headmistress Gabriele Orsolleck. A small piece of participation, a small piece of democracy.
Yes, you learn to read at school, but schools also have the task of making children into responsible citizens. To impart values to them, to educate them to be democrats. But can that even be achieved in such a hierarchical institution? Can schools be democratic? To discuss these questions, city school councillor Florian Kraus (Greens), Martin Fuchsberger from the Bavarian Teachers’ Association (BLLV), headmistress Orsolleck and student Hans Cahn gathered on a podium in the student house. And around 80 students in the audience.
To at least make this panel discussion more democratic, everyone in the audience was given two pieces of paper, one green and one red; They should raise them depending on whether they agree with a statement or not.
Orsolleck also talks about the student parliament and the class council, which meets once a week. Students submit topics, then move the tables aside and discuss them one by one. Sometimes it’s about excursions, sometimes it’s about a fight between children, or a conflict with a teacher. Or even the amount of homework. “We are often surprised at the ideas our students have for dealing with problems,” says Orsolleck.
Only: Of the approximately 80 children and young people sitting in the audience and listening to the panel discussion, only two have a class council. When asked about it, everyone else raises their red piece of paper. “I feared that,” says Martin Fuchsberger. He is a primary school teacher and says he has been doing class council with his students for 20 years. “Unfortunately, my colleagues rarely take part.” The argument is often too little time. And for many people there is also a fear of giving up power and therefore control.
“We don’t practice democracy enough in schools,” says Hans Cahn, 18 years old and high school graduate, who sits on the podium as a representative of the students. “School principals don’t take student representatives seriously enough. The students are the largest part of the school community, and that should finally be given that weight.” It is the first sentence from the podium that the audience applauds loudly. It looks like schools still have some catching up to do when it comes to democracy – at least from the perspective of these students.
Yes, there is a class representative election, the student representative election, and on excursions they have a say in where they go, some say. They can’t think of much more when asked what is democratic at their school. When to take a break, at what pace to learn and where and in what order the topics from the curriculum are covered – all of this is usually decided by the teachers alone.
And then there are the grades. City school councilor Florian Kraus addresses it: “As long as teachers have the power of grades, we will never have full democracy in schools.” So far, attempts to change this have been viewed with skepticism. But you have to try things out, develop new processes and learn from mistakes. “The school as a whole is still very hierarchical,” says Kraus. “In the city schools we are trying to change that with expanded school management. But in the end there is one person at the top, and that will not be completely abolished.”
The education department has organized a week of action to mark 75 years of the Basic Law; various projects are intended to inspire children and young people about the Basic Law and about democracy. The panel discussion is one of the activities. “We want to help them appreciate democracy,” says Kraus. What excites him about the Basic Law? “That people are at the very beginning. That democracy creates our freedom.”
Not every child in the audience can remember the word democracy yet, but the really big issues are being addressed. How fair is education? asks a 14-year-old. Student Hans Cahn says that children in Bavaria are divided into the three-tier school system too early. And that there is a need for all-day care that supports all children and more support for families with little money. It is emphasized several times how important democratic education is in schools and that it urgently needs to be strengthened, especially now that the AfD received 15 percent of the vote in the youth elections in Bavaria last year.
“We have to start small and treat each other well and sensibly. And not devalue or insult others because they look different or have a different nationality,” says school principal Orsolleck. She gave another example of how it can be possible to let students have a say in decision-making: The younger children complained that only the older ones were allowed to stay in the auditorium during the break, but they had to go out into the playground. They wanted to decide for themselves where they would spend their break. All the teachers were skeptical, says Orsolleck. They’ve been trying it out for a few months and they’ve noticed that the students are happier. It works, says the headmistress. And admits that it surprised everyone.