A school without grades and certificates, without pressure and curriculum – and without a school permit: the Free State and the association behind the Sudbury School Ammersee in Reichling (Landsberg am Lech district) have been arguing about this for years. At least the process before the Bavarian Administrative Court in Munich could now come to an end. The 7th Senate announced a written decision during its hearing on Tuesday.
The process surrounding the private school at Ammersee is almost symbolic, at least for many who want to promote alternative school concepts in Bavaria. For just two years, from 2014 to 2016, Sudbury Schule Ammersee was open to elementary and middle school students. She calls herself democratic. Put simply, the Sudbery movement, which originated in the USA, refuses to evaluate performance with grades or assessments. Instead, the children at the Ammersee school decided for themselves what they wanted to learn and when. However, the government of Upper Bavaria was not convinced of this and did not extend the temporary approval. Since then, both sides have been arguing about whether the school could go on after all. And to what extent the knowledge and skills taught there are equivalent to those at a public school.
The presiding judge Mechthild Klein also referred to this on Tuesday at the beginning of the hearing: Despite the freedom to go to private schools, the students have to meet certain “minimum standards” as stipulated by the Bavarian curriculum and the decisions of the Conference of Ministers of Education. For this purpose, an expert opinion on the pedagogical concept of the Sudbury School had been commissioned. However, in his own words, the expert found it difficult to draw a conclusion. In the concept, he came across passages that seemed contradictory in his eyes, said Thomas Eberle, professor of school education at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
The concept states that the responsibility for learning lies solely with the students. Teachers should only give feedback to children when they ask for it. But what about those students who find it difficult to learn on their own? According to Eberle, he was able to gain a lot from the ideas presented. But from his point of view, some skills are required that actually have to be acquired in school.
The statements were accompanied by murmurs from the audience, comments like “complete nonsense” were among the nicer ones. The relationship between those involved in the process can be considered tense given the long history.
The representatives of the school contradicted the report – and listed, among other things, the positive experiences that had been made in the two years of school operation. Several students would have made the qualification in the ninth grade. The teachers played an important role in everyday school life. For example, they support the children, give instructions for independent learning, act as role models and maintain contact with companies for internships. The motto: “No student is left alone.” Overall, the concept is quite comparable to what is known from other private schools.
The big question now is to what extent the 7th Senate will let these objections count. At least Judge Klein could not resist the impression towards the end of the day of the hearing that the concept was “in one place” and then handled completely differently in practice. The school representatives nevertheless applied for approval to be granted to the Sudbury Schule Ammersee. No decision was made on Tuesday: it will be sent to those involved by post within the next few weeks.