Even the first idea for the start of the school year in September was not without opposition. The Bavarian State Association for Homeland Care suggested that morning prayer in schools should be replaced by a “constitutional time”. Instead of the religious impulse, texts from the constitution of the Free State or from the Basic Law should be presented. The church is losing importance, which is why secular concepts are needed to convey to people the basic guidelines for peaceful coexistence in freedom, said Rudolf Neumaier, managing director of the Homeland Care Association, at the time. “The Bavarian Constitution in particular reads like a Sermon on the Mount of statesmanship.” This was promptly followed by a grumble from the churches. And otherwise there is the objection that there is usually no prayer in state schools anyway. Proposal buried?
Now, in the new coalition agreement between the CSU and the Free Voters, the idea has made a state-supporting comeback. In Bavarian schools there should be a “quarter of an hour of constitutional education” per week in the future. As Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) said on Thursday, the 15 minutes should be spent talking about a passage from the Basic Law or the Bavarian Constitution or discussing values, with “maximum pedagogical freedom”. It’s not about “institutional teaching” as it inspired him, the later professional politician, when he was at school, which is probably not the norm. It’s about the “practical application of democracy,” explained Söder and didn’t ignore the homeland care association as a source of inspiration. The plan was matured by the symbolic under-18 elections in September, in which the AfD performed strongly.
And even now criticism didn’t take long to arrive. The philologists’ association asked in a statement how this fits in with the urgently needed relief in schools. Chairman Michael Schwägerl thinks: The concern behind the quarter hour is absolutely justified, but it would be too short-sighted to see this mandate only in schools. The secondary school teachers’ association sees concrete questions about how this quarter hour should be structured. The Bavarian Youth Association, initiator of the U-18 elections in question, criticizes the plan. “You can actually only shake your head at the idea,” said President Philipp Seitz: “On the one hand, keep cutting the socio-political subjects and then spend a quarter of an hour a week to deal with the constitution?” The coalition agreement also leaves him speechless when it comes to the interests of the youth group: “The word youth work doesn’t even appear.”
Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Schulte said: “More political education is urgently needed. The constitutional quarter-hour per week is a placebo. Such pressure refueling in a quarter of an hour cannot be the only answer to the slide to the right and increasing populism.” People in AfD circles are outraged. As AfD MP Oskar Lipp scoffs, if there were more democracy lessons, students would recognize that the AfD was being excluded, “the democratic deficit of the CSU and the Greens,” as he believes.
The State Association for Homeland Care, in turn, criticized the Philologists’ Association’s criticism. This quarter of an hour costs nothing and “certainly does not require much preparation for the outstanding Bavarian educators,” said managing director Neumaier. The shortage of teachers should not be used as an argument against a constitutional impulse. If teachers were really overwhelmed by this, his association could also prepare video spots with constitutional passages as a basis. He is convinced that the quarter hour will prove to be an effective means of inspiring young people “about the clever ideas of the authors of the Basic Law and the Bavarian Constitution.”
Lots of voices, a lot of confusion. Simone Fleischmann, President of the Bavarian Teachers’ Association (BLLV), takes an intermediate position. “Please don’t get too excited, it’s not like the whole timetable has to be overturned now.” Already, she said, teachers are addressing children’s fears when they believe the world is falling apart when they hear debates at the kitchen table at home. “We are already doing that in schools, we have professionals at the start, even if there are too few,” says Fleischmann, alluding to the shortage of teachers. There will be agreement on formats, and the quarter hour would also be “managed professionally”. However: “A lot has been said in coalition agreements before.” One good thing about the hiccup is: “It’s a discussion about the value of schools for society and about what democracy gives us all as homework.”