Gelsenkirchen Politics sometimes dictates German literature on the way to the Abitur. A teacher in Gelsenkirchen thinks little of it.
The federal and state governments partially specify what literature students should know for the Abitur. How sensible is it to control this centrally? We asked a woman from the practice. Gabriele T. (name changed) is a senior teacher in Gelsenkirchen. She says that the political guidelines have too little to do with her everyday school life.
Are central guidelines good?
Overall, the requirements ignore the reality of the learners’ lives and the educational mission. Education in the spirit of Adorno, of educating young people to become critically responsible citizens, tends to fall by the wayside.
Why?
The Ministry of Education classifies a particular location as centrally comparable per se. If I have to teach Lessing’s “Nathan” at Gelsenkirchen comprehensive schools in accordance with the central Abitur requirements in North Rhine-Westphalia, I have to provide completely different vocabulary training than at a Catholic high school in Münster. This takes a while; The bottom line is that the learner has a time disadvantage.
Does politics address this?
The North Rhine-Westphalia Education Ministry has already slimmed down the compulsory reading requirements. There used to be absurd requirements. Schnitzler’s dream novella! There you are standing in front of a class with mostly boys from many countries of origin and it’s about the erotic fantasies of a married couple in Vienna in the 1920s…
Where does it work best?
In contemporary literature! There is a common language, for example in the given novels “Under the Dragon Wall” and “The Tobacconist”.
Fewer regulations, more freedom of choice: then students would read completely different texts than they do today.
Foto: imago classic / IMAGO/Design Pics
If you could change something:
I would completely deviate from the guidelines. Much more scenic approaches to literature, much more current events, much more from the students’ lives!
Our interview partner asked for her person to be anonymized.
More articles from this category can be found here: Culture
2024-02-10 17:50:01
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