In this blog post I’m going to discuss what political lessons at schools in NRW are really like and what the students think about them…
First of all, it differs from school to school how many political lessons we have had in our career at school. Speaking for myself, I only had political lessons in the 8th grade and in the 13th grade when it was obligatory to attend a course which was called social sciences which is similar to politics. But I know a lot of other cases in which students had political lessons through their whole school career. That’s why I think that my school was an exceptional case but it’s rather unusual to teach political stuff only two years. To make it more understandable, especially for our American student colleagues, I have to say a few words about the role of politics at German schools:
From grades 5 to 10 politics is a minor subject which means that we do not have to write exams in that subject. Most times the teacher talks with students about different problems which have more or less to do with politics. From grade 11 it changes completely. Students are allowed to choose it as a main subject in which they write exams and in grade 12 they can even choose it as an advanced or intensive course. If you do not choose it in grade 11 then you have to do an obligatory political course in grade 13 as I did.
I know that now you are tired of theory, so I will tell you something about the content of political lessons in NRW which will be certainly more interesting for you.
In most schools political lessons are divided into three parts:
Politics
Economy
Society or Social Sciences
In the 8th grade our emphasis lay on economy related to industrialization. I learned the way of the cocoa bone to chocolate. Therefore my class visited the chocolate museum in Cologne. This was a very interesting teaching series!!!
Jenny, who is part of our group, told me that from grade 5 to 10 her teachers focused on the financial management and the stock market, the voting system in Germany and the USA, which is of course very useful for our course, and social inequality. Here you can see the three parts I have mentioned above.
From grade 11 to 13 the main topic was social sciences in which we talked about people who come from different cultures but live together in one society. A typical example is the high number of German-Turkish people, who for example were born in Germany but whose parents come from Turkey. We discussed it very detailed in class because we had lots of students with a Turkish origin at school. According to that topic we analyzed the social structure of Germany’s society. How many people or percent of people are rich/poor, well-educated/uneducated and so on in Germany?
What we have to criticize are the following points which have never been topics in OUR political lessons at school:
Different forms of government, e.g. democracy, anarchy, dictatorship
What is the business of the Bundestag, Bundesrat and Bundesgerichtshof?
In political lessons we rarely talked about the judicial, executive and legislative branch! We only did it in history lessons!
All in all, you may see that in fact we did a lot in our political lessons at schools in NRW but we, as students, are not pleased with the content of the lessons. In retrospect we think that the teachers should have taught more important things like forms of government which exist in the world and the business of our chancellor, our president, the Bundestag and so on because that’s the reason why a lot of young people in Germany don’t know much about our political system and the business of the single parts of the government.
We think that political lessons at schools should be improved!!!
PS: I found an interesting German article about a project relating to political lessons at schools…
First of all I show you the general tasks and aims of the politic lessons in classes 5-10. The guidelines that I use are for classes of gymnasium, but don’t differ a lot from those of “Realschule” and “Hauptschule”, so they are still representative.
According to the guidelines of 2010 in North Rhine-Westphalia pupils have got lessons called “politics” or “politics and economy” twice a week from class 5-10 (whereas it may differ slightly from the type of school). Like geography and history, politics belongs to the subject area of humanitarian sciences, which shall prepare the pupils for the life in a democratic society and show what the members of this society are supposed to do. Through politics pupils learn the political, economical and social structures, which is important to become an active citizen in society that is able to take part in economical, political and social issues. The children must understand the different roles and tasks in a society and later become active and critical voters later. Mainly the aims and the contents of these lessons are divided into four categories of competences: content competence (knowledge), methodic competence (use of media, speaking, etc.) reflection competence (discussion, reflections) and acting competence (making posters, respecting other, making decisions).
To get a better overview I show you now the aspects that pupils shall know after class 6:
1.Democracy and it’s development (situations of children in family, school and city; possibilities of political action: rights and duties for children)
2.Basic principles of economic activity (economic activity as basis of human existence; basic human needs; young people in consumer society and strategies of selling products; money as medium of exchange)
3.Ecological challenges for policy and economy (importance of ecology in everyday life: handling with water, garbage, etc.)
4.Chances and problems of the industrialization and globalization (living conditions for children in industrial and developing countries)
5.Identity and way of living of the modern society and it’s changes (conditions of social groups: children, men, women, families; handling with conflicts)
6.The role of media in politics and society (media as a form of communication and source of information)
And here the aspects of classes 7-10:
7.Democracy and it’s development (democratic institutions in Germany: principles, forms and interaction; citizenship, elections and parliamentarianism in the federal system in Germany; basics of the constitutional state and the endangerment and the assurance of the human rights; reasons and defense of political extremism and xenophobia)
8.Basic principles of economic activities (market and market processes between competition and concentration; corporate forms and the role of employers in the free market economy; social free market economy and it’s challenges through globalizations)
9.Future of work and business in a changing society of industry, provision of services and information (career choice and possibilities, change of enterprises and working environment through new technologies for the economy and effect on the everyday life)
10.Ecological challenges for policy and economy (quantitative versus qualitative accretion, innovation potentials of ecological production)
11.Income and social assurance between efficiency principle and social justice ( structures, national and international problems of the future for the social state and the social policy; allocation of chances and resources in society; Income and social assurance between efficiency principle and social justice)
12.Identity and way of living in the modern society and it’s changes (personal identity and personal way of living according to the conflict between self-actualization and social expectations; values and their changes in society; reasons and consequences of migration + possibilities and difficulties of people from different cultures living together)
13.The role of the media in policy and society (importance of ways and possibilities of communication + information for policy and society; political and social consequences of new media; global cross-linking and the role of media)
14.International policy in the period of globalization (Europe: development, expectations and current problems; economical, political and cultural consequences of global processes; current problems and possibilities for policy of peace and policy of assurance
I hope you got an impressionof what the politic lessons look like in North-Rhine Westphalia!
I guess when people first come to our blog they probably ask themselves: Why the heck is somebody writing about political education in school??? Through this blog we want to share with you what we think are some similarities and differences between political education in Texas and in North Rhine-Westphalia. We all three study elementary education in Dortmund and we all have made different experiences concerning education and especially political education in school. We were all born in Germany and also went to school here. We all experienced what lessons were taught in political education starting in elementary school going through high school. But what do we still remember and does it impact our life our daily decisions that we have to make? Many of us might think of something like that when we are thinking back to our time of political education at school:
But is that all we got left from educational education at school? Or should it be more?
Also in this blog we want to introduce you to the State of Texas and how poltical education in school works there. What are typical lessons in school? How do local politcians persuate young voters?
I found this cartoon very interesting. Is that really what Texas is all about? Since I left in Texas for a while, I also want to share what my experiences were when I went to school there and what I found out about political education in Texas. But we also don't want to leave out Germany and will also have a look on North Rhine-Westphalia. As one of the largest states in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has one of the most cultural complexed societies in Germany, and therefore very cultural mixed classes at school. We want to have a look on how German politics are involved in those schools and how they outreach to their young voters.
We are really looking forward on writing this blog and we hope you will have fun reading it or even sharing your experiences with us!
