Guidelines of the politic lessons from class 5-10 in NRW

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!