In the previous lesson, you learned about the different kinds of schools in Switzerland and other parts of German-speaking Europe and the traditions around the first day of school. Now we will go into the school and learn vocabulary to describe the classroom and your learning utensils. We will also look at the course schedules from different Swiss schools and compare with our K-12 experiences. Finally, we will learn about alternative schools. In the end, you will be able talk about 1) what you have and had in your school bag, 2) what subjects you had, and 3) you will be able to recognize some alternative kinds of schools.

To start off our lesson on the school day, you will first be introduced to and perhaps review objects that can be found in the classroom. We will also take this opportunity to practice adding information to objects through adjectives.

Now let’s look at adding information to an object through an adjective. It is not imporant to memorize every detail of these forms, but, as your German improves, repeating these kinds of structures can help you eventually produce them quasi automatically.

Here is a short video about Ordnung and the Schulmäppchen.

2. Die Schulfächer

Now that your backpack is packed, let’s look at your daily school schedule. What did yours look like? Did you have the same Fächer (subjects) every day? Did you have each Fach (subject) the same amount of time? Wie lange war dein Schultag? Did you have many Pausen (recesses/breaks)? To the left, you can see a Stundenplan from 1898 with some subjects you may recognize (Geographie, Religion, Zeichnen, Lesen) and others you may not. Guess the meaning of the other subjects! Can you guess for what kind of pupil this schedule would have been?

Now you will see more modern school schedules from Grundschule and from Gymnasium. How many of the Fächer can you identify immediately? What do you think the others can mean? Pay attention to the length of the school day and the Pausen.

Listen and read along with Lara Marti’s statements about her school days and her school schedule, first in the text and then in the dialogue cards. Flip the card over, if you do not recognize the subject.

Hallo! Ich heiße Lara Marti und ich komme aus Zürich. Hier ist mein Stundenplan von der 3. Klasse.

Als ich acht Jahre alt war, bin ich in die 3. Klasse gekommen. Ich war in der Klasse 3b. Die Parallelklassen waren 3a und 3c. Mein Klassenlehrer war Herr Engelbrecht.

3) Alternativschulen

The typical schools discussed in this and the previous lesson are called Regelschulen. Switzerland and the other German-speaking countries also have a variety of alternative schools, such as Waldorf schools and Lab Schools. You can read about each below (and listen to the audio) and then check your reading comprehension.

Waldorfschulen

Waldorfschulen sind alternative Schulen, die auf der Pädagogik von Rudolf Steiner basieren. Sie wurden 1919 in Stuttgart gegründet und haben sich seitdem weltweit verbreitet. In diesen Schulen wird großer Wert auf die ganzheitliche Entwicklung der Kinder gelegt. Der Unterricht umfasst kreative Fächer wie Malen, Musik und Handwerk, um die künstlerischen Fähigkeiten zu fördern. Zudem wird der Lehrplan an das Alter und die Entwicklungsstufen der Schüler angepasst, sodass sie in ihrem eigenen Tempo lernen können.Die Klassenräume sind oft bunt und einladend gestaltet, um eine positive Lernumgebung zu schaffen. Außerdem gibt es in Waldorfschulen keinen Druck durch standardisierte Tests, was den Schülern mehr Freiheit beim Lernen gibt. Waldorfschulen legen auch viel Wert auf Gemeinschaft und soziale Verantwortung. Viele Waldorfschulen haben auch einen starken Bezug zur Natur und integrieren viele Aktivitäten im Freien. Viele Eltern schätzen die individuelle Förderung ihrer Kinder und die entspannte Lernatmosphäre.