PB&Js and Pins: The American High School Experience

This afternoon I gave a presentation to an eighth grade English class at Viktoriaschule. I talked about the American school system compared to the German one, which involved both the basic stuff like "What's middle school?" to showing some pictures, like the night at band practice last fall when we had a Stanford marching band theme night. I made enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for all 30 or so students, so they even got to taste what it was like to be in an American school. 

PB & J + Saxon spirit = All American Student

There were a few pretty major differences I've noticed about the two countries' schools systems and daily school life in general. Here are the top few:

1. Homeschooling. It's actually illegal in Germany. When I explained the concept of your parent doubling as your teacher, the eighth graders all made icked-out faces. I guess it is kind of a hard sell for teenagers-- both parents and kids can use a break from one another once in a while. 

2. The Pledge of Allegiance. I'm not sure what it is in other states, but in Oregon it's the law that every classroom has to have an American flag. I remember in elementary school we said the pledge every morning. Having to explain what it is and why we say it to a class of German students made me think more about the whole thing than I ever did all those years we said it Monday through Friday.

I've yet to see a German classroom with a German flag in it.

3. Teachers' own classrooms. Here, the teachers don't have a designated classroom where they stay throughout the day and teach all their subjects. Instead, they have to lug their laptop, papers, and all their other supplies from period to period. It's kind of a shame they don't get an individual classroom to decorate. Mrs. Fenderson from Judson could've totally been an inspiration in that department. 

4. School sports. The teacher was super surprised that there's a girls' water polo team at South. Apparently that's not so common here. A good majority of the girls in the class perked up and got very interested when I mentioned cheerleading. They wanted to know if it was really like the movies they've seen. And most of the guys laughed when I said "soccer," but were pretty keen on the idea of playing everyday after school with their buddies.

Saxon Soccer SnoBall-- this is just one of the pranks we played on our awesome and very patient coach, Adriano.

5. Dances. I wasn't really sure how to answer the teacher when she asked me what sorts of dancing students do at a typical high school dance. I think she was expecting something more along the lines of waltzing or swing dancing than twerking, which is definitely one of the most popular moves at Saxon dances (at least back in my day). Of course I didn't say that, but I emphasized the fun traditions that go along with Homecoming, SnoBall, and Prom. 

Diagram 1: Typical American student (Latin: Typicam American princeps schola) can be seen performing traditional SnoBall dances in winter 2013.

6. School buses. I ride a bus to school here in Aachen, but it's a city bus. You're not going to see one of those big, yellow mobiles here. The city buses are really pretty good, but overall I find school buses to be more comfortable because there's a seat for everybody, whereas on city buses there's more standing room. 

7. Breaks. At Viktoriaschule the eighth graders' schedule looks something like this:

All I'm saying is that we never got twenty minute breaks at Judson or South. But then again, I guess we also had more periods during the school day, so it's a give-and-take situation.

It was overall really great getting to chat to kids about life as an American student. The teacher even gave me a Viktoriaschule pin as a thank you for presenting. I may still be a Saxon-Duck, but I guess at the moment I'm also proud of the Viktoriaschule mascot, the mighty fightin' Ginkgobäume Blatt (Ginkgo tree leaf)!

Viktoriaschule's pinned me! I guess it's getting pretty serious.