Zollberg-Realschule

1972- A famous handball player thought it would be important to have a sports orientated school. There is only one other school in this state that has a sports track.

If you are on the sports track you have gym 5 hours a week, and if you are not on the sports track, you have three hours a week of gym.

Boys and girls are together in the gym class, which usually does not happen, and they are usually separated at age 12. Though, they are separated into two teams, girls and boys. Gym offers many opportunities for the students including fencing, climbing, and tennis.

Students in the sports track tend to be more academically advanced, with more drive and organization.

OK- Now more about the school, and most realschule in general.
The Realschule is a step down from the Gymnasium, which I talked about a couple posts back. In this school students tend to have greater weaknesses in reading and writing. The focus is on getting students into the workforce when they leave.

Discipline is a big problem. Students seem to have trouble with the transition between Grunschule and Realschule. (they have officially grown up, can ride the bus on their own, so they think they are the bomb...) I would assume the discipline problems are close to the ones we have in bigger cities in the United States, an assumption though.

With tracking- the principal and student council gave us some insight.
Students have mixed feelings about being in a Realschule. They worry because companies look at their marks (grades), but not only that. They also look at how they are doing in school, and lessons. How well they work with their teacher, do they talk all the time or listen. If you get a low evaluation and marks, then it will be very hard to get hired. Anywhere...

This is how the student council of the Realschule explained the three schools.

Hauptschule: 9 years of schooling
-Foreigners attend mostly
-Students don't want to go to school
-they have no motivation and fight alot
-do not study for tests
-do not listen to teachers

Realschule: 10 years of schooling
-students are more motivated
-the exams are harder

Gymnasium: used to be 13 years, but they have shortened it to 12
-classes are very hard
-no to little free time
-the students are learning all the time, even weekends
-abitur- means higher education and job opportunities
-students can be stuck up at first, but tend to 'grow up' fast

So the conclusion was they were pretty happy being in the realschule. They can move up to the gymnasium if they wanted, but they seemed happy cause the classes were easier. They seemed happy that they were not the lowest on the totem pole.

One of the interesting things we got to do was interview the Student Council in the school. They literally are... as the words say... the student council. If a student is having a problem in school with a teacher, they can come to the student council and talk to them about it and the student council will do their best to resolve it. They can even change rules, and throw events and parties for the school.

I just thought that was amazing, because the student council really has a bunch of control in the schooling.

Will post more in the morning.