Posted by Dezirae

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Hello I can give you my input regarding the german school my children attend. My children are 10 and 12. Our first year here, my daughter was placed in what is called a Hauptschule. I am told this type of school is for children that do not learn so well. Unfortunately that was the only place available for my daughter. She is considered in Highschool, grades 5 through 10. My son first went to the grundschule like grammer school. My sons school did not speak english so he became more fluent in German. My daughter was not exposed to as much german so she is not as good. My children seem to enjoy the german schools here. I did bring my childrens American report cards which the school found very impressive. So the school system placed my children into the grades they would have normally gone into back in America. Most of the foreign children are placed back a few grades because of the lack of education they received in their country. I find it strange that..when a teacher is abesent for whatever reason, the childrens day is cancelled. I think its possibly due to the lack of substitute teachers or lack of money to pay for a sub. My children usually leave for school at 7.30 each morning, taking the public bus. Sometimes they are only at school for a few hours and then return home. School lunch is not offered in many school here. I do miss that. So each morning I must make lunch for my children. I also find it strange that the schools are divided into 4 catagories. Depending on which school you are in and remain in until you finish school can have a great bearing on if you ever get a good job here. The schools are called Hauptschule (for not so smart children), Gesamtschule (smarter children), Realschule (more intelligent children) and then Gymnasiumschule (extremely intelligent children).

 This school year my daughter requested remaining in the Hauptschule becaues she had made so many friends and didn't want to change schools again. Also finding it strange, you must apply at another school when you want your children to change. Somewhat like how you apply for a college. Because my son finished the grundschule (grammer school grades 1-4) last school year we had to find a new school for him. We applied to a bilinguial school close by (Gesamschule) and he was accepted. I believe my son was accept into the Gesamschule because he is American. All of the children want to speak with him, touch him and ask him a million questions all the time. They are all so interested in hearing about our wonderful country America. My son was chosen in one of his classes to be the class monitor, helping other children and keeping order in the class. In my sons english class, the teacher allows my son to help teach english to the other students because his german is so good and he can translate from german to english and so forth so easily. I still believe our school system in America far surpasses any schools here but I am pleased with what my children are learning and haven't any real complaints so far. Well except for the fact there is not much school funding by the government and so..you have to pay for everything in the school...even for a copy of your childs progress report. Anyway...thats just some of the things we have experienced while living here.

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