Fasching

For almost a week now, the kids have been on break from school. They call it a winter break, but it's really a break for Fasching, also known as Karneval or Carnival.


Fasching begins officially on November 11, when the clubs organizing the parades and festivities start throwing balls. These balls are televised, especially during the week before Ash Wednesday. But to me it seems like all the partying really begins on Weiberfastnacht, the Thursday before Ash Wednesday. This is "Ladies' Night," and women cut off men's ties and collect them. I've never participated, so I'm not really sure how this done, and what does one do with these severed ties later? The parties continue through Faschingsdienstag, also known as Mardi Gras, and there are lots of parades over the weekend. The big parades are on Rosenmontag, or Rose Monday, but the biggest and best of these are in the Cologne/Dusseldorf area and Rhineland.


Since it was wet and cold with a chance of snow, we opted to stay in town and go to the parade in Bruck, one of Erlangen's neighborhoods, on Sunday. This is a very small parade without the impressive floats and costumes of the bigger parades. It also means the kids collect less candy and junk food, which is what they throw from the floats. Two years ago, we went to a parade in the Cologne area, and the kids collected three large shopping bags full of candy, chips, and little toys. But this year, like I said, it was cold and wet, and most of the candy ended up in puddles. And we left the parade about halfway through because our feet were frozen. Well, at least we tried to participate in the big bash before Lent.

Let it Snow!

We've been having a wonderful winter. It's been cold enough since the beginning of the new year for the outdoor ice skating surfaces to stay frozen, and so the boys have become really good skaters and hockey players.


And we've had just the right amount of snow. Last year, we didn't have any snow, and two winters ago, we had only one weekend's worth. This year, we've had enough to keep us sledding, making snow angels and throwing snowballs since early January. But, it hasn't been too cold, so we've been able to picnic--with Glühwein, of course.

Deciphering, and Trying to Cope, with the Bavarian School System

The last couple of months have been rather stressful, and not because I lost my hobby. Last fall we had Philip tested by a child psychiatrist for attention-deficit problems and for dyslexia. The good news is that he has neither ADD/ADHD nor dyslexia, but he does have problems concentrating and reading--he reads very slowly and often skips words or replaces words he doesn't know with more familiar words. The psychiatrist said this might be because he has been learning to read in both English and German.

Digression: Alex, on the other hand, seems to have no problems with reading in two languages. He learned to read German first, and then basically taught himself to read English. Of course, since Deutsch is read phonetically, he complains about all the exceptions to the rules in English.

The bad news is that there is very little help within the school system for children with learning disabilities, or for Ausländer (foreigners). Once a week, Philip attends a class at his school for help with German reading and writing, and twice a week we send him to a tutoring program (probably similar to the Sylvan Learning Centers in the US). In Chicago, Philip's class had a teacher's aide who helped the kids keep up with their in-class work, and if it hadn't been for her, Philip would have never learned to read and spell in 1st grade as quickly as he did (Philip was behind the rest of the class, because German kindergartens don't teach reading and writing). A friend from Erlangen moved to Boston last summer, and she wrote how wonderful it is that her children receive help with their English everyday from the teacher's aides.

It seems to me that here they teach to the "gifted" students, and to those who cannot keep up, "Sorry!" Philip comes home with pages of notes, and from these notes he's supposed to figure out how to do his homework. There are examples and he says his teacher explains things, but quickly and briefly to the class and not the individual. There seems to be very little tolerance within the system for students who cannot pick up concepts quickly. Those who have serious learning disabilities end up going to "special" schools. I've heard that other German states are trying to integrate these children, including Down syndrome students, but not Bavaria.

Philip is in the 4th grade and this is his last year of elementary school. In Bavaria, children start secondary school in the fifth grade, and depending on their grades, they end up following one of three routes. If their grades are good, then they can enter Gymnasium, which lasts through the 12th grade and prepares them for university studies. If they don't manage a 2.3 average (more on this later) but a 2.6, then they can attend the Realschule, which from what I understand, is similar to Gymnasium, except that they learn at a slower pace and Realschule lasts only through the 10th grade. Afterwards, students can begin an apprenticeship or enter a Fachoberschule/Fachhochschule, which like Gymnasium prepares them for the Abitur, or test, that they need to enter university. The lowest level of secondary education is Hauptschule, which lasts through 9th grade only, and although I've been told that one can work their way from Hauptschule to university, I've also heard that the chances are slim. As Philip put it, "Hauptschule is for losers." And this, unfortunately, is the attitude of many Germans I know.

Last week, Philip received his Zwischenzeugnis, or mid-term report card, and he received straight 3s in the three subjects that count toward deciding which secondary school he will attend. The German grading system consists of numbers 1 through 6, with 1 being the best and 6 failing. A 3, according to the footnote on his report card, is satisfactory, so I think it is the equivalent of a C in the American system. Straight Cs, in my opinion, is not terrible, but in the German system, this is enough to keep you from attending university.

Unlike the US, the federal government here pays for one's university education, with individuals paying a small fee of about 1000 Euros per year. Therefore, entry into a German university is more selective. Unfortunately, the system in Bavaria is set-up so that the selection process begins in the 4th grade, with children only 9 or 10-years-old. In Belgium, grade school lasts through the 6th grade, and I've heard this is true for some states in Germany. But, we live in Bavaria, where they seem to think that 10 is old enough to make final decisions about one's future.

Philip has three months to pull a 2 out of either math or Deutsch in order to attend Realschule, and his teacher seems to think his chances are better in math because he makes too many grammatical mistakes in Deutsch, even though his essays are very good. He has good ideas, changes his sentence beginnings, uses quotes, etc., but he still has problems with the articles and adjective endings, which change depending on gender and declension. In math, he can do all the calculations quickly and accurately, but he gets mixed up doing the word problems. In his defense, solving the word problems requires multiple steps using addition, subtraction, multiplication AND division. Even I find them overwhelming and I love word problems.

We're all very frustrated right now--Bob and I because we find the system so complicated, Philip because he knows many of his friends will be going to Gymnasium without him, and even Alex is worried about Philip's grades. In addition, I feel guilt for pulling him out of the Chicago public school system, where he was on the honor roll, and ashamed of myself for feeling disappointed. Right now, he needs confidence, and I need to help him find it, but I'm not sure I know how.