GERMAN SCHOOLS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30975, 3 February 1966, Page 6

GERMAN SCHOOLS

“In the past it was taken for granted that all children were right-handed, and they should get . . . the light from the left. The traditional idea was: during the lesson, the pupils [were] to sit facing the teacher and the black-board, in straight rows and [at] fixed desks.”

So it was in Germany, as in many other countries. The quotation is from a brochure, “School Buildings in Germany," by Ferdinand Budde. After the Second World War, Budde reports, “a basic change in teaching policy took place.” He continues: “The static arrangement for the pupils* seating, which caused the child to be a passive recipient, was reorganised informally so that the individual child had an opportun-

ity for self-expression. “The dynamic lessons demanded moveable furniture, which in turn rendered possible the free grouping of the children in the classroom... . “Classrooms were so situated that light could come from three sides—in some cases, from all four sides.” The Federal Republic of Germany in the last 15 years has rebuilt many schools from rubble. In rebuilding, new concepts were adopted. Among them: New curricula that Include subjects unknown in the supposedly “good old days.”

More light and air. Freedom of movement un-dreamed-of by an older generation of pupils, and no more assumptions about “the light coming from the left”