UlrikeSchuhFricke

Although I think it is a dangerous and at the same time disgusting situation that once again Neo-Nazis are Members of a German Landtag I also think that in a democracy even those must be granted the essential Human Rights and that the problem cannot be solved by censoring or making these parties illegal (which is possible in Germany). But I do support the German law that punishes holocaust denial, even though I also know that there is a Neo-Nazi underground where these ideas are spread and published mainly via the Internet. I think we owe this law to the victims - those who died and those who have survived. I personally see every denial of the holocaust as an attempt to minimize and even to ridicule the suffering of the victims, their families and offspring. Denying the holocaust once again infringes upon their human dignity and thus violates the first article of our constitution which states:"(1) Human dignity is inviolable. To respect and protect it is the duty of all state authority."

I agree with Andy: I have been a teacher for the last 25 years and I think the behaviour of pupils has changed but a not necessarily detoriated. But then Germany still has a three-tiered school system and as every PISA study has shown so far pupils with learning difficulties and non-academic/non-middle-class backgrounds and pupils with a different ethnic background do not manage to get into a grammar school. This of course influences the atmosphere in our schools, though we of course also have children with emotional problems and difficult families. I think a colleague working in a school which has to educate those who have not made it to either a grammar school or secondary modern has different experiences and coping with disruptive students and truancy most certainly are part his lessons.

Denis, what do you mean by "questioning the holocaust"? What is there to be questioned? What are the questions? Referring to your previous posting: Does it really matter how many people were murdered every day in Auschwitz? The problem of the holocaust is not one of numbers but of the political idea and plan behind it: the idea of a master race who has every right of the world to destroy the races which this master race and its ideologists defined as being inferior. Couple this ideology with the proverbial German efficiency and you have the industrialized mass murder of innocent people which went on in Auschwitz. Every single person who died in the German concentration camps -be it Jews, Jehovas Witnesses, Sinti, homosexuals, those who opposed the system- is one too many. Not only people were killed the holocaust also exterminated a language (Yiddish)and a culture which had been an integral part of European culture and academic life for centuries. For me as a German there are many questions relating to the holocaust: how could it happen in a country which can be proud of its poets and philosophers and its contribution to the ideas of the Enlightenment and liberalism and socialism; why did people actively or passively support this system knowing full well what was going on in Germany and what happened to the Jews and the other groups mentioned above; how could those who had killed hundreds and thousands of people on a daily basis not feel any guilt; can such a thing happen again. These are the questions I have concerning Nazism and Auschwitz.

It would be interesting to know how the British Empire is taught in British schools. The new topic for my bilingual history class will be the British Empire and when I tried to find textbooks etc. for my pupils (bilingual mean that history is taught in English) I did not find as many as I would have found if I had looked for books covering the Industrial Revolution. By the way, my colleague and I will use part of the Guardian article to start the new topic next week.

According to the German media and the international charities India is able to help her own people and the area where European help is needed most seems to be Indonesia and the North of Sri Lanka.

There is an interesting German novel about this volcano and the extremly instable geological structure close to La Plama which shows what such a tsunami could to to Europe and North America. The novel is based on thorough scientific research; its German title is "Der Schwarm". I do not know if it has been translated into English already but I know that an American film studio has got hold of the option to turn the book into a film. The author's name is: Frank Schaetzing

Dear Sumir Shamar, I apologize for not having posted a response to your own postings earlier, but unfortunately I have not been informed that there were more postings in this section. Of course you can use my name if necessary. I would like to add some thoughts to your manuscript, which I personally belive is a very good description of the Middle Ages in Europe. I agree that the Roman Catholic Church was one of the most influential forces and its teachings and ideas gave Europe a unity it is at the moment trying to regain. But of course the position of the Church and its understanding of being the superior spiritual and political power in Europe and the kings, princes, emperors being its subjects only was not uncontested. Think of Henry II of England and Thomas Beckett; another example: the German Emperor Henry IV who tried to interfere with the right of the Pope to install new bishops; he had to give in eventually but the idea that the Emperor was the political "top dog" in his realm was never given up by the German Emperors and quite some managed to influence Rome to their advantage. The French king even managed to "kidnap" the Pope and force him to reside in France for quite some time.

The perception of the Middle Ages as a period of stagnation was created by the Reniassance and has survived in scientific research and discourse till more or less today. Only slowly is the image of this period changing and I think that most teachers share your feelings. What has been going on fro some time now is a process of re-thinking and re-writing the history of the Middle Ages leaving behind the biased interpretation of Reanissance philosophers and historians and concnetrating on the things which already began in the "Dark Ages" (you mentioned some examples yourself). Actually many things which we associate with the "Dark Ages" like witch-hunts had their high time after the Middle Ages had come to an end. The longer I study and teach the Middle Ages the more complex the subject becomes. What makes the Middle Ages so fascinating and so difficult at the same time that on the one hand the Roman Empire really and truly had come to an end; knowledge was lost but on the other hand new political and social structures developed and of the scientific discoveries we associate with the Renaissance have their roots in the Middle Ages: even people in the Middle Ages saw and knew that the world was round because the could see that the horizon was and is no straight line but a slightly curved one; the famous medieval maps with Jerusalem in the centre of the world were not meant to be geographically correct but were mirrors of a specific philosophical view of the world with Jerusalem as its spiritual centre.

I agree with Andrew; many of the changes listed by John in his reply were the result of e.g, the working classes taking to the streets or in Germany founding their own socialist party and threatening a revolutionary change of the then still authocratic German state and system. One of the most important German socialists, Rosa Luxemburg, strongly relied on the action of the proletarian masses to bring about revolution and change and eventually to run their own affairs with the help of workers'/people's councils.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Maybe there then is some hope for my school to eventually find a British school which is interested in a partnership and an exchange. We have been looking for one for at least two years now. Most of the schools we sent letters to have not yet answered our letters or emails.

In Germany or better Lower Saxony all children start learning English in primary school; then learning the foreign language is mainly based on listening and speaking (learning how to count, colours etc.) As Germany still has a three tiered school systen only those pupils who go to the upper two schools (grammar schools and secondary modern) have to continue learning English. In grammar schools (year 5) the children then start learning how to write English, grammar etc. In year 6 every pupil has to begin a second language mostly french, Spanish, Italian and still Latin. They have to continue learning at least one foreign language (mostly English) till their A-levels, two till their GCSE. When it comes to priorities in language teaching in Germany we now have come to understand that learning grammar of course is necessary but we see grammar as a means of properly communicating what you what to express and our lessons focus on communication. We try to follow this communicative approach even when teaching and/or revising grammar: we do not tell the students e.g. when to use past tense or present perfect but based on authentic texts they have to find the appropriate sentences and have to find out when to use which of the two tenses and then come up with a rule themselves. All this is done in the foreign language. My own school has two bilingual classes in which we teach subjects like history, politics, geography and P.E. in English (from year 7 on). At the moment we think of offering bilingual moduls in those subjects using French as a means of classroom communication. I think one reason why we are so keen on learning foreign languages is that we know that not many people speak German outside Germany and that German is difficult to learn. The British attitude is a problem for us especially for my school as it is extremely difficult - not to say impossible - to find a school in the UK which wants to start an exchange with us. As you might know the Queen visisted Germany last week and she kept stressing the importance of young people of both countries getting to know each better to reconcile and get rid of prejudices. We were really pleased to hear that but the intended changes in the British school curricular are really counterproductive and offer no incentive to really learn foreign languages and to get into contact with e.g. German kids.

I whole-heartedly agree with Mike Tribe's and Mike Toliver's statements. The re-election of George Bush did not surprise me at all and even though I am worried of what might happen in the following four years I have to accept that the majority of the American people have elected their president and obviously they share most of his ideals and convictions. The left, the liberals, the Democratic Party obviously have not managed to present their ideas and programmes convincingly enough for the people to follow them. Talking about the war in Iraq what options would John Kerry have had: withdraw and leave a completely destabilised country to its own devices waiting till the various ethnic and religious groups and factions - all fundamentalists in their own ways- have killed each other off - a Middle East Jugoslavia? Ho credibel was the Democratic stance against the war after the party had said "yes" in Congress when Bush asked them? All the questions, John, you asked in one of your postings (environment etc) - how about asking our own governments and asking the European institutions. I, too, think that the USA is the only superpower left but she is not the only powerful nation on the world and if the Europian Union managed to speak with one voice it would be able to be some counterweight to balance and control the American ally.

Hallo Chris, ich stimme dir völlig zu: es kann in der Tat nicht unser Anliegen sein, den SchülerInnen ein Schuldgefühl zu vermitteln für etwas, was sie nicht zu verantworten haben. Aber es muss darum gehen zu zeigen, dass niemand quasi genetisch zum Täter bzw. Opfer oder Widerstandskämpfer vorbestimmt ist. Ich halte es für wichtig den SchülerInnen zu vermitteln, dass sie verantwortlich sind für das, was heute geschieht und dass es leicht ist, über Zivilcourage und Widerstand zu reden, aber doch recht schwieirg dies selbst in einer liberalen und demokratischen Gesellschaft zu tun. Ich fürchte, dass wir alle in vielen Fällen bequem sind, das Wegsehen dem Handeln vorziehen etc. Hier ist die Adorno Skala eine Möglichkeit, die SchülerInnen dafür zu sensibiliseren.

In Germany sex education is a compulsory part of the biology curriculum in the years 6 to 10; it is also part of the citizenship and ethics curriculum. These curricula not only aim at informing students about the biological facts and details but also about the responsibility everyone has concerning sex and sexuality. School always cooperates with the parents especially as we also have students from different ethnic backgrounds (mainly Muslims) who have a different view of informing students- especially girls - about sex and reproduction. There are many youth magazines available in Germany which always have a worry aunt/uncle and pages dealing with gender, health and sexuality. The questions teenagers send in to the worry aunts/uncles mainly refer to love, sex and relationships, which shows that still not enough is done at home and at school. As far as I know Germany has a fairly low rate of teenage pregnancies and experts say that one reason for this is that schools, parents and magazines are doing a good job at informing young people about sex, means of contraconception and family planning. When it comes to manners I agree with Jean Walker.

My name is Ulrike Schuh-Fricke. I am German and I teach at a grammar school in Braunschweig (name of school: Neue Oberschule). My subjects are English, History and Politics. My email address: Ulrike.Schuh-Fricke@t-online.de

I have read somewhere that feminism has changed - or hasn't it?

But isn't that exactly the problem? That many of the students are not really interested in politics and simply repeat what they hear from their parents, peers, media etc? Looking at the politics lessons at our school one might get the idea that our students are highly interested in politics and that they are really motivated to get involved, but I personally think that they simply do what we expect them to do: feign interest. Only a minority is really interested and actively tries to use the democratic means and venues available for students in our schools. To me one of the main problems is not only to reach the students intellectually but emotionally as well, to make them feel and understand what democracy is, what it is like to live in a dictatorship and how essential everybody's active participation is for the survival of our democratic systems (faulty as they may be). Using the results of the mock elections and the students' comments complaining about others cheating seems to be a good idea to find out what the students really know and think. Unfortunately we did not have anything like a mock election, but I did have a discussion in one of my classes about the German results of the European elections and the high percentage of non-voters.

Despite the flaws of the mock elections the results seem to reflect the opinion of our students. Obviously they deeply distrust the parties/coalitions ruling the European countries at the moment. The German results of the European elections and the elections in Thuringia clearly showed how dissatisfied the people are with the political performance of the Social Democrats. The Greens also saw an increase in the European election and in Thuringia the heirs of the old SED (the more or less Communist party of the German Democratic Republic) managed to poll more votes than four years before and the SPD with its worst result since the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany. But as I said in my previous posting the "party of the non-voters" clearly won the elections. I am not quite sure if I am pleased with the fact that obviously German people prefer non-voting to voting for a far-right party. The political atmosphere in Germany is fairly ambivalent: on the one hand you have a huge amount of discontent but on the other hand you have the same amount of apathy especially when you want to move beyond letting off steam and want to find ways of restructuring our social system. Unfortunately the same apathy can be found among our students.

Andy thank you for the explanation. I think the main problem in our countries is how to educate our students so that they change from human beings into citizens. I have some ideas and I hope I will find some time to post them soon.

Do you have an explanation for the result of the mock elections? Unfortunately we did not do such a thing at my school, but I suppose that the students' decision would have been the same as the result of the European elections in Germany: gains for the conservatives and the greens, losses for the Social Democrats. With the large German parties being at a loss what to do about German economy, our system of social security etc. many students would have decided to support the party with the best result in the elections: the "party" of the non-voters.

This is a very interesting project. At the moment I unfortuantely do not teach the suitable age groups and classes to participate. I know that one of our year 11 classes is doing something similar, but the teacher does not speak English well enough to do it in English and I do not know the class. Maybe you could giev me some details about the project

Rowena, thank you very much for your postings here. I couldn't agree more. I have also noticed that especially in the Politics and Governments section aand the thread "Political debates" many postings do not take the original subject into consideration (Democracy in India now should better be called Democracy in the USA). I think a bit more discipline might be helpful here and not every posting should be used to "bash" the USA and her constitution: other democracies do have as many flaws as the American one. The main reason for me to join the forum was to exchange views on good, democratic etc. teaching of my subjects: history and politics/citizenship. When I check the forums now I often find debates on a very general level and sometimes I have the feelings that especially the male heavy-weights of this forum use it to show their own political opinion and that they are/belive to be political, educational heavy-weights. Often an English saying then comes to my mind: Jack of all trades - master of none." Sorry, I know this is rude. I myself have noticed that I am no longer as interested in the debates as I used to be and as a consequence and due to a lack of time the number of my postings has gone down considerably. I would like to see the debates go back to issues concentrating on educational matters.

(John Simkin)This is not true; whatever Martin Niemöller was before he co-founded the Confessing Church Movement against the Nazis in Germany he never ever was a fascist. You might call him a German, a German nationalist who served as a submarin commander during World War I; but he was always a democrat.

The original subject was "Democracy in India" but most of the postings refer to the American Constitution. Maybe we should open a new thread covering this topic. I would like to go back to John's initial posting. I am interested in your comments on Sonia Gandhi's decision not to run for the post of Prime Minister. Furthermore I am interested in your opinion about one of the major reasons for her decision (according to German, British, American newspapers), namely the fervent campaign of the Indian nationalists against a foreign-born taking over the most influential position in India.

Adrian, at a different time and about a different topic you said that some of the debates had become too personal and less objective and less to the point of education for your liking. I agreed with you then, but the debate going on between you and John at the moment is much too personal and too far away from the topic suggested for my liking. As far as I know we already have a section "Do we live in a democracy" on the forum and many points made here have been made there already. Unfortunately I am no expert in Indian democracy and I have not followed the election closely. Still, what astonishes me is that once again a member of the Ghandi (I hope I put the "h" after the right letter) family will run the country and that whatever happens the old parties eventually gain the upper hand. On the one hand I would support John's praise of Indian democracy and support his argument that it was not imposed on India from the outside but the result of a liberation movement but on the other hand I would say that Gandhi (the real one) grew up with British democracy - faulty as it then still might have been when it comes to voting rights - in front of him and simply wanted to have the same for India (and independence, of course). Actually not so very different from USAmerican history. Although India has a political system we all hold in high esteem she has not yet managed to come to grips with her social problems, her religious divisions and we all know that equal rights for women (despite Indira and Sonia Gandhi) are unknown in many parts of the large subcontinent. Coming back to my original statement about the old elites being reelected again and again in India, I have my doubts if these problems will be taken seriously by the new government and even though I do believe that democracy is the best political sytem to have, I think that as long as these social problems are not adressed India's democracy has as many flaws as the American/German one.