(PDF) Inspirational Moments in an Educator‘s Life: It Is All About Responsible Relationships, Important Learning, Philosophic Imagination and the Will to Move Ahead

JOACHIM BROECHER

INSPIRATIONAL MOMENTS

IN AN EDUCATOR’S LIFE

IT IS ALL ABOUT

RESPONSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS,

IMPORTANT LEARNING,

PHILOSOPHIC IMAGINATION AND

THE WILL TO MOVE AHEAD

STUDIES IN SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL EDUCATION, VOL. 6

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This book is dedicated to my wife Karin Anna Jung-Bröcher, in deep

gratitude for her loving companionship and support through all these

years. She herself is a long-time dedicated special education teacher in

an inclusive elementary school and at the same time always a devoted

mother to our two sons.

Manufactured and published by

BoD – Books on Demand

Norderstedt, Germany 2015

2nd Edition

ISBN: 978-3-7386-2302-4

5

CONTENT

Foreword… 7

1. The University Years… 9

2. The Teaching Years… 35

3. The Family as Learning Community… 85

4. Fatherhood… 127

5. The Years in Higher Education… 163

6. The Intergenerational Learning Project… 183

References… 201

The Author´s Writings… 201

The Author´s Biography… 203

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FOREWORD

The Irish poet and philosopher John O´Donohue writes in his

book Anam Cara:

`Autumn is one of my favourite times of the year; seeds sown

in the spring, nurtured by the summer, now yield their fruit in

autumn. It is harvest, the homecoming of the seeds´ long and

lonely journey through darkness and silence under the earth´s

surface… The fertility of the earth yielded its fruitfulness. Cor-

respondingly, when it is autumn in your life, the things that hap-

pened in the past, or the experiences that were sown in the clay

of your heart, almost unknown to you, now yield their fruit. Au-

tumntime in a person´s life can be a time of great gathering. It is

a time for harvesting the fruits of your experiences´ (p. 207).

Anyone who has accumulated wide ranging experiences in

teaching faces a creative choice in putting that legacy to paper.

The author in this case chose to use a series of photos with text

to illustrate formative and inspirational moments from his sever-

al decades as a dedicated teacher, and father. His account begins

with university studies in special and gifted education, followed

by years of teaching school while living a rich family life with

his wife and two boys, and it ends with his pedagogical and re-

search activities in the field of higher education coupled, in part,

with retrospective reflections during these later years. The au-

thor closes the volume with a description of an intergenerational

learning project that served to put him in touch once more with

his own roots.

Kampen-Sylt, where the idea for this book originated, and Hart-

land Quay-Devon, where I finished this work, during my walks

on the South West Coast Path, in the years 2014 and 2015, J.B.

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1. THE UNIVERSITY YEARS

A touch of Italian ease wafts through this Cologne rear courtyard. These were the stu-

dent years, a time of transition, of loosening old familial ties, of experimenting and tak-

ing soundings, of exploring and testing ways that ranged from art through meditation to

psychoanalysis, and of dealing with emerging life themes. Throughout, it was also a

time for earning educational qualifications, markers on the way to building both his pro-

fessional and personal lives.

A Touch of Italian Ease

Wafts Through this

Cologne Rear Courtyard

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We traveled light as we explored Italy’s Renaissance towns and art treasures, from Tus-

cany to Sicily. Financial resources may have been very tight, but it was also a time of

great freedom and youthful joy. Studying pedagogy at the university of the 1980s was a

wide open expanse, with great substantive possibilities, from the writings of Sigmund

Freud or Erich Fromm to those of Henry Miller, all books that we carried in our ruck-

sacks.

We Traveled Light as

We Explored Italy’s

Renaissance Towns

11

Exploring Sicily

12

The Balearic Islands and Italian coasts at times also became places for contemplative

inquiry by artistic means. Back then, I experienced time as a here and now that could

run on practically forever. The professional life of a special education teacher that I

would embrace after matriculating at the University of Cologne still lay far in the future

and had hardly any definite contours. Regular vacation jobs in the metal industry during

my high school years, however, at least equipped me for my journey with vivid images

of how I did not want to work. With the student life in Cologne also having its share of

hardships while working as a waiter and night shift taxi driver to earn a living, those

sojourns by the Mediterranean served to plumb and capture the pauses in my biography.

They let me merge with time.

Places for Contemplative

Inquiry by Artistic Means

13

`The body is your only home in the universe. It is your house of belonging here in the

world. It is a very sacred temple. To spend time in silence before the mystery of your

body brings you towards wisdom and holiness… To talk to it as a partner; and to thank

it for all it has done, for what it has suffered and to ask forgiveness of it for whatever

pressure it may have had to endure. Each part of the body holds the memory of its own

experience… There is a wisdom in your physical, bodily presence that is luminous and

profound´ (O´Donohue, Anam Cara, pp. 74-75).

The 1980s were the time of the `therapeutic society.´ Self-discovery in realms like yoga,

meditation, Zen, Tai Chi and breathing or bioenergetics therapies all belonged to the

trove of experiences of many university students in those days. Starting from Rogers‘

`pedagogy of freedom,´ it was thus not much of a leap to even more liberated designs

(e.g., Neill; Osho) – and to why these ideas, experiences and concepts should not also

benefit students with emotional and social needs? Contemporaneously, within human-

istic psychology there developed the so-called `holistic´ or `gestalt therapeutic´ action

models (e.g., Perls) extending to music therapeutic or body-centered spiritual approach-

es. These currents also found their expression in German pedagogies. A friend sent me

this picture with greetings from her workshops in Poona, India, where she did studies in

meditation and creative arts.

Self-Discovery in Realms

Like Yoga, Meditation,

Zen Belonged to the Trove

Of Experience of Many

University Students in

Those Days

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Considering that I am the son and

grandson of South Westphalian black-

smiths, as were many generations be-

fore – including the two great-uncles

who emigrated to the United States

around 1850 – it was in some ways a

poignant social and cultural leap when,

in 1984, I flew to Michigan to work in

David P. Weikart’s HighScope Inter-

national Summer Camp. Here I took

on teaching duties and the occasional

art project with highly motivated

young people from around the world.

After the two months in Michigan I

explored parts of the United States,

e.g., the Museum of Modern Art in

Washington D.C.

It Was a Poignant Social and Cultural

Leap when, in 1984, I Flew to Michigan

To Work in David P. Weikart’s

HighScope International Summer

Camp

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Modern Art

Offers Plenty of

Possiblities to

Broaden Your Own

Perception and

Restructure Your

Thinking Patterns

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Time to Plan and Reflect in the HighScope Staff Room

The HighScope Summer Camp offered the youngsters a plethora of opportunities to

learn from each other in an emotional, social, and communicative respect, be it through

professionally guided instruction, clubs, or workshops in physics, computers, theater,

music, art, literature, and more.

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The Barn, HighScope Camp´s Cultural Center

We danced barefoot on the Barn’s wooden floor. The light fell in green, yellow, and

orange onto the dance floor through the windows in back; the side windows were open,

above our heads were fans that turned sedately to stir the warm Midwestern summer air

with refreshing effect.

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19

The summer program that David P. Weikart founded was all about thinking productive-

ly, designing creatively, and building constructively while developing shared ideas and

social responsibility. Young people from all over the United States, from South Ameri-

ca, Asia, and Europe lived and worked in the HighScope Camp with a team of dedicated

counselors.

THE HIGHSCOPE SUMMER

CAMP IN MICHIGAN

Transcending of My Own

Potentials, Self-Development and

Continual Learning

In 1984, I took part in a HighScope

Summer Camp as a student counselor

and while there took on pedagogical

responsibilities. I offered professional

subject matter as art counselor and had

additional pedagogical duties, such as

room counselor or table counselor. For

me, personally, these duties were inter-

twined with a transcending of my own

potentials, self-development and con-

tinual learning.

I prepared myself as best I could for

the practical work in the HighScope

Summer Camp by putting together an

artistic and subject didactic English

vocabulary and putting down the col-

lected ideas, technical terms, and fig-

ures of speech in a blotter that accom-

panied me throughout the summer.

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There Was No Slacking Off,

No Sliding into the Approximate,

Or the Unstructured

Charles Hohmann picked me, and Sab-

ine, a female student traveling with me,

up at the Detroit airport and took us to

spend a day and a half with Jackie

Kann, his colleague at the HighScope

Foundation. Jackie suggested we should

just rest and sit outside on the wood

framed house’s porch a bit to get accli-

matized, saying that we had `seven very

challenging weeks´ ahead of us.

We returned to this white frame

house on the outskirts of Ann Arbor

once more for our weekend off midway

through our time at the camp. Although

my fellow student and I enjoyed the

breather at Jackie’s house, at the same

time we missed the structured and intel-

lectually stimulating atmosphere of the

camp as run by David P. Weikart and

his crew. It was always about exhaust-

ing our own mental, technical, artistic,

or handicraft abilities and potentialities

no matter the topic or problem on which

we were working.

There was no slacking off, no sliding

into the approximate, the unstructured,

the unmotivated, or the mediocre. The

all-pervasive motto of that Michigan

summer was `high expectations.´ Even

social and communicative situations

were framed around this standard,

whether it involved reviewing the day

with my room group in the evening or

my encouraging the youngsters, as their

table counselor, to trade current experi-

ences and thoughts during mealtimes.

Diversity of Language,

Culture, and Ethnicity

There was considerable diversity of

language, culture, and ethnicity among

the 44 youngsters at the HighScope

Camp in the summer of 1984. Besides

participants from various US states,

including Hawaii, heavily represented

were Europe, with England, Germany,

and Austria, South America, with Co-

lombia and Peru, and Asia, with Japan.

All of the world’s skin colors could be

seen in camp. You could hear a babel of

dialects, with those from the US South-

ern states standing out as unique. Here,

diversity, a cosmopolitan attitude, and

global thinking were accepted as part

and parcel of the pedagogy and required

no special mention.

This diversity found expression in

poetry, music, dance, and art. Some of

the youngsters wrote poems and recited

them. Others wrote and performed a

play. Still others, like Karen from Chi-

cago, sang before the whole group in

the Barn, the camp’s cultural center.

Our world’s cultures were also experi-

enced, sensorily and holistically, in

communal folk dances that Phyllis

Weikart organized.

Not least, this cultural variety could

be experienced by tasting delicacies,

such as when Paki and Penny, both

from Hawaii, received a package with

specialty foods from home and shared

dried fruits, nuts, and more with the

camp community.

HighScope implemented a scholar-

ship program that permitted it to take in

learning motivated girls and boys from

socially disadvantaged milieus. In the

summer of 1984, we worked with youth

recommended by a teacher or principal

21

from the ghettos of New York, Chicago

and New Orleans. Thanks to a full or

partial HighScope Foundation scholar-

ship, they, too, could attend the Michi-

gan camp. At the same time, youngsters

from the upper social strata took part,

for instance, from Colombia, Peru, or

Japan. This was never much of a subject

during the daily pedagogical work.

Here, the youth mingled regardless of

the differing backgrounds and learned

from one another.

Having Every Last One of Them

Exhaust His or Her Learning

Potential, Visions, and Dreams

Learning side by side, and the experi-

ences tightly linked to the learning pro-

cesses, was uppermost, as was the ob-

jective of having every last one of them

progressively exhaust his or her learn-

ing potential, visions, and dreams and

take charge of their lives while taking

high responsibility for the whole com-

munity. Although everyone, whether

youngster or counselor, was obligated

to exhaust the full range of opportuni-

ties that presented themselves every

day, ultimately it all dissolved in the

social collective, the camp community.

The preliminary findings from every-

thing that had been studied, explored, or

produced always entered into the life of

the entire group; whether it involved a

technical experiment, a physics project,

or an artistic work, something was al-

ways reported on the creative process,

any difficulties encountered, solutions

tried, and insights gained along the way.

Whatever had been achieved, includ-

ing process results, was respected and

honored in this manner. Often, the larg-

er group provided feedback regarding

further work on the particular topic. On

any given day, we would always set

aside specific time windows for these

presentations and sharings. No one

could therefore become isolated or drift

off to the margin. The counselor team

promoted a thoroughgoing, inclusive

togetherness. There was no unstructured

time to let individuals lose themselves

in problem behavior.

The HighScope Summer Camp of-

fered the youngsters a plethora of op-

portunities to learn from each other in

an emotional, social, and communica-

tive respect, be it through professionally

guided instruction, clubs, or workshops

in physics, computers, theater, music,

art, literature, and more, or be it in the

room groups, the table groups, in sports,

cultural evenings, or field trips. There

was no room for exclusivity between

individuals in the life of the HighScope

community. That was ultimately the

reason why we had no conflicts in the

group. The forming of cliques or close

relationships between the sexes was

absolutely taboo.

During staff training week, through

role play, we worked out tactics for how

we could intervene if a flirtation budded

between individual youngsters. The aim

was to divert them from such desires for

the entire summer and to steer them

back to the program contents in the nat-

ural sciences, the arts, sports, and so on.

Also, no conversations were held be-

fore third persons in any language other

than English, to keep anyone from get-

ting the sense that something had to be

hidden from him or her. This naturally

required a special degree of self-

discipline. But by applying these prin-

ciples, the breeding ground for the con-

22

flictual undercurrents that otherwise

often predominate in youth groups was

removed.

Instead, daily communal singing in

the dining room welded the group to-

gether. Karl Wheatley, himself an avid

singer, gradually taught us a broad rep-

ertoire of songs on which we then

worked every day. That this was the

second or third time at camp for some

youngsters naturally benefited this

communal singing, because the reper-

toire of songs was already familiar to

them and so we had a few lead voices

already at hand.

Individual Responsibility for Self

And for Society as a Whole

The pedagogical philosophy entailed a

large measure of individual responsibil-

ity for self and for society as a whole. In

this regard, the camp community was

regarded as representing the global

community. What mattered was creat-

ing momentum for constructive changes

and development in all areas of

knowledge, to be an example and be

forward thinking.

Karl Wheatley and Cindy Embry,

appointed program directors by David

P. Weikart, personified this posture to a

special degree and we student counse-

lors did our best. Team spirit would be

developed in project work and through

sports. Sometimes, it was also simply a

matter of endurance, of continuing,

even in the face of adverse conditions,

such as during a three-day hike in a na-

tional park.

Even under a mostly blue summer

sky, we had to fight against a host of

difficulties in this particular outdoor trip

that included a whole day of pouring

rain, mosquitoes that would bite day

and night even through thick jeans, and

then the heavy backpacks with tents,

blankets, cooking gear, and rations on

our backs. Some of the youngsters start-

ed to falter, sat crying in the mud by the

side of the road and did not want to go

on. They had to be motivated and

brought along.

In all this, the camp directors and

counselors served as role models. They

continually lived a constructive, social

cohesiveness themselves and stimulated

this on the side of the youngsters. There

were specific pointers and examples in

the HighScope Staff Training Manual

how this could be accomplished.

During sports, for instance, it was

important to give praise and recognize

good team work, successful effort, or

even just a good attempt at it, by saying,

for example: `Mike, that was a good

try!´ We had practiced such supportive

speech patterns and turns of phrase dur-

ing the preparatory week through role

play and in group discussions.

A Place for Spinning Ideas

And Professional Sharing

Boys and girls were housed in two sepa-

rate country cottage-like buildings. The

girls were in the Brick building, the

main building, where the staff member

meetings also took place, with directly

attached kitchen and worksheds.

The terrain sloped down behind the

Brick building into a valley. Here stood

a few tall, old trees. A few years earlier,

a project group had built a platform

with benches half way up one of these

trees. This airy and shaded spot could

23

be reached via a suspension bridge and

was popular with the youngsters and

counselors as a place for spinning ideas

and professional sharing.

During `self-scheduled time,´ when

individual ideas and projects were to be

actively pursued, this was also a favor-

ite venue for composing poems or

sketching with pencil and drawing pad.

In the valley bottom flowed a creek that

brought a bit of refreshment to the

warm Mid-west summer. This creek fed

a small lake, created by damming up the

creek, in which we would go swimming

every three or four days as part of the

afternoon sports program.

The boys slept on the height across

the way in a so-called stucco building,

Stucco for short, and a few of them

were in a smaller building off to the

side, the Annex.

Being Liberated From the

Steady Media Drumbeat

All media, including TV, radio, or mu-

sic players were completely banned

from the HighScope Summer Camp.

Neither the youngsters nor the counse-

lors had even the least access to such

media. The camp leadership, however,

listened to the news and informed the

camp community about the most im-

portant political events.

Being liberated this way from the

steady media drumbeat created room for

independent thinking, for developing

ideas, and for in-depth, concentrated

topical analysis. This helped a new way

of perceiving the communicative and

social life inside the camp community

to grow.

One of the main effects, however,

was that the youngsters, because of be-

ing shut off from the media world, be-

gan to go draw on their inner resources,

creating culture of their own to be

played on the piano and on the guitars

some had brought with them.

They built their own instruments in

one of the workshops, wrote songs, po-

ems and plays, and began to perform

them after dinner in the dining hall or

during the evening program in the Barn,

and they developed and formulated

from within themselves social, cultural,

and political themes that the community

then would discuss.

Freedom and Important

Learning Through Structure

Every day was tightly structured down

to the smallest detail and all schedules

were scrupulously adhered to. This pro-

duced clarity, order, calm, and relaxa-

tion, and it fostered concentration on the

matter at hand. David always said that

structure is a precondition for personal

freedom.

By contrast, without structure, every-

thing would devolve into chaos. This

structure was everyone’s guarantee of

discipline, self-discipline, and a high

level of accomplishment. Freedom pre-

vailed instead in choosing activities and

content to focus on. The individual

found freedom by selecting an approach

to a topic, by embarking on his train of

thought and by further developing his

learning process.

The youngsters could always choose

from a palette of instructional topics,

clubs, workshops, projects, or sports

offerings and, even in the scientific and

24

artistic program elements, there was

latitude for own ways of thinking or for

individual projects. The creative and

inventive was realized within these lim-

its in the HighScope pedagogy. Seen

from the outside, it seemed narrow;

seen from inside, broad.

We had absolutely no discipline

problems for six weeks, not even argu-

ments – not even any about an individu-

al youngster taking part at all in a cer-

tain program element. These youngsters

had deliberately decided on this de-

manding, highly-structured program,

and faithfully honored this consent and

voluntary commitment. Thanks to the

tightly timed program, they were all

carried along and all were able to grow

beyond themselves.

Thinking for Yourself

One of the core pedagogic principles of

HighScope Camp was thinking for

yourself and to emphatically inspire the

youth to do so. `What do you think?´

We could hear this question from David

over and over, and he posed it with a

smile on his face, as if he wanted to say:

You know more. What are your ideas

and preliminary assumptions? Dig

deeper!

`Turn questions back on the ques-

tioners and make them think for them-

selves.´ Something like this recommen-

dation was in the Staff Training Manu-

al. For example, when you were after

helpful sentence patterns for giving im-

petus for problem solving, you could

read there: `Can you think of any other

way to attach the arm to give it more

flexibility?´

Perhaps I still remember these sen-

tences 30 years later, and they are still

so alive in my pedagogical thinking,

because I heard or read them for the

first time back then in an emotionally

positive, engaged, and intellectually

highly stimulating atmosphere, because

David, Cindy, and Karl created a sup-

portive training framework not only for

absorbing these verbal interventions but

also this attitude, and because I then

applied these interventions multiple

times and achieved pedagogic successes

in working with the youngsters.

It was Cindy, David´s daughter, who

stepwise helped me to flesh out, elabo-

rate, and develop my preliminary art

didactic considerations, so that they

fitted into the temporal and methodical

formats of the HighScope program.

`Instruction´ was given in 90 minutes

periods and provided an introduction to

a topic, such as a certain printmaking

technique. Each counselor conducted a

total of seven of these short offerings

during the six weeks. Available to the

entire group was a choice of seven or

eight instructions in the areas of theater,

dance, computers, physics, music, and

so on.

After that, it was my responsibility to

offer four `clubs´ over the course of

those weeks. These consisted of three

90-minute units and permitted more in-

depth treatment, like how to throw pot-

tery on a potter’s wheel.

Toward the end, there followed a

specialized `workshop´ made up of

eight 90-minute units. I built figures

made of wire mesh and papermaché

with the youngsters.

Yet, that was only the outer struc-

ture. Cindy now pushed for the formula-

tion of concrete objectives that the

25

youngsters should attain in every single

unit. Then came the question whether

there was any guarantee that an active

learning process would take shape, in

which the youngsters handled the mate-

rial themselves, where they could try

and discover something on their own.

To what extent would the youngsters’

own thinking and experimentation be

stimulated in all of this? How exactly?

And how long does each step take?

How are the results safeguarded? How

about their transfer? In which contexts

can what was discovered, experienced,

or realized be placed? What other per-

spectives are fostered?

I learned a great deal here that was

useful to me, later on in preparing for

the teaching profession and working in

schools, and that benefited the children

and youth we aimed to educate there.

Being a Learning Guide

To the Youngsters

While the pedagogical and didactic ap-

proach to planning and executing in-

structions, clubs, and workshops comes

relatively close to the classic activities

of a teacher who teaches in an explora-

tive, activist, and action-oriented man-

ner, in monitoring the `project´ the pri-

ority was much more on being a mentor

or learning guide to the youngsters in

the development and implementation of

their own ideas.

Although the project group was pre-

structured subject-wise, and was formed

of the likeminded to, perhaps, build a

tree house, the `self-scheduled time´

that was on the schedule every three

days for 90 minutes was all about indi-

vidual ideas and goal setting that the

youngsters were to pursue on their own

or with others.

The structure that the counselors

normally held the students to was large-

ly rescinded here and the responsibility

for learning given to the students them-

selves. I recall David saying that the

self-scheduled time, in his years of ex-

perience, was one of the biggest chal-

lenges for the youngsters to actually

produce work during this phase of the

program.

HighScope pedagogy was marked to

a special degree by a hands-on ap-

proach. Practical work using materials

and tools played a key role. It involved

segmenting projects and tasks into

small, manageable steps, with the group

pondering whether each step made

sense, if it had a satisfactory result, and

then collectively thinking up the next

step.

At all times, we kept the focus on our

objective. In this way, every one could

transcend him or herself while collabo-

ratively working with the others. For

instance, the topic for an evening pro-

gram might be the creative combining

and assembling of meter-long alumi-

num tubes that a HighScope alumnus,

now working as an engineer in industry,

made available.

Ideas how to do it were developed in

several small groups, which led to the

erection of what were, in some cases,

very artistic structures. The tubes were

tied together with ropes, applicable

physical laws were discussed and the

sculptures – for example, an inverted

pyramid standing on its head – were

positioned and fixed in place with cords

and metal hooks.

26

The Intellectual and the Practical

Always Went in Tandem

There were also two `maintenance

counselors´ in the expanded team. They

mowed the lawns, trimmed hedges,

felled trees, and kept the buildings in

good repair. They participated in all

mealtimes and the cultural evenings.

Head and hand, the intellectual and the

practical, always went in tandem in the

HighScope community.

Sports, as bodily and social experi-

ence, also played a big role. The folk

dances that Phyllis Weikart taught

meant learning through movement. We

danced barefoot on the Barn’s wooden

floor. The light fell in green, yellow,

and orange onto the dance floor through

the windows in back; the side windows

were open, above our heads were fans

that turned sedately to stir the warm

Midwestern summer air with refreshing

effect.

Phyllis had us practice dances from

Israel, Greece, Poland, and many other

countries. There were line dances and

circle dances that briefly dissolved into

pairs and then reformed into the group.

Folk dance was another way to experi-

ence and shape social interaction.

Schoolchildren and students of all skin

colors from North America, South

America, Europe, and Asia came to-

gether here in concentrated, cultured

and at once happy fashion.

A Psychological Group Exercise

One evening David staged a kind of

psychological group exercise. All

youngsters were asked to stand in a long

row, sorted by height. This instruction

set off a bit of consternation and glee

among the youth, but they started im-

mediately to gauge and compare heights

and then gradually lined up accordingly.

Here and there, places in line were

switched in a kind of fine tuning and

then the line was ready, with the tallest

youth on one end and the shortest

youngster on the other and everyone

else in between in descending order of

height. David praised the result appreci-

atively and thanked the group.

Then he asked the youngsters to line

up again, but this time in terms of their

helpfulness. What then happened was

revelatory. After an initial surprised,

even irritated, phase, the youngsters

became wrapped up in a lively discus-

sion. Smaller and larger groups changed

places and tried to develop criteria for

helpfulness. Then they pondered how

helpfulness could be estimated in relia-

ble fashion from outside and how it

could be gauged in another person. The

question also surfaced what was more

meaningful: nominating yourself, being

nominated by others, or some combina-

tion of the two, and how, in fact, com-

parability between the individual

youngsters with respect to helpfulness

could be established. As it turned out,

the names of some very helpful young-

sters were mentioned, but that evening

no lineup could be effected. David,

smiling benevolently, had watched it all

closely and listened in but without in-

volving himself in the conversations; he

had succeeded just by getting the entire

group of youngsters to think intensively

about the subject of helpfulness and

exchange opinions about it.

27

Gardening and Nutritious Eating

The HighScope grounds not only hosted

the summer camp for teenagers and the

conference center for developments and

meetings of the HighScope Foundation,

it was also a large farm with extensive

acreage, pasture, and a large vegetable

garden.

In the mornings, right after breakfast,

every one of us counselors went into the

garden with our table groups to pick

tomatoes, zucchini, or cucumbers, to

pull weeds, turn over the soil, or water

the plants. Gardening formed part of the

pedagogical program, combined with

nutritious eating and doing without

stimulants of any kind. The adults were

only permitted coffee.

For many USA big city youngsters,

harvesting vegetables in the morning

and then have them appear on the table

for lunch after being prepared by Da-

vid’s mother, Catherine Weikart, and

her kitchen helpers was a completely

new experience. Naturally, most things

had to be supplemented by shopping in

order to feed the entire camp communi-

ty adequately, but the garden work had

pedagogical significance.

In the beginning some big city kids

balked at doing this work. For instance,

Fran, a black girl from Brooklyn, totally

annoyed, yelled across the zucchini

beds: `Damn it, what do I need this gar-

den for and this... work here? When I’m

hungry and need food, I just go to the

supermarket, that’s all!´ But, over the

course of the summer, even Fran devel-

oped a more natural, reasonable attitude

toward the garden. It made an impact on

me, seeing her better grounded through

the gardenwork.

Good, nourishing, varied, and plenti-

ful food was a key component of the

HighScope pedagogy, to let the young-

sters as well as counselors store up the

energy necessary for the intensive men-

tal and physical work. If we had an un-

scheduled staff meeting late in the even-

ing, David’s mother used to bring fresh-

ly baked goods in to us on a baking

sheet.

Field Trips

Occasionally, the entire camp commu-

nity went on field trips, such as to the

Black Sheep Theater in Manchester, a

tiny town not far from the HighScope

grounds, to watch a play there. Another

field trip took us to Detroit, to a muse-

um with engineering and historical sec-

tions, which we explored at length.

We took our field trips in a school-

bus driven by none other than David,

the camp’s president. A three-day hike

through a national park had a special

significance, as we followed the Pota-

watomi Trail. Here, too, David drove us

to the hiking trail’s starting point. Then

we agreed on a destination where he

would pick us up three days later.

We had formed groups of about 10

youngsters, each of them accompanied

by two counselors. A counselor who

knew the trail from having walked it

during a previous summer took the lead,

the other counselor brought up the rear.

That way, no youngster could get lost.

We carried tents, sleeping bags, cooking

utensils, and rations on our backs. The

distance to be covered every day was

considerable.

There were certain places in the na-

tional park that were particularly well

28

suited for camping, for they had water

and wide open clearings on which fires

could be safely built. One of these plac-

es lay on the shore of a fairly large lake.

We all were looking forward that even-

ing to a cooling dip. But the swarms of

biting mosquitoes that attacked us pre-

vented it. We built fires, whose smoke

chased the mosquitoes out of our im-

mediate vicinity, and, when the logs had

burned down a bit, we set frying pans

on rearranged rocks and made pancakes.

Then everyone put up their tents in a

semi-circle around the firepit. There we

sat under starry skies, listening to the

nightly frog concert.

A Philosophically-Oriented

Conversation in the Dark

In the bedrooms it was lights out at 10

pm. As room counselor, I had to ensure

that this rule was scrupulously obeyed. I

do not recollect any sort of difficulties

with respect to it. At 9:30 pm, people

started getting ready for bed and I was,

in fact, able to turn the lights out at 10

pm.

I slept in the assigned room with the

six youngsters who were in my charge.

My last pedagogical assignment of the

day then ran from 10 pm to 10:30 pm;

with everyone lying in bed already, I

led a philosophically-oriented conversa-

tion in the dark in a quiet, relaxed man-

ner, during which we reviewed the

day’s events and the youngsters also

addressed more fundamental issues and

problems of life. The Staff Training

Manual contained helpful model sen-

tences for these conversations with the

youngsters during that half hour as day

turned into night.

The tight structure of the HighScope

Camp carried the individual through

both day and night. Never during those

six weeks did I hear of disturbed sleep,

bad dreams, or night fears. For the most

part, my wards fell into deep, sound

sleep at 10:30 pm or shortly after.

Exploring Globally Important,

Ethically Relevant Issues and Deeper

Existential Questions

`Council´ was another form of philo-

sophical reflection, an evening program

for the entire camp community that reg-

ularly took place in a woody clearing.

We sat on tree trunks around a camp-

fire. A framing topic had been prepared

that Karl Wheatley or another counselor

then would initiate and develop discur-

sively; it might deal with questions such

as the good and the bad in people, how

people from differing cultural and reli-

gious backgrounds could live together

more harmoniously on this earth in the

future, or if there was life after death.

Employing an old Indian ritual called

the `Indian stone,´ whoever happened to

hold the designated stone in his hand

would be allowed to speak and share

personal thoughts on the topic of the

moment. Another person would raise a

hand, receive the stone and then would

speak in turn. The atmosphere was one

of utmost concentration and close atten-

tion being paid.

While dusk sank slowly in Michigan,

youngsters and counselors from around

the globe sat there by the fire, shoulder

to shoulder. We explored globally im-

portant, ethically relevant issues and

deeper existential questions, while the

flaming wood crackled and the smoke

29

curled upward. The entire thing hap-

pened like a kind of associative sharing

of personal thoughts.

The youngsters relished the feeling

of unity that was created this way. The

idea was to contribute some relevant

personal insights and preliminary un-

derstandings to a larger whole that none

of us had as yet grasped in all its dimen-

sions and deeper truth. In this clearing

in the woods grew a kind of collective

cosmic consciousness.

As night descended slowly, and the

first stars appeared in the sky, we went

back to our sleeping quarters. A refresh-

ing coolness infiltrated through the open

window. Crickets chirped. The creek

gurgled softly. The rest was silence.

The Camp Terrain, over the Years

Became Part of a Story that Built

From One Summer to the Next

The rambling camp terrain, with its

meadows, pastures, fields, gardens,

patches of forest, creeks, and ponds,

over the years became part of a story

that built from one summer to the next.

The HighScope Camp was overarched

by ideas and stories of many genera-

tions of youth and student counselors,

many of whom returned multiple times

to spend the summer in Michigan.

Certain places, a clearing in the

woods, the meadow where we played

sports, a garden with fruit trees, a tree, a

spot by a creek, a hollow on a hill from

where you could gaze directly into the

sky, the studio with the potter’s wheel,

or the dancefloor in the Barn popped up

in tales, entered into diaries, poems,

songs, or works of art.

David P. Weikart as Educator

David was a down-to-earth farmer. He

had not the slightest academic preten-

sions. On one occasion, he had to fly to

Phoenix during the summer to give a

lecture. We were all glad to see him

return. It was already evening, I was

examining an old tractor along with a

group of youngsters and we were dis-

cussing something related to its axles

and something to do with the tractor’s

drivetrain, when David came and knelt

beside us and joined in, contributing a

thought now and then. It seemed that,

out here in the open, surrounded by

farming machinery, the Barn and the

workshops, he was completely himself.

He seemed relaxed. He was home.

David’s calm, and his firmness as

well, had something winning, as when I

posed some critiquing questions during

staff training week on the topic of pre-

venting flirtations between the young-

sters. With all of my 23 years, the need

for this intervention was not quite evi-

dent to me, even though I, of course,

subscribed to the HighScope principles

and supported them. I had emerged

from the German university culture of

the 1980s, where a different concept of

freedom prevailed. It was more about

freedom through living large, about

liberation from confining structures.

Here, by contrast, it was all about

freedom through structure, through a

self-imposed regimen of rules. David in

no way put his convictions up for dis-

cussion and he husbanded his words. He

simply lived his values. He was a keen

observer, sparing with his interventions

that he always initiated warmly and

benevolently. He left us space to find

our own way.

30

A snapshot from the Creative Summer Camp modeled on the American

prototype that I set up together with Karl-J. Kluge, and Eva-Maria

Saßenrath-Döpke, University of Cologne. Paralleling the pedagogical di-

mension of this international project is its political import: The picture was

taken in 1986 and shows a Polish boy and a German girl 31 years after the

end of the Second World War. It was a moment of summery ease.

31

The images are of brush drawings made by a Polish girl participating in the Creative

Summer Camp for highly motivated children and youth that Karl-J. Kluge and I found-

ed in Germany in 1985. The girl’s picture conveys an atmosphere of lightness, of play,

and of social closeness. After four weeks at camp, Agnieszka returned to Stalinism-

imprinted Poland, where she was supported in the arts field by the Warsaw Palace of

Youth.

Bettina von Grandidier

The picture shows Joanna

Piekarska and Bettina von

Grandidier

(on the right

side) who

taught Creative

Arts in the German summer

camp for highly motivated

and gifted children and ado-

lescents, 1985-1987

Agnieszka Returned to Stalinism-

Imprinted Poland, Where She Was

Supported in the Arts Field by the

Warsaw Palace of Youth

32

Communicating Across Language Barriers

And Working Toward Shared Goals

`… the reverential mind is respectful of the presence and difference of each person and

thing… it continues to relate to life with a sense of mystery and respect. To engage life

in a reverential way is to maintain a sense of proportion and balance. You acknowledge

that there is a depth of presence in every person that should never be reduced in order to

satisfy your own selfishness and greed. You cannot have a personal integrity of pres-

ence without recognizing and revering the presence of others… The reverential mind

can let things be…´ (O´Donohue, Eternal Echoes, pp. 109-111).

Scenes from an inclusive German-French-Polish-Hungarian summer camp for young-

sters and young adults with and without disabilities that we conducted near Passau in

Lower Bavaria. Visually-, physically-, and mentally-challenged young people augment-

ed each other with their respective abilities, learned also to communicate across lan-

guage barriers and to work toward shared goals. The Grimm Brothers fairy tale of the

Bremen town musicians provided inspiration for the hands-on oriented project activi-

ties.

33

Bettina von Grandidier and I, joined by a small team of other university students, led

this inclusive summer camp for the erew-Academy Viersen, with support from the

Franco-German Youth Office. Richard (seen here in mid-picture), a colleague from a

special education institution in French Alsace, was a dependable collaboration partner

during three summers in the practical implementation of the camp and in completing

projects. He was always ready to pitch in with energy, perseverance, ideas and humor.

34

35

2.

THE TEACHING YEARS

Writing in the Remote Forest Hut

Belonging to the Klett Publishing Family

After completing my doctoral

studies came the time of stu-

dent teaching and preparation

for working in a school. At the

same time, the first designs for

new researches that were to

flow into a post-doctoral thesis

took shape. And I became a

first-time father, with a small

family. The photo shows a

scene in the remote forest hut

belonging to the Klett publish-

ing fami

ly, where founding

publisher Ernst Klett sat by the

fireplace with his authors and

discussed ideas for books with

Hartmut von Hentig, among

others. This is where my peda-

gogical preparations for school

work and scholarly work were

interspersed with chopping

wood, fetching water from the

brook and firing up the stove.

36

My student teaching time was not only

exciting and inspirational, it was also

an occasion for intensive learning. Syl-

via Mandt, a highly experienced special

education teacher, acted as my mentor.

It was a challenging time occupied with

problems like: What is a good structure

for living and learning in a classroom

of students with emotional and behav-

ioral difficulties? How can I build

good, supportive pedagogical relation-

ships with the students in my class?

What does a good lesson look like in

this field? How can I teach successfully

when severe behavioral difficulties pre-

sent themselves? How do I plan an ex-

periential learning field trip or excur-

sion? How can I make it through the

school day in one piece? How do I get

through an entire school year with my

health intact? How do I stay in touch

with myself in a thoroughly turbulent

work situation?

Here from my student teaching days is a

picture of students in a classroom for

youth with emotional and behavioral

difficulties I engaged with in hands-on

learning. Using wood, sheets, and plaster

of paris, together we built a model of a

specific Alpine region, the area around

the Zugspitze Mountain. We calculated

the altitude relationships, the height of

the mountain tops, the distances between

the individual mountains and then trans-

ferred them to our home-

made model.

Finally, we added detailed features such

as mountain lakes, trees, shrubs, huts,

summit stations and ropeways.

Using Wood, Sheets, and Plaster of

Paris, Together we Built a Model of a

Specific Alpine Region, the Area

Around the Zugspitze Mountain

37

Shown here is a school camp located on the small southern tip of the island of Sylt in

the North Sea, between the foam-capped Atlantic Ocean to the west and the calmer

Wadden Sea to the east. It was a place of special experiences, discoveries and encoun-

ters with school classes from other parts of Germany. The older parts of the buildings

with their heavy wooden doors and wood floors date back to the Third Reich when

troops were stationed here.

Rainer Lüders led generations of children and youth by the Wadden Sea and on the

southern end of Sylt, including some of my own classes from alternative schools for

students with behavioral difficulties. This teacher was an expert teller of tales and sea-

man’s yarns. Holding out the prospect, say, of finding weapons dating from World War

Two in the tidal flats, he motivated youngsters that scarcely ever walked any distance to

set out on long hikes.

A School Camp Located on the Small Southern Tip

Of the Island of Sylt in the North Sea

An Expert Teller of Tales

And Seaman’s Yarns

38

Teacher and students encounter each other in new and different ways in a unique land-

scape such as the one the Atlantic Ocean and the Wadden Sea offer here by the island of

Sylt. Flying kites, digging canals with shovels, damming up water, we route and reroute

it, only to realize that the movement of tides, the counter play of ebb and flood obey

higher laws beyond man’s power to modify.

Teacher and Students Encounter Each Other in New

And Different Ways in a Unique Landscape

39

Children with Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties

Experience the Wadden Sea Biosphere with All Their Senses

`While the home may be a powerful cradle influencing mind and personality, the lack of

home is also a huge influence… Imagine how difficult it must be for these little vulner-

able ones to develop minds and hearts where they can rest and feel the warmth and shel-

ter of self-belonging. Being deprived of intimate shelter at such a crucial time must cast

a lonesome shadow over their future struggle to belong within society´ (O´Donohue,

Eternal Echoes, p. 43).

Students sit in the little church in Keitum

on Sylt during a class trip. It is about

making contact with spiritual spheres in

a raw landscape dominated by ocean and

the wind. The children of contemporary

society react in quite different ways to

such a place. While the boy at left front

in the picture retreats into himself and

realizes that this church from the late

Middle Ages is a place for contempla-

tion, the student in the middle of the

church nave takes bodily possession of

the place. In this second case, the peda-

gogic distance to be covered is consider-

ably longer.

Children with emotional and behavioral

difficulties experience the Wadden Sea

biosphere with all their senses. Coming

by ship from Sylt, they dock at Hallig

Hooge and ride on horse-drawn carts to

the individual dwelling mounds, rocked

by the horses’ slow trot along the way.

They picture how the inhabitants of Hal-

lig Hooge would bring themselves and

their livestock to safety on the raised

dwelling mounds and in their houses

before an approaching storm tide. The

boys would hang on the wagon driver’s

every word as he told the tale.

40

What Grammar School Boy Would Not Enthuse

Over King Arthur and the Holy Grail

This snapshot came to be when I devel-

oped a thematic framework for a hands-on

learning project in a specialized classroom

for students with emotional and behavior-

al difficulties that I based on the Grimm

Brothers children’s and household tales.

We knocked together a witch’s house us-

ing discarded construction wood and

knocked-down old furniture that we then

could crawl into and read fairy tales out

loud. Building the shack offered a rich

array of chances to communicate but also

of technical-practical learning. Since only

one student in that learning group had an

intact father relationship, for the rest of

the boys I facilitated some belated experi-

ences that they otherwise might have ex-

perienced in a family environment with an

active father of their own.

What grammar school boy would not

enthuse over King Arthur and the Holy

Grail, over knights jousting and what it

was like to live in a castle? The same

holds true in a specialized school for

boys with emotional and behavioral dif-

ficulties shown here. We lined two walls

of our classroom with butcher paper

which we then covered with Middle

Age-

type imagery. In play scenes, the

boys used halberds, shields, capes and

other props, some of which they had

made. I started the instructional units

with a general overview of works of art

or movies that might show a market in

the Middle Ages, for example, or by

playing recordings of typical music of

the times. A collection of picture- and

non-fiction books, such as an account of

the training a squire or knight had to

undergo or of life in a castle, let the boys

access the topic individually and in

depth.

41

Then, in an instant, it happened: The sun shade in that compartment was torn out

the window, flapping wildly a few times and then the metal rod inserted at its bot-

tom suddenly stabbed like a dagger from outside back in through the window

panes doubled-up one behind the other. The rod remained firmly stuck in the

glass. All around the puncture the glass was splintering.

INCIDENT ON A TRAIN

Before we proceed with reading the

story, I want first to set the stage with

three things, so that especially an inter-

national readership will have the neces-

sary background for integrating that

which took place.

First: In Germany, as in many other

countries, you can buy first class and

second class train tickets. First class not

only offers more comfort but also costs

50 percent more. Occasionally, it is also

possible to book first class for a group

at a price that beats the regular second

class fare.

Second: Westerland, the principal

town on Sylt, is located in the island´s

midsection, right on the North Sea and

can be reached directly by train that

practically runs through the Wadden

Sea over the Hindenburgdamm cause-

way that was built during the Weimar

Republic.

Third: By virtue of its location in the

extreme northwest of Germany on the

Atlantic, Sylt Island has an especially

42

salubrious open ocean climate. This is

why spa tourism developed there as

early as the 19th century. The breathtak-

ingly beautiful beaches and dunescapes

attracted artists and intellectuals, but

particularly the very well-to-do.

Kampen on Sylt, with its picturesque

thatch roofed houses, boasts Germany´s

highest-priced real estate. The boutiques

there offer women´s handbags or jack-

ets for sale that would cost an elemen-

tary school teacher her entire month´s

salary. For the wealthy and the jet set,

Sylt is an investment and status symbol.

People from Germany´s socially de-

prived areas could never in their lives

hope to set foot on this marvelous island

on their own.

However, there is another Sylt and

other ways of getting there. Several

former military barracks located in the

island´s southern part were converted

into school camps and youth hostels

after World War II. That made it possi-

ble for large numbers of children and

youth to come to Sylt regardless of their

parents´ sociocultural or socioeconomic

situation, by going there on school trips

or experiential pedagogy projects. So it

was also for the group of nine- and ten-

year old boys from a special school for

children with emotional, social and be-

havioral difficulties at the center of our

story.

Kids from Society´s Margin Riding

First Class Through Germany

This is not about the year when the only

option for a train trip to Sylt I had left

due to time constraints was to book a

block of first class seats, because my

colleague, who had joined me with his

class, had needed so much time to get

the money together that his girls and

boys owed and when we then faced a

situation on the return trip from Wester-

land to Cologne wherein society´s well-

heeled and pensioned sat in our seats in

car 13, because car 14 had a problem

with its electronics and so was off lim-

its.

First class, it seemed, was these la-

dies´ and gentlemen´s due, simply be-

cause, unlike us, they were first class.

At first glance, it looked we seemed to

be nothing more than social free-

loaders, but fortunately we had valid

tickets and demonstrable seat reserva-

tions. And so it came about that these

kids from society´s margin did wind up

riding first class through Germany, in

April of 2004, once I had negotiated

emphatically with the well-heeled folks

sitting in our seats, insisting that my

students in fact got their seats – in first

class.

The Smooth Functioning of

Our Railroads as a Symbol for

Reliability and Well-Planned

Forward Progress

However, the story I really intended to

tell dates back to sometime before that,

to May of 1993. It, too, involves a class

trip to Sylt, to Hörnum, to be exact, that

picturesque town on the island´s south-

ern tip, where, if you clamber up the

tallest dunes, you can see the ocean on

both sides of the forty kilometer-long

island, the foam-capped Atlantic to the

west and the calmer Wadden Sea to the

east.

Some odd experiences transpired

during the train trip there. The smooth

43

functioning of our railroads can be re-

garded as a symbol for reliability and

well-planned forward progress. The

train can be seen as emblem of social

normality, functionality and productivi-

ty, however, only so long as no individ-

uals board the train that are already sand

in the gears and that can disrupt a

train´s steady progress or delay the train

travelers from their business.

Nonetheless, there are children in

this society that, by reason of their chal-

lenging behavior, are referred to special

schools mostly because for deficits in

emotional attachment and lack of an

appropriate, supportive upbringing and

education. There, with the help of a

special pedagogy, they are to be brought

back – reeducated, really – to the right

way.

Our Intent Was for These Kids,

To Be Exposed to New Experiences

And Insights in the Fresh

North Sea Air

After my colleague and I had attempted

various influencing and fostering

measures, with the involvement of the

immediate school environment, on be-

half of this band of rascals, a term I use

humorously here, arrived the high point

of the teaching program at that time: a

one-week class trip to Sylt.

Our intent was for these kids, social-

ized by cell phone, computer and

Gameboy, to be exposed to new experi-

ences and insights in the fresh North

Sea air, during group hikes along the

beach and mudflats, on a boat trip to

Hallig Hooge and the trotting of car-

riage horses on the Hallig.

So it was that we found ourselves

with that unruly troop of nine- and ten-

year old boys once again riding on a

train from Gummersbach in North

Rhine Westphalia through Cologne to

Westerland, in North Frisia, Schleswig-

Holstein. They were ten in number this

time, these boys from a special school

for children with emotional, social and

behavioral difficulties, and each of them

was like handling three of them when it

came to rendering necessary supervi-

sion, care and attention.

We took over several adjoining com-

partments. The month was May. It was

a warm, sunny day full of anticipation

for the beach life, North Sea air and fish

rolls. Naturally, there was no way of

keeping the boys in the compartments

for more than half an hour. They obvi-

ously felt confined and within minutes

already the first conflicts and squabbles

started. They wanted out into the corri-

dor. We put them off until later. They

tried again and kept at it relentlessly.

Finally, we let them out of the com-

partments. There simply was no other

way. They ran up and down the car´s

corridor. Then some of them opened the

windows. We closed the windows again

and pointed out the potential dangers.

Soon after, I don´t know how, the first

few boys escaped into the neighboring

open seating car.

Breathing Harder by the Minute,

I Hurried Through the Corridors

Of the Fully Booked Cars

Angelika, my colleague, went in one

direction and I in the other, to corral the

boys again. Marita, the social education

teacher, held down the fort outside the

44

compartments. Breathing harder by the

minute, I hurried through the corridors

of the fully booked cars. Toward the

front, I glimpsed a blond boy who be-

longed to our group; then he was gone.

I ran a gauntlet of travel bags and

sneakers that stuck out into the corri-

dors. The glass doors hissed shut behind

me. The trek through the cars seemed to

me to take an eternity. Just before I

reached the front of the train, it started

to slow down.

We entered the Bremen train station.

The doors opened and out ran some of

my students down the train platform

toward the middle of the train; maybe

they were looking for the Bremen Town

Musicians? Was this then the result of

the fairy tale projects that we had done

in class? One of the boys cheekily stuck

out his tongue at me through the train

window. Then he took off, running

along the train platform. A fun game.

Hopefully, they would get back on

the train in time, it pounded in my head.

I longed for this day to end and wished

myself into the counselor´s room of the

school hostel, there to find solace in

conversation with Mrs. Moll, a col-

league from Cologne, over a cold Fri-

sian beer. Mrs. Moll traveled to Hör-

num with her classes every year around

this time.

All right, back the whole way. Peo-

ple began to notice me and regard me

part sympathetically, part with annoy-

ance and disquiet. Then, after a re-

freshment cart blocked my way and I

somehow managed to squeeze past it,

out of breath I finally arrived back at the

three compartments where I had started

my futile chase after the students.

In the meantime, Marita had done a

good job and gotten about half the run-

aways back into the compartments.

Lastly, we corralled the remainder in

the open seating car next to ours. When

the train had ground to a halt in Bre-

men, I made my way quickly along the

platform toward the front to the engine

and then systematically combed back

through the train, to keep the boys from

having any chance of escaping again.

It Seemed that the Entire Train

Had by Now Become Affected by

Our Ruckus-Causing Presence

I happened straight onto a melee. One

of the boys had jostled an elegantly-

dressed woman having coffee. Her dress

was covered with brown spots. Sudden-

ly, there was a huge hue and cry, be-

cause an older man was pulling at the

boy and cursing at him. I excused my-

self for the boy´s behavior, pressed

some Euros into the woman´s hand for

getting the dress cleaned, mumbled

something about special children by

way of more excuses and pushed the

little group ahead of me and out of that

car.

It seemed to me that the entire train,

regardless whether it was in first class

or second class, had by now become

affected by our ruckus-causing presence

and was suffering because of it. My

stress level kept rising. As the responsi-

ble classroom teacher, didn´t I have to

do a better job of keeping them in

check? Was it a mistake after all to take

troubled children like this on such a

long trip?

Instead of an eight hour train ride,

perhaps I should have just taken them

on a ten minute bus ride to the nearest

youth hostel. I simply could not expect

45

this well-set, well-heeled crowd, head-

ing for their snug vacation houses, vaca-

tion apartments and hotel rooms in

Westerland, Kampen or Keitum, to put

up with something like this.

Weren´t We All Responsible

For this Young Generation that Had

Gone off the Track?

On the other hand: Weren´t we all

somehow responsible for this young

generation that, in some respects, had

gone off the track? Could these people

sitting here in the train, representing the

larger society, simply avoid any respon-

sibility? Could they just delegate it all

to us special educators and social educa-

tors? Should they have peace and relax-

ation, at the cost of our energies being

used up and having our nerves ruined?

They wanted to travel, live, lead a

pleasant life. And us? Did we really

deserve to be sidetracked? I read it in

their accusing faces: How could you

travel with these children on this route

to this destination? Venomous looks

castigated me. Sylt, including the way to

get there, belongs to us. Please stay

home where you belong, in your social-

ly deprived areas. No. Resentment sud-

denly welled up in me: You are co-

responsible for the social and cultural

change process whose results and con-

sequences I unfortunately have made it

my job to suffer. From now on, feel free

to experience some of the effects of your

own politic or impolitic behavior, your

lack of social engagement! I’ve had it

with trying to shield you!

At a party recently a lawyer´s wife

had said to me, with a mixture of pity

and incomprehension and a smug smile

on her pursed lips, `Why on earth would

you sacrifice yourself like that,´ as I was

telling her about my work as special

education teacher.

Fortunately, by now all boys were

seated in the three compartments again.

With the glass doors shut, both my col-

leagues and I stood in the corridor and

assessed the situation. The sun shone

brightly. We were drawing nearer to

Hamburg. The train was barreling

along. I listened to the loud, rhythmic

clatter of the wheels.

Then, in an Instant, It Happened

Satisfied, I looked in on the compart-

ments in turn. To cheer them up, I had

treated the boys to a round of Cokes.

Lost in thought, they were sipping from

the cans. I was glad that quiet had been

restored. Only, it turned out to be a de-

ceptive peace.

In one of the compartments, the stu-

dents had pulled down the orange col-

ored sun shade. What I had failed to

notice was that the window behind it

had been pulled down all the way to the

lowest stop. The train was hurtling

along at top speed through the plain

south of the Elbe. Then, in an instant, it

happened:

The sun shade in that compartment

was torn out the window, flapping wild-

ly a few times and then the metal rod

inserted at its bottom suddenly stabbed

like a dagger from outside back in

through the window panes doubled-up

one behind the other. The rod remained

firmly stuck in the glass. All around the

puncture the glass was splintering. I

immediately tore open the door. A

warm blast of wind hit my face. Small

46

glass fragments threatened to come

loose from the Ping-Pong paddle-sized

fracture.

I pushed the boys out into the corri-

dor as quickly as I could and locked the

compartment door to prevent any harm

to the children from flying glass splin-

ters. Then I ventured in search of the

conductor, to whom I described the sit-

uation. The uniformed man reacted with

extreme irritation, even anger: `Can´t

you properly supervise your students?´

We were nearly in Hamburg. The train

had slowed and was already on the

bridge across the Elbe. So, then the

conductor phoned the chief conductor

who decided to uncouple the car with

the damaged window on safety grounds.

This was done at the Hamburg-

Dammtor train station. The passengers

were told to detrain from the damaged

car and to find another seat somewhere

else on the train. The voices in the cor-

ridor and by the exits sounded angry.

Suitcases were heaved about. Com-

plaints rose about the lack of seats. Out-

side, on the station platform, furious

looks came my way, mostly from men

and women 55 years old and over, an

embarrassing, reproachful and some-

times downright aggressive atmosphere.

Finally, all of our charges were ac-

commodated again in an open seat car

at the tail end of the train. Thirty

minutes behind schedule, the Intercity

resumed its journey north. The students

were nervous and agitated. My col-

leagues and I had our hands full trying

to calm them down and to stabilize their

behavior.

An Incensed Business Man

Claimed Damages for the

Train Delay

Suddenly, an incensed man rushed up to

me, demanded my address and phone

number and claimed damages for the

train delay from me. It had caused him

to miss an important business appoint-

ment in Westerland that, supposedly,

involved millions. We had spoiled it for

him. He would not stand for it. Sweat

broke out on my forehead. I thought

about my professional liability insur-

ance. If worst came to worst…

The other passengers in the open

seating car listened intently. I didn´t

know how to react right away. I had just

let myself fall exhausted into my new

seat. Finally, stammering, I replied that

it had not been my decision after all to

uncouple the car because of the window

damage. Of course, I also regretted the

train´s delay, but that was the chief

conductor´s decision.

Snorting with rage, the man planted

himself by my seat and repeated his

demand. But then the mood in the car,

where many of the other relocated pas-

sengers had found seats, seemed to

change.

Moral Support

That Came My Way from

The Fellow Travelers

Suddenly, a group of women was stand-

ing in the aisle in support of me. `Look,

can´t you see what kind of work these

young people are doing here? How

would you like to be the one to do it?

Come on, now! Do you really want to

do this? What´s this nonsense about

47

millions? Stop it already. We´ve had it

with your arrogant rudeness!´ they went

after the man. `Get lost, why don´t

you!´ a woman called out to my accuser

from further back. `The people from the

special school have enough on their

hands taking care of these kids!´

Irritated, the man who had harassed

me mumbled something to himself,

looked around nervously and finally

went away. I was very grateful for the

moral support that suddenly came my

way from the fellow travelers, especial-

ly that group of women, all of them

fiftyish.

These women also gave us practical

help by talking in a friendly way with

the boys, paying attention and being

considerate to them, responding to them

and from time to time asking them how

they were doing. This helped calm the

boys down, and they started to relax.

So, in this way, my two colleagues

and I received active support in looking

after the students during the last seg-

ment from Hamburg-Dammtor to West-

erland, which took the train another

three hours. A pleasant warm feeling

filled me. I started to relax, too. There

was after all something like solidarity

among this group of people rattling

along on the rails, a common sense of

responsibility. We were not alone.

In Touch with Society

I also heard nothing more from the rail-

road regarding this incident. Someone

familiar with insurance matters told me

that the railroad had largely replaced the

metal rods inserted at the bottom of sun

shades with plastic ones. Apparently,

the metal rods had long been considered

safety hazards.

Late that evening in the counselors´

room of the school camp in Hörnum, I

told Mrs. Moll the whole story. As ex-

pected and hoped she, too, was there

again. `That is why I always take the

train with my classes,´ she said, `be-

cause it gets me in touch with society.´ I

allowed myself a Frisian Pilsener. It had

a nice, tangy taste.

48

Joining the Youngsters in Reconstructing

Their Cultural Orientations in the Form

Of Pictorial Design or Text Productions

The photo shows a class scene from an

alternative school for students with emo-

tional, behavioral and learning problems.

The immediate object was a reenactment

of the Snow White fairy tale. The stu-

dents could make use of a stock of cloth-

ing, shoes, bags and other props. In this

scene, the play acting had suddenly

achieved its own dynamic of enacting the

birth of a child. The back story for this

was that a student had experienced just

such an event in his family. In this way,

the subjective contents of the students’

real lives find their expression in an in-

structional setting that offers the means

and room for play.

A good way to start a conversation with

youngsters whose educational biography

and way through life are marred by the

multiple burdens, conflicts, and crises

that we frequently encounter in the con-

text of emotional and behavioral difficul-

ties, is by joining them in reconstructing

their cultural orientations in the form of

pictorial design or text productions.

What takes place behind the surface of

their behavior in terms of identity-

forming and emotional processes be-

comes visible, at least incrementally,

and, within limits, accessible to pedagog-

ical thinking and adaptation.

49

Children Who Seemed to

Tune out or Ignore Their

Teacher’s Verbal Messages

Paid Attention to What the

Puppet Poised on My Hand

Had to Say

I made this hand puppet from a

wooden spoon, a bit of fabric

and a piece of rabbit fur. I used

it over the years in the field of

special education and inclusive

education, particularly when

working with

young children.

With this little fellow, I would

get children talking who at first

did not communicate with any-

one. Children who seemed to

tune out or ignore their teach-

er’s verbal messages paid at-

ten

tion to what the puppet

poised on my hand had to say,

and eventually they also re-

sponded to it.

That a boy in third grade who

at times exhibits severe behav-

ioral problems is nevertheless

capable of special creative

achievements – as long as he is

intensively supervised and con-

structively counseled and sup-

ported in his strengths and abil-

ities – is shown by this highly

original purse lantern that he

designed. He fashioned it from

chicken wire on which he then

pasted translucent colored pa-

per. He proudly carried his

lantern in the St. Martin’s Day

parade that the school put on in

the city neighborhood.

50

In Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, the hero lets the other village kids give him their little

treasures in return for allowing them to help him paint a long wooden fence. It was a

very unusual deal that astonishes today’s children. Still, this literary work provides a

motivational instruction to pay attention to the little treasures that children learning in

an inclusive setting in elementary school keep in their junk drawer. A little museum can

easily be arranged with them, in a paper-lined shoe box top. A story goes with every

object that a child contributes that can be shared, verbally and in writing.

In Mark Twain’s Tom

Sawyer, the Hero Lets the

Other Village Kids Give Him

Their Little Treasures in

Return for Allowing Them

To Help Him Paint a Long

Wooden Fence

51

AS TEACHER IN AN URBAN CLASSROOM

FOR STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL,

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL NEEDS

Working Conditions

At the School

Brief handover talk with the departing

classroom teacher... I am taking over

five of his students, with three new stu-

dents from outside to be added, all of

them between 14 and 16 years old... I

will teach for 27.5 hours. Weekly...

three schoolyard supervisions of thirty

minutes each... I work alone in my

classroom throughout. Every week, I

can send a small group of students to

departmental colleagues in the media

classroom and shop classroom. There is

a... billiards room... gym... foosball

room and... school kitchen (day 2)…

Student Behavior

Leon (all names have been changed) is

busily filing away... at a piece of wood

that he found outside in front of the

school. He is making one end pointed

like a spear. As file, he is using a screw

that he had fished out of my junk draw-

er. Working with such simple means, he

says, reminds him of the survival strate-

gies of the Huns... he wraps one end of

the piece of wood with bast fiber, and

now he has an archaic-looking hand

weapon (day 13)…

Problematic Patterns

Of Student Behavior:

Not Abiding by School Rules

Patrick takes off without permission

after recess (day 11)...

Max drops out of sight, Patrick also

disappears (day 16)...

Acatey walks out of the individual

class set up for him after a few minutes

(day 28)...

Dominic, Max, Tim and Leon for

days already have been leaving the

school grounds during yard recess and

roam around the shopping street (day

29)...

Jonas presumably has been truant for

days already. He has a cough, he says

on the phone. During the past year, Jo-

nas has missed more than 70% of

school days (day 33)...

Patrick's cell phone rings, and he is

gone (day 80)…

Acting Aggressively

Toward Other Students

Acatey holds Fabian's book bag out the

window and drops it... Acatey hurls the

ball... straight into Tim's face... to the

bike shed with Fabian, to unlock his

bike for him; Acatey squeezes in be-

52

tween us and rides off on Fabian's bike,

disappearing into the city (day 7)...

Acatey strikes at Patrick's head as he

stands in front of the window. The lat-

ter's head hits the window frame. Furi-

ous, Patrick attacks Acatey (day 14)...

Acatey... tries constantly to provoke

Leon, by hitting or kicking, or waving

his hands or fist in front of his face,

pretending to kick his head... gets very

close to Leon's face, gathers spittle in

his mouth and makes as if he is going to

spit it at him... hurls curses at Leon:

'Fuck your mother! Your mother is a

whore. You freak! Your mother crapped

you! (day 15)...

The computer network cables are

ripped out. Loud yelling and carrying

on (day 30)…

Actively Rejecting

Curricular Learning

Nobody wants to work on the assign-

ment sheets passed out (day 3)...

The first one refuses. The next one

reads a couple of sentences and stops...

then Max throws his notebook, nearly

hitting my head: 'Here, you can have it

back!' Three, four more notebooks land

on my desk (day 4)...

The boys work maybe three to eight

minutes. Max complains his sheet is too

easy. 'I won't do it, don't want to, give

me something more difficult; naw, now

that is too difficult for me, I'm not doing

it,' throws the sheet on the floor... It's all

over with the others, too (day 6)...

Leon protests... when I pass out the

homework (day 14)...

The boys refuse to take out their

work folders and books... Fabian gives

subtraction on paper a try, but gives up

already after five minutes... He will not

accept any help (day 15)...

'I want to get on the PC and play; I'm

bored'... that Fabian has not filled out a

single part of the English Level 1 work

book from the previous school year...

'So what, it's all boring, can I go now?'

(day 18)…

Acting Aggressively

Toward the Teacher

Patrick swears at me: 'Hey, you jackass!

You mongoloid!' (day 11).

Max... turns up his cell phone, it is a

screeching, shrill piece of music...

'What's your problem? I'll punch you in

the face in a second!' (day 15)...

Acatey... 'What did you talk about

with my mother? I'll sock you!´... (day

19).

While I sit next to Fabian to show

him written division, Acatey waves the

broomstick behind my head (day 19)...

Patrick attacks me, 'what's with all

this queer jabbering, and what do I care

how they are doing. Tim... he would

love to beat me up good for all the 'crap'

we are doing during class here... moves

his hands and arms karate-style. 'You're

just fucking with me'... Acatey demands

to be returned to regular class. 'Freak!

German potato! Rat fag!' he hisses at

me (day 28)...

Leon says to me: 'Freak, you can

suck my big one!... I have nothing to

say to you, you joker!´ (day 32)...

Leon threatens to beat me up if I dare

to give him a new weekly lesson plan

(day 33)…

53

Destroying Learning

Materials and Objects

Numerous objects fly out the window...

the classroom is on the 5th floor and

ceiling is very high... dishes, books,

paper, notebooks... food... the sink is

plugged up with glue and overflows

(day 3)...

Acatey rips a door from the cabinet

that has a locker for each student (day

7)...

Fabian with a piece of wood knocks

stucco off places where the walls are

already damaged. 'So what, what's your

problem? They're going to renovate in

here anyway' (day 10)…

Disruptive Behavior in the

School´s Environment

While I pay, Acatey and Fabian steal

cones behind the ice cream seller's

back... Fabian jostles an oncoming

man... Fabian, with a smile, asks a

woman if he can pet her dog... then

pulls the yowling beast by its tail... the

boys want to go to the cathedral... go to

a side altar and blow out dozens of can-

dles... Acatey has seized on an offering

box and is shaking it... to get at the

coins inside... heads over to the candles

again and spits the flame out on two of

them... by the Rhine river promenade,

they pull each other into a fountain (day

3)...

Acatey tears open the door to a mid-

day care center. Children are playing

with beads and blocks... Acatey sweeps

everything off the table (day 14)...

Acatey... puts down fifty Euro and

says: 'From a cell phone, with camera,

ripped off... in... sold… (day 15)...

Leon, Max and Tim... threatened the

owner of a health food store... when she

asks them if she can help with anything

else, they say no, but still do not leave

the store... when the owner asked the

boys to leave the store... Leon walked

up to her and said: 'You're about to get a

punch in the mouth (day 31)...

Fabian... gives a parked car a kick. A

colleague reports... that he had slammed

a shopping cart against a parked car;

then he jumped on the hood of another

car (day 80)…

Not Following Teacher

Instructions

While driving the pedal cars, Acatey

once more disregards the rules, crosses

the threshold, purposely crashes into the

others, drives trough the door out on the

street (day 11)...

Max, during recess, climbs on top of

the toilet house, and runs around on it

(day 12)...

Acatey shows up too early, he is try-

ing to sabotage the new class schedule.

He is also not ready to leave again (day

15)...

As soon as the computers are up…

games are booted up: Counterstrike and

Döner-Mafia (day 30)…

Engaging in Highly

Dangerous Behavior

Twice, Max tosses a chair (with iron

frame) against the wall (day 3)...

Acatey runs over a first grader with

the heavy pedal car while the teacher

was crossing the schoolyard to the gym

with her charges (day 6)...

54

Leon is at the window sill... sudden-

ly, a giant flame almost sets the curtain

ablaze. He had wrapped a ping pong

ball in aluminum foil and... lit it with a

lighter (day 18)...

Leon opens firecrackers, pretends he

wants to examine the powder and final-

ly pours it into a tennis ball. He fills the

remaining empty space with thin paper

and mounts a fuse on it (day 29)...

Leon carries hair spray in his pock-

et... A... jet of fire shoots through the

room (day 31)…

Positive Patterns in Student

Behavior: Willingness to Engage in

Curricular Learning

Tim and Dominic participate in a half

hour of English instruction (day 7)...

It goes well for about twenty

minutes. Then the boys want to get on

the computer (day 13)...

They actually begin to do math (day

14)...

Acatey works along well today dur-

ing the individual mentoring. After for-

ty minutes, the air has gone out of him

(day 30).

They mostly take the weekly lesson

plans home now and work on them

more or less thoroughly... between 5%

and 70%, and on the daily plans 5% and

40 %... (day 72).

Communicating Positively

With Other Students

Some of the boys have not breakfasted

and want to go buy buns and cold cuts.

When they return, they set the round

table in back of the classroom (day

13)...

Leon has brought buns to be heated...

Because no one had yet done the dishes

and cutlery, an improvised breakfast is

served on a stolen tabloid newspaper on

my desk, because the boys opine that it

was the cleanest place. Margarine and

chocolate spread... are ladled on with

the finger, `just like in a Hun encamp-

ment´ (day 18)…

Reflecting on Own Behaviors

And Life Backgrounds

Can you picture it, how he beat me, my

father? For years... He drank his fill and

then he always started in... I swear,

nothing was going on between that man

and my mother... There my father stood

in the doorway, legs apart... my mother

told him that she was so tired... `Yes,

from screwing!´ says my father... He

goes for her. `Don't you hit her,´ I said,

`I'll kill you!´ But, he keeps after her

and hits her in the face, several times.

She is bleeding... she tears open a draw-

er... takes out a long knife and says to

him: `All right, come on!´ I run outside,

take my cell phone and call the police...

my father is lying on the floor, gur-

gling... I was totally out of it, my moth-

er in the corner, totally done in, shak-

ing, crying (day 25)...

Tim asks me, if I knew what `psy-

chological stress´ is. A friend of his

supposedly has it, so his doctor had told

him. And that's why he still bed wets at

night, at the age of thirteen. He himself

had the same problem for quite a while.

Did I have any advice for his friend by

chance? (day 90)…

55

Building a Positive Relationship

With the Teacher

Patrick shows me a picture of his attack

dog... Then he offers me peanuts (day

3)...

Leon tells me about his life as part of

a Hun horde... that his identity was

largely that of a Hun... his shock of dark

hair, standing up on his head, long in

back and shaved at the temples, empha-

sizes it (day 12)...

I am invited to join an improvised

breakfast. Tim insists that I also take a

bun (day 13)...

…leafed through the Guinness Book

of Records with Patrick and Leon. Leon

lies to left of me on the side table and

Patrick stands immediately to my

right... we... comment on the pictures...

Patrick smiles... friendly... there follow

tentative touches to my hand, my arm or

my shoulder (day 13)...

Leon rides a skateboard... constantly,

he calls out to me. 'Look at me... look at

me...' (day 15).

Leon meanwhile crisps his bread,

and then mine also. He insists on doing

this for me (day 16)...

Leon rides skateboard again and con-

stantly wants my attention, also physi-

cal touching, with me pushing him. This

moves him to pat me on the back and

shoulder several times; this, from the

same Patrick who usually avoids all

physical contact (day 17)...

Leon asks me if I have any chap

stick, his lips were so dry (day 26)…

Asking the Teacher for Help,

Assistance or Shelter

The new students seek sanctuary and

protection with me, even if in disguised

fashion (day 3)...

Leon says he is afraid of getting into

fights and so want to stay close to me

all the time (day 10)...

Leon is still afraid and wants to sit in

the office when I am not on the yard

(day 11)...

Leon... stays... in my vicinity in the

school yard (day 13)…

Exhibiting Successful

Emotional Self-Control

Acatey can't get on the PCs, because of

passwords set by the other students. He

succeeds in maintaining control of him-

self… (day 30).

Positives and Negatives Lie Close

Together and Interlock

Acatey invariably buys breakfast only

for himself; now and then he shares

some candy, but tosses it over so... con-

temptuously... that the others do not

accept the stuff. Max, Dominic, Tim

and Leon, in contrast, develop solidarity

arrangements among themselves; dif-

ferent students alternate, even if irregu-

larly, in bringing something to eat and

sharing with the others... When Acatey

sits at his desk and eats whatever he has

brought... he does so with loud smack-

ing noises, something the others have a

hard time putting up with (day 20)…

56

The Positive Can Quickly Tip

Into the Destructive

Leon devises a plan for a 'cozy kitchen

corner,' with food in the refrigerator to

be bought out of a common kitty. 'When

the others are ready, I mean, when they

don't destroy or throw stuff around,

then'... Acatey... provokes Leon... This

time, Leon loses his cool and he shouts

furiously at Acatey: 'For once, just shut

your mouth, you damn foreigner! They

must have crapped you out, huh? One

of these days we'll wipe all our damn

foreigners out!' and raises a chair and

threatens to throw it at Acatey (day

16)...

…in the billiard room… We have

been playing for three or four minutes,

when Acatey's constructive mood sud-

denly turns. He hits the white ball so

hard that it bounds over the table edge

and shoots in the direction of my face.

All the while, he grins at me out of his

dark, glittering eyes. Acatey changes his

stance, so get a better shot at me. Then

he waves the queue in front of my face

as if about to hit me with it (day 23)…

Ambiguous Situations Can

Be Productive but Require

Coolness and Vision

Leon has brought in a condom, fills it

with water, knots it and plays with it...

He reads attentively what I write on a

poster, while he sits cross-legged to my

right on the table... Leon raises the wa-

ter filled condom to his mouth and

sucks on it... Leon suddenly stands be-

hind me and touches me on the throat,

ears, neck with this phallic symbol... He

does all this in a joking... way. Then he

splats the water filled condom against

my thigh so that it bursts. Leon contorts

with laughter, but at the same time he

seems embarrassed, and he apologizes

(day 24)...

Then Leon takes two... tables...

shoves them up against the sides of my

desk, lies across them... pensively sucks

and draws on the water filled condom...

Then he says: 'Oh, crap, my life is really

messed up. I'm in an institution and then

here, in this school, what kind of life am

I going to have?... I've thought about

jumping off a bridge'… (day 25).

Behavioral Progress Takes Time

Fabian is eating candy again and drops

the wrappers on the floor. He picks

them up unwillingly at the end of the

class, but instead of throwing them into

the waste basket purposely misses it.

Finally, he does pick up some of the

papers again. He leaves the rest on the

floor (day 16)...

Max is still spitting pumpkin seed

shells on the floor, but more and more

frequently directly into the waste basket

(day 85)…

In a few instances, a student helps

the teacher clarify his pedagogic con-

cern, however, in a language suitable

for precipitating the next conflict among

the students… Patrick: 'You idiot, you

bastard, you fly shit, didn't you get it?

He means that you are responsible for

what you learn here! Get it?!'…

57

Managing Disruptive

Student Behavior

The boys... are kicking the ball around

the classroom. I... lock the ball up again

(day 4)...

…then I grab the chair and pull it

down... to the floor again (day 10)...

I announce that I will send Max

home immediately if he tears my seat-

ing arrangement up again... it is not ac-

ceptable to speak with me in that tone

of voice... I ask him to turn off the mu-

sic (day 15)...

This time, I insist that Fabian pick up

all the candy wrappers (day 16)...

I approach Acatey determinedly and

tell him that I do not like his game (day

23)...

I plant myself in front of Acatey...

will he manage today to abide by three

rules: no insults, no physical contact

with another, no damaging anything?

(day 25)...

Acatey demands to be returned to the

regular classes. I tell him the conditions

(day 28)...

…one day suspension from school

for Leon, for reason of the hairspray and

flame jet (day 32)…

Fostering Curricular Learning

I choose a text about friendships in a

clique and ask the students to read (day

4)...

…pass out math sheets at differing

levels of difficulty (day 6)...

…test his knowledge and skills in

math and English... grade Leon's first

homework assignment... exchange a

more difficult text book for Leon's Eng-

lish book (day 10)...

…propose to delve into the Hun sub-

ject as part of school work (day 12)...

…try to be in better tune with the

boys' actual math skills, test Tim's

learning level (day 15)...

Leon is interested in geometry, so we

skip around in the book a bit (day 18)...

I come up with the idea of taking

what Leon said... developing it... into

questions for research (day 24)...

I engage the youths... in discussions

about computer games... what they

think about the effect of games on per-

ceptions and behavior of the players

(day 30)...

…discussion about Preußler's book

Krabat... how far they have read in it,

what they find interesting in it, where

they are having difficulty understand-

ing, I paint a poster... with the names of

the fictional characters (day 33)...

Next... step by step got the students...

used to a weekly lesson plan, with re-

gard to homework... The challenges...

are widely varied, so that there is...

something for every ability level in it...

Later, I introduced... additionally daily

lesson plans, in order to give the morn-

ing a firm but flexible structure (day

72)...

I spoke about performance evalua-

tions... that there would be objective

content requirements for the various

subjects, and I provide an overview for

math, biology and English... to give

them a chance to recognize their own

performance level (day 75)…

58

Exploring and Reflecting

The Students´ World

I start by talking about getting acquaint-

ed. I thought about a kind of chart for

self-presentation... categories like inter-

ests, neighborhood, and age (day 3)...

…a discussion about experiences

during summer vacation (day 5)...

I speak extensively with Leon about

the Hun horde... to which he belongs

(day 12)...

I ask the new arrivals how they are

doing, how they spent the afternoon the

day before and the evening (day 16)…

Teaching and Acknowledging

Positive Behavior

I thank Dominic for his cooperation

(day 5)...

Acatey worked for ten minutes on

problems he picked out himself from

the math book. I praise him for this (day

11)...

I repeatedly speak with Leon about

not letting himself be lured into a brawl

with Acatey and give him praise for

already having restrained himself for so

long... Later, corrected Fabian's essay. I

praised him for doing the work (day

16)...

To Max: Did you not see a chance to

come to Gerrit's aid or to at least exert a

calming influence on the situation? (day

19)...

To Leon: Your great strength is that

you can think so well about yourself

and about everything that goes on inside

you, that you are aware of these things

(day 25)...

I boil water... and rinse the breakfast

dishes... Does he ever help out in the

kitchen at home, I ask Acatey... Would-

n't you like to sweep up? That way, you

also have something to do. Besides,

then I'll be finished faster and we can

read something together (day 27).

I brought a Jiujitsu trainer to class

with me. The trainer and I acted as if we

were provoking each other, then used

different defensive techniques, he from

Jiujitsu, me from Tai Chi... we dis-

cussed aspects such as... inner strength,

controlling one's own aggression, self-

discipline, protecting one's own private

space, and simply walking away at

times (day 90)…

Developing Learning Motivation

And Future Perspectives

I take up the wish of resuming school-

ing in a mainstream school and encour-

age the boys not to let up from applying

themselves to their work (day 7)...

Asked Max today about his perspec-

tive on job prospects, wants to 'turn

tricks as whore at the train station' (day

14)...

… talk with Leon about his career

goals... I suggest looking into which job

specifications touch on his interests...

electric equipment installer, electronic

technician for drive technology, what

the job descriptions are for these profes-

sions, what the training prerequisites

and requirements are (day 25)…

59

Creating and Maintaining

Classroom Order and a Healthy

Learning Environment

In the cabinets, I lock up anything I can

grab, so that everything does not go

sailing out the windows... there is still

sweeping up, with a borrowed broom

(day 3)...

I set up a schedule who can go when

to the shop room and the media room

(day 9)...

I inform them about the new regime

with the second time-shifted lesson plan

(day 11)...

I take Tim and Dominic with me... to

buy... broom, hand broom, dustpan,

rinsing bowl, dishwashing liquid, soap

and a new binder for each student (day

17)...

I obtained green plants and put them

on the windowsills. In the back of the

classroom, I put up natural science

maps of fauna and flora and a teaching

poster with all ship types (day 24)…

Building Positive

Teacher-Student Relationships

I invite the boys out for ice cream (day

3)...

I continually get... students from the

two classrooms adjoining mine on ei-

ther side. I take the opportunity to start

a conversation with these boys as well

(day 4)...

I absolutely must sit down for this... I

bring a teapot and buttered bread with

me and sit down with the four of them.

Tim insists that I also take a bun (day

13)...

I ask Max and the others how they

are getting along (day 15)...

Leon crisps his bread in the mean-

time, later mine as well. He insists on

doing this for me (day 16)...

I bring more green plants to the

classroom, sweep, wipe bookshelves,

window sills, and tables with a moist

cloth, rinse drinking cups, boil water,

make lemon tea for the boys... create a

familial ambiance (day 85)…

Clarifying Group Conflicts

Back in the classroom, I try to unwind

the conflict between Acatey and Patrick

(day 14)...

After a short rest period the oppo-

nents spend in separate classrooms, we

succeed in clearing up what happened

and the interior process (day 17)...

We end the talk with the agreement

that they would avoid each other and

should their paths cross, not to start ar-

guing (day 19)...

I also prepare two posters, one in or-

ange, the other in yellow. This time

with the headings `External complaints´

and `Inner complaints´ (day 24)...

As I am trying to pull apart two scuf-

flers tied up in each other, Leon tries to

stop me from doing so. First, I have to

shake him off before I can intervene in

the heated struggle of the two boys now

fighting on the ground, already ringed

by... spectators (day 30)…

Collaborating with Fellow

Teachers and the Principal

The boys are now asking me for a soft

ball... to play soccer in the hallway... I

check this out with a colleague and

learn that it is customary, for relaxa-

60

tion... to let the students... play soccer in

the hallway... and the colleague from

the media room asks... if we had book

requisitions (day 4)...

… here, all colleagues advise against

bringing valuable items to the class-

rooms (day 10).

Once again, a colleague had her new

cell phone stolen from the teacher's

lounge... The students are to arrive in

shifts after the weekend in order to rec-

tify the situation. The tip came from

colleagues, all supported it in the teach-

er conference, including the principal

(day 10)...

Case consultation. I ask the col-

leagues to tell me about the four old

students in my class (day 12)...

The principal's view is that it is not

about exerting power, but instead about

acting consistently, for example: If you

are going to break off the cabinet door,

you will have to pay for it. Then we will

ask your father to come and discuss

what else remains to be done. So, think

about what you are doing. This way,

you put the responsibility on the young-

ster. The principal counsels against

breaking ground in too many places and

to concentrate foremost on the subject

of reparations... The next subject to be

thematized could be leaving class with-

out permission. If I am not in a position

to devote myself intensively to this con-

struction site then I would do better... to

hold off for now (day 13).

The teacher next door needs a clean

cloth... I send one over to her (day 15)...

Visits during class time must be re-

duced. As a tentative solution we settle

on leaving the doors open for a quarter

of an hour before class starts to leave

the students space for contacts... with

each other (day 18)...

Together with the principal and

teaching staff, I decided that Acatey

would no longer take part in regular

classroom instruction. He will get three

hours individual support from me... oth-

er than that, we will let everything that

to date has functioned continue to run

for him..., an hour of soccer with anoth-

er class and the Mofa course (day 27)…

Collaborating with

Parents or Guardians

Leon's mother tells me this evening on

the phone that I've gotten too close

emotionally to her son, which he is hav-

ing to compensate for by stepping up

his aggressiveness (day 13)...

Conference with Fabian's foster fa-

ther, in the principal's presence… we

discuss the damages... The father says

I'm responsible, because I failed to pre-

vent the escalation. He says: 'If the hotel

guests are dissatisfied, the host gets

replaced!' I... invite him... to see for

himself... I raise the possibility of set-

ting up an individual learning plan for

Fabian, that we can supplement jointly

with the father's inputs... A call from

Max's mother. He has now been thor-

oughly tested by a psychologist. 'A tick-

ing time bomb,' was what she said.

'We'll be lucky if he only kills himself.'

The psychologist advocates close child

and adolescent psychiatry (day 17)...

Conversation with Acatey's parents.

Only the mother came... she knows it all

by heart already... Why does Acatey act

the way he does?... then she talks about

the beatings that Acatey... received as a

child... explanations, that have to with

an unwanted pregnancy... back then, in

eastern Turkey... In any case, it was

61

difficult to love the child... the father

has no emotional connection to the son.

'Neither of us cares about him any

more,' says the mother. Contact with a

psychiatric clinic... Acatey did not want

to talk with the psychiatrist. He said that

the boy was filled with hate and vio-

lence, something needed to be done

urgently. But we did not get a new ap-

pointment (day 18)...

Class open house evening... the par-

ents read the subject roster on the wall...

express agreement with the subjects I

am emphasizing... Leon's mother says,

her son has a big problem with being

allowed to make mistakes. He had ur-

gently to practice writing. He had

been... covering up his weaknesses for

years... During recess... a visit. The do-

mestic partner of Leon's mother and a

Hun friend, brass rings on his fingers,

T-shirts with pit bull portraits. They

came to see who is always beating up

on Leon and to read the boys the riot act

(day 28)...

When I place a call to Jonas, loud

Hip Hop music by a band greets me... A

few days later, the phone line is discon-

nected... Acatey says, his parents had

filed a grievance with the education

office because he only gets nine hours

of class (day 33)...

Sent a list of all the unexcused ab-

sences by Jonas to the mother (day

72)…

Interdisciplinary Work and

Relationship Between School

And Community

Evening... phone conversation with Fa-

bian's therapist... that Fabian acts almost

'submissive'... in the three or four thera-

py sessions to date... and tries very hard

to do what is asked of him. When it

comes to school... he appropriates the

victim role for himself. To the therapist,

he selectively reports things that under-

gird this victim image (day 23)…

The school-community subject area

is reflected in the following passages…

It is my birthday, and so I invite the

students out to a Turkish pizzeria. When

we get there, the door is still locked.

Acatey beats with his fist against the

glass. An old Turk runs over and tells

him to knock it off... On the way back

to school, a few boys get into an argu-

ment with the scaffolding crew on the

church. Tim apparently had climbed up

a ladder. I mediate. Then a group runs

into the church... I herd the boys right

away out of the church, after the experi-

ence at the cathedral (day 17)...

The windows of an apartment across

from the school are repeatedly broken

with stones. Some of my students seem

to know something. The principal has

numerous conversations. The perpetra-

tor is never identified (day 80)…

The Teacher's Thoughts,

Emotions and Reflections:

Seeing Through and Beyond

The Student Behavior

Why the wanton throwing of stuff out

the window? ... Establishing a hierarchy

among one themselves?... To let go... of

the teacher left?... Find out how I react

to these things? (day 3)...

Neither of the two budges. Perhaps it

would mean a loss of face... Acatey

hangs on... to Patrick, although... physi-

cally the weaker. It is as if he was invit-

ing... the punches and kicks... every few

62

days he has blue splotches on his face

(day 14)...

The first, deeper-going relations take

root among the students over the com-

munal breakfast... that Acatey will not

be asked to join in anymore, because he

has blown it with this group... It is also

possible that he does not find a model

for this kind of social interaction within

himself (day 20).

Leon has now emerged for good

from my protective shadow and has

changed sides. He starts to continually

attack and insult me in front of the other

students... he wants to arrive once and

for all in the group of classmates and be

accepted in it (day 30)…

Reflecting and Clarifying

Self-Perceptions and Own Emotions

I'm becoming uneasy (day 3)...

The boys are as big as me and even

with Tai Chi and fitness training, I do

not want risk any physical altercations

(day 5)...

…near-chaos (day 10)...

Acatey takes my backpack, and, stu-

pidly, in that class that day my valua-

bles happen to be in it... the students

have several times removed my bundle

of keys from the desk. A... game, that...

is nerve wracking (day 14)...

The situation is improving... Hope-

fully, Acatey will not come in early

again... recess is relatively peaceful (day

17)...

For a few minutes at least, no outside

violations (day 18)...

Still, it makes me nervous. Some-

how, I blame it on the system for not

remedying the chronic staff shortage

and seemingly being unconcerned with

how I'm going to survive each round

under these conditions (day 19)…

Pedagogical and

Didactical Planning

Locking the door and sending the boys

who do not belong to my own class

away... would... signal rejection (day

4)...

In this group setting, which themes...

deserve to be stressed?... I visualize

what I observe... I describe moderation

charts... and hang the charts in the...

topic tracker: to really make an effort

and learn something, set goals for your-

self, leave all things intact, make use of

the teacher's learning offerings, every-

one here is special, everyone here is

likable, respect others... follow the

rules, rule violations have consequenc-

es, respect the other's boundaries, be on

time for class, formulate learning inter-

ests, feel secure, feel good, be polite, do

your homework, help each other, be-

come a group, be at ease sitting around

in a group, be in the present moment

here. See how the boys react to this?

(day 20)…

Evaluating the Effectiveness

Of Own Actions

I start with a success, a bit of order... to

be maintained (day 15)...

It is hard to pull the two bodies

locked into each other apart. Finally, I

succeed (day 17)...

I hold out the prospect that every

properly completed assignment sheet

will get credit for grading purposes.

This seems to motivate some (day 18)...

63

Acatey... furious 'I'll slug you!'... 'No,

you won't,' I tell him loud and clear. At

the same time, I assume a defensive

posture derived from Tai Chi. The mes-

sage hits home (day 19)…

Planning Behavior-Related

Interventions

… slam the door shut, stick the key in

the lock and lock it from the inside.

This all has to happen very quickly... It

is important that no one feels locked up.

Locking a rampaging student out is a

matter of self-protection and protection

of the other students (day 19)...

…perhaps, make a start by preparing

a meal together with Acatey and then

eat it together with him and... then in-

vite another student and another (day

20)…

Analyzing Teaching and

Learning Processes

Holding a regular class is still out of the

question (day 11)...

… that Max simply just copies all re-

sults... for the moment... is secondary, I

think... homework... For all the others,

this is still out of the question. They

would do nothing with it (day 14)...

I regard... the external chaos caused

by the students as a reflection of their

inner psychic situation. It makes no

sense at this point to ask them to keep

themselves in check and to help with

sweeping, etc. (day 19)...

Acatey... is excluded from the circle

of the other classmates, because he

simply cannot manage to control his

destructive impulses (day 20)...

The learning and work behavior had

to be built up among the students...

from scratch (day 72)…

Dealing with

Pedagogical Dilemmata

What effects would my working with

the police have on the quality of my

pedagogical relationship with... the...

boys, when almost every one of them

engages in small-time criminal actions?

(day 15)...

Max goes to the bathroom... for a

smoke? I am glad he is so peaceable

today (day 19).

Still urgently have to study... the

files... On the other hand, I shy away

from it, because after reading these...

statements, reports and expert opinions,

all the notations about crimes and court

dates... I no longer regard the boys

without prejudice (day 19).

Prohibit... Counterstrike... or thema-

tize it? (day 30)...

Döner-Mafia... Was that game... the

template for the boys' performance in

the health food store? (day 31)...

The past year, Jonas has missed more

than 70% of school days. Would a

mandatory court appearance even do

any good? (day 33)...

Patrick is becoming softer, more

trusting toward me... his father comes

on like a Mafia boss. Meanwhile, I've

gotten credit from both of them because

I relegate everything that is not imme-

diately related to... school to being a

family matter, which I steer clear of

completely. It is harder for the social

worker... Patrick says the man talks too

much (day 80)…

64

Reflecting on Teacher-Student

Relationships

...small... talk with the boys from the

class next door... this way they feel that

I am paying attention to them (day 5)...

I sit down in the reading corner with

Acatey... some days he appears to be

downright fragile and to need support

(day 13)...

Max... sits cross legged on my desk...

As if he wanted to say: Look at me!

Here I am!... He never dared come that

close to me before. He acts as if he

wants to ram his fist in my face (day

24)…

I made this drawing during a long teacher conference. I had been teaching for nearly

five years and had profoundly spent my self through highly engaged work in an alterna-

tive school for students with emotional and behavioral difficulties. A longing for peace,

for stepping back, contemplation and mental stock-taking is what speak to me from this

picture. But there is also the wish for a professional change, for a new start, as my skep-

ticism grew about school culture, leadership and collegial compatibility.

A Longing for Peace,

For Stepping Back,

Contemplation and

Mental Stock-Taking

65

`Each one of us is inevitably involved in deciphering who we actually are. There is no

other who can answer that question for you… Who are you behind your mask, your

role? Who are you behind your words? Who are you when you are alone with yourself?

In the middle of the night, when you awake, who are you then? When dawn rescues you

from the rainforest of the night, who are you before you slip back safely beneath the

mask and name by which you are known during the day?´ (O´Donohue, Eternal Echoes,

p. 145).

Contemporaneous with my work during the 1990s in specialized schools for children

and youth with emotional and behavioral difficulties, I taught a recurring continuing

education course focused on the creative arts. It was an in-service training program for

individuals who had already been active in social and pedagogical fields for some time.

This activity as group moderator over the years put me in touch with many fascinating

people versed in life and their professions. All along, it was I who also learned in these

workshops.

While my students, inspired by Tom Sawyer’s little

treasures arranged objects from their junk drawer in

a shoe carton top, I was digging through my own

desk drawers and boxes, where I came across these

assorted address stamps from my time as a neophyte

teacher that hark back to a few moves and changes

of residence I had made. The fountain pen and

stamps function as symbols of the letter correspond-

ence that I still actively carried on with friends and a

few persons in academia. The discarded watch could

be understood as allegorical of the passage of time.

This Activity as

Group Moderator

Over the Years Put

Me in Touch with

Many Fascinating

People Versed

In Life and Their

Professions

66

Together, the Participants in these Creative Arts

Workshops and I Worked Through an

Abundance of Living-Learning Processes

As action guide framework models served the encounter groups that Carl R. Rogers had

led at one time as did Ruth Cohn’s theme-focused interaction. I always emerged from

these seminars newly inspired and energized to return to my own classrooms in special-

ized schools for youth with emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Inviting artists to take part in pedagogi-

cal work at school can open up new per-

spectives. This student with behavioral

and learning difficulties is working with

Gunhild Lorenzen-Golby on the subject

of right-

wing violence. The youth had

fled with his family to

Germany from

the Balkan wars. Anti-foreigner tenden-

cies in German society in the mid-1990s

gave rise to fears in the boy that he is

expressing here and reflecting on togeth-

er with the artist. The photo above shows

art therapists Barbara Rühl and Shirley

Lindemann-Glaap.

67

Listening to the Hum of Bees,

Letting the Eyes Wander over the Flower Beds,

Watching a Brimstone Butterfly,

Gazing at the Blue Sky,

Following the Clouds

`When you find a place in nature where your mind and heart find rest, then you have

discovered a sanctuary for your soul´ (O´Donohue, Eternal Echoes, p. 21)… `Our

minds are over-saturated and demented. We need to rediscover ascetical tranquillity and

come home to the temple of our senses. This would anchor our longing and helps us to

feel the world from within´ (ibid., p. 4).

When two special education teachers come home after school is out, it is wonderful to

relax for a moment in the garden, to close eyes for just a bit and let what transpired in

school that day pass in review. All the time, listening to the hum of bees, letting the eyes

wander over the flower beds, watching a brimstone butterfly, gazing at the blue sky,

following the clouds we also briefly meditate on a trail of ants as they transport small

loads with enormous intensity and hustle according to what seem to be some hidden

plan. The ants’ liveliness brings our thoughts back to lesson planning for the next day

and sets us to reflecting on our own work as part of a greater plan.

68

PICTURE MAKING WITH

MOVABLE LAYOUT TECHNIQUE

Many of these Students Had

Lost the Spontaneous Childlike

Delight in Pictorial Storytelling

And Self-Expression

When I look back on my years as a

teacher in the field of educating students

with emotional, social and behavioral

difficulties, in both specialized and in-

clusive settings, and on my observa-

tional classroom research conducted at

the juncture of education and special

education, it was primarily the students

with emotional, social and behavioral

difficulties at the secondary school lev-

el, and especially those in specialized

alternative settings, who frequently ex-

hibited scarcely any spontaneous access

to drawing, painting and other artistic

forms.

Some lacked confidence for drawing,

others had little previous artistic experi-

ence or knowledge, or they dodged es-

69

thetic-creative assignments entirely.

Many of these students had lost the

spontaneous childlike delight in pictori-

al storytelling and self-expression or, in

some cases, depending on the individual

socialization backgrounds, it seemed

they had never known it at all.

Rather than putting something on

paper that did not measure up to their

own inflated expectations derived from

media models, they chose not to make

any picture at all and refused to cooper-

ate in class.

Already a problem that is encoun-

tered in this age group generally, it was

that much more pronounced in students

with emotional and social difficulties

and posed extreme challenges for me as

a teacher who wanted, and was obligat-

ed, to make art with this audience.

Students Who Completely Refuse

To Draw Can Easily Be Guided into

The Artistic Terrain and Encouraged

To Have Fun Producing

Pictures on Their Own

To deal productively with this situation

and get these youngsters to make pic-

tures anyway, over the years I devel-

oped a kind of Movable Layout, in es-

sence a collage-assisted drawing tech-

nique. For this purpose, I took availed

myself of a series of pedagogic and ed-

ucation precepts whose effectiveness

research in the field of teaching students

with emotional and behavioral difficul-

ties had confirmed, i.e., breaking up the

task components, explicit and direct

instruction, choice-making, and oppor-

tunities to respond. With this research-

based technique, students with emotion-

al and social needs, who often exhibit

difficulties with pictorial exposition or

who completely refuse to draw because

of the fear of failure, can easily be guid-

ed into the artistic terrain and encour-

aged to have fun producing pictures on

their own, never mind any obvious dif-

ficulties. The academic intervention

undertaken in this way also turns out to

be a behavioral intervention.

The First Thing that Happens

Is a Simplification of the Perspectival

And Compositional Relationships

And Demands

However, this is not merely about re-

ducing the task load. What it does call

for is a special way of structuring the

problem presentation and ways of solv-

ing it. To simply make tasks easier

would undermine the curricular educa-

tional requirements for this group of

students and also not challenge them

enough so they can develop. What the

students need much more is stimuli for

learning.

That is why breaking up the task

components, splitting up the workload

into steps, and adapting the task so that

the respective steps are of shorter dura-

tion is crucial. These strategies lead to

more on-task behavior. Tightly tied into

this is the teaching of component skills.

In classroom work with the Movable

Layout, the first thing that happens is a

simplification of the perspectival and

compositional relationships and de-

mands. Given the chance to arrange the

figure elements against a background

initially on a trial basis, then to manipu-

late them in new and different ways,

makes perspective and the pictorial

space concrete for the student as fore-

70

ground-background, in front of-behind,

etc. and dynamically tangible, compre-

hensible and adjustable. In addition,

teacher input can help students under-

stand this step better and complete it

successfully.

Combined with the principle of sub-

stitution for missing representation

schemes or for deficits in existing cog-

nitive figurative representations, de-

pending on an adolescent’s individual

learning level, previous aesthetic social-

ization and learning biography, this re-

duction of complexity on the formal

level of the perspectival picture compo-

sition corresponds with by a high de-

gree of complexity of visual narrative

and visual message on the content level.

By using this method, the student is

guided step by step to a pictorial crea-

tion that is in most cases very satisfying

for him or her.

Providing Students

Clear Statements About

What Is to Be Learned,

Proceeding in Small Steps

With Concrete and

Varied Examples

The second factor by which the Mova-

ble Layout also contributes to academic

learning and behavior improvement lies

in the way it integrates explicit or direct

instructional practices, with an empha-

sis on providing students clear state-

ments about what is to be learned, pro-

ceeding in small steps with concrete and

varied examples, checking for student

understanding, and achieving active and

successful student participation.

The More Confrontational

A Student's Behavior Is, the

More Important and Effective

Choice-Making Is as an Entry to a

Productive Learning Process

Third, the Movable Layout despite, or

perhaps because of, its high degree of

pre-structuring, allows the students with

emotional and social needs choice-

making in various ways. The positive

effects of choice-making as interven-

tions that reduce problem behavior are

accepted as givens in research.

The more confrontational, the more

disruptive a student's behavior is, the

more important and effective choice-

making is as an entry to a productive

learning process. Movable Layout,

however, was specifically developed for

adolescents with very disrupted behav-

ior patterns, such as those encountered

in specialized settings in alternative

schools or in the Tier III area of a

school-wide model.

Here choice-making, in conjunction

with other precepts – for example,

breaking up the task component as well

as explicit or direct instructional prac-

tices, etc. – is of fundamental im-

portance for dismantling learning re-

sistances in adolescents.

In this, different types of choice-

making can come into play, from pref-

erence and choice of activity through

within-activity choices to a choice of

task sequences. With Movable Layouts,

the youngsters can choose from many

different picture backgrounds and pic-

ture elements, as provided for in specif-

ic lesson plans.

Depending on circumstances, they

may also freely choose the subject of

their art work, or I may give them a

71

choice of two ready-made, combined

background-and-figure sets. Next they

have the opportunity to choose the ma-

terials and artistic technique for doing

further work on a copy of their pictorial

composition.

Offered Now Is the Possibility

Of a Complex, Many-Layered

And Detailed Picture Message

Or Picture Story

Fourth, classroom work with the Mova-

ble Layout includes a variety of oppor-

tunities to respond, understood as in-

structive stimuli that occasion the stu-

dent responses. We need to take into

account that higher rates of opportuni-

ties to respond are associated with in-

creased on-task behavior and decreased

disruptive behavior, and also be clear in

connection with the Movable Layout,

that besides teacher-directed individual

responding, production responses are a

given, particularly in the creative pro-

cesses themselves.

In this way, the Movable Layout

gives every individual student a chance

to tell a story using pictures to share

about himself and the world of his

thoughts and lived life and, beyond that,

to communicate verbally, either in con-

versation with the teacher and/or the

other students.

On the content level, thanks to the

tools provided, offered now is the pos-

sibility of a complex, many-layered and

detailed picture message or picture sto-

ry. The students get the opportunity to

communicate in an artistically sound

manner and at the same time to present

an altogether respectable whole artistic

composition.

This means that the youngsters now

are able to express considerably more

pictorially than they could using just

their intrinsic artistic abilities. With the

Movable Layout system they step up to

complex picture composition and spa-

tial organization that is capable of meet-

ing their own demands far more than

might a free-hand drawing or a free-

hand pictorial design.

Problems and Fears About Artistic

Expression Are Circumvented and

Then Dismantled Step by Step

Thus, problems and fears about artistic

expression are circumvented and then

dismantled step by step through repeti-

tion of successful picture making expe-

riences. The build-up of frustrations or

aggressions, which often lead to the

artistic activity being dropped or not

even begun in the first place, ceases to

be a problem.

The outcome is quiet, disciplined

creative activity, enjoyable pictorial

experimentation and a gradual expan-

sion of native drawing and design abili-

ties. This in turn has a positive effect on

learning motivation and the learning

and working behavior of a youngster

with emotional and social needs.

To Begin with, Discussed Are

Perspectival Issues, Drawing or

Printing Techniques, Possibilities of

Computer Image Processing

Even if life topics are likely to be ad-

dressed directly or indirectly in the pic-

tures, it is recommended that these be

acknowledged in this early phase but

72

not dwelled on as subject for discussion.

Only when a greater degree of behav-

ioral confidence is attained with stu-

dents with emotional and social needs

and develops in parallel with successes

in the field of academic learning, can I,

as a teacher, carefully begin to address

the picture contents and thus possibly

also begin making the contents of a stu-

dent’s special life experience a subject

of discussion, at all times in line with an

pedagogic focus.

But to begin with, discussed only are

perspectival issues, overlaps, size pro-

portions, contrasts, drawing techniques,

printing techniques, possibilities of

computer image processing, etc. This is

safe ground for all participants, students

as well as teachers.

Movable Layout Is a System

Of Manipulatable Picture

Backgrounds and Elements

The idea of placing individual figurative

elements on a background, to move

them around until a desired effect is

achieved and then to photocopy the fi-

nal arrangement and then continue to

work on it is basic graphics technique.

Movable Layout is a system of manipu-

latable picture backgrounds and ele-

ments.

To make working with this method

possible, the first thing to do is assem-

ble a basic assortment of pictorial ele-

ments and backgrounds, for instance, by

copying drawings by famous artists,

figures from how-to-draw books, and

the like. Many documents can furnish

details that can be enlarged or reduced

or otherwise adjusted with image edit-

ing software. The elements are then

printed and or cut out.

The picture backgrounds are mount-

ed or laminated on poster board to make

them more durable. Among the image

backgrounds the following might be

found: Gentle hills rising out of fog, as

well as dense forests or barren, craggy

rocks in an otherwise empty appearing

landscape. On some of my backgrounds

I have used white-out to delete central

figures, animals etc. from the printed

graphics.

I have views of villages, which can

stimulate both representations of idylls

and tranquillity but also boredom and

sadness. Some background scenes I

keep deliberately very amorphous and

indistinct, specially processed in part to

leave as much room for imagination as

possible.

They virtually invite the projection

of subjective imaginings onto them. The

city scenes show tidy avenues as well as

street canyons, apartment blocks and

dark subway shafts. There are also

house or apartment interiors, e.g., a

kitchen with dining table, living room

with sofa, home office, teenagers’

rooms, bedrooms; in short, rooms where

a relevant event or imaginative content

can be staged. The set of varied pictorial

elements should span a broad spectrum

from the aspects of content and motifs.

I derive the selection criteria from

my knowledge of the age-specific inter-

ests of the learning groups that I work

with. Accordingly, I compile my en-

semble in different ways depending on

age but also the youngsters’ conflict

burdens, severity of behavioral issues

and emotional experience.

The repertoire of figure cutouts can

be made up of pictures of men, women,

73

children, adolescents, parent-child

groupings, and so on. They can be

trimmed with scissors before being

placed into the picture to achieve an

optimal fit with what the student per-

sonally intends to depict. Further, there

are pictures of bicycles, motorcycles,

cars, trucks, trains, planes, carriages,

furniture, houses, animals and all sorts

of implements and furnishings, from the

living room chair all the way to the

toothbrush.

Acquiring some light, easy to carry

cases is highly recommended. One case

can hold as many as 150 of the back-

ground images mounted or laminated on

poster board. The other case is dedicat-

ed to the movable figures. By continual-

ly adding to the collection over the

years, newly copying or printing out

damaged items and in between con-

stantly making a few copies, enlarging,

or shrinking drawing elements that you

come across out and make their way

into the case, within a few years it is

easy to accumulate 6,000 to 8,000 ele-

ments.

With this collection it is possible to

work cogently and in a richly varied

manner. But to start with, I will only

have a much smaller collection that I

gradually build up. Occasionally, the

students will also help to cut out newly

copied picture elements. To enhance the

chances of finding suitable motifs and

elements, the students themselves also

get to choose images from art books,

catalogs, other printed images or the

Internet. They copy, enlarge, or shrink

them and then add these supplementary,

found elements to their own composi-

tions and then enhance them by drawing

on them.

Didactical Considerations

When I present too many mixed-up el-

ements to a given study group, it may

be asking too much from the individual

children and teenagers in the way of

sensory overload. I therefore went on to

set up folders arranged by element sub-

ject matter, for instance, by images of

children, adolescents, adults, wild ani-

mals, domestic animals, buildings or

vehicles.

It also lets me hand the students just

the folder with child figures and ani-

mals and specify the topic as `An expe-

rience with an animal.´ I started out

with backgrounds in the DIN A3 for-

mat, but I soon noticed that many stu-

dents with emotional and social needs

later found it difficult to artistically en-

hance the entire picture surface. The

area simply looked too large to them.

They lacked the endurance.

As a complementary alternative, I

therefore put together a smaller set of

backgrounds reduced to DIN-A4. From

then on, I let some students decide for

themselves whether they wanted to

work with a smaller or a larger format,

making another instance of choice-

making a part of this process.

When students first start working

with the Movable Layout system, I rec-

ommend not posing a topic at the start.

Usually the motivation is strong enough

without it, i.e., they very eagerly search

through the picture elements, try them,

arrange them, so that at the early junc-

ture, they would hardly pay attention to

a subject assigned. Later on, it may be

useful to offer something along the fol-

lowing lines: `A weekend at my house.´

`Something that happened here in the

school,´ `Recently something strange

74

happened to me,´ `On the go with my

friends.´

Through these and similar topics, the

students receive stimuli as well as basic

ideas through which a pictorial explora-

tion of an experiential content can be

achieved. A topic could also deal with

`When I really got upset at school´

could also be a topic on the basis of

which it would be possible to work on

the applicable emotional or social issue

with students that are already exhibiting

more stable behavior.

The Creative Process with

Movable Layout Technique

In the creative process, a series of oper-

ations play a special role, the first of

which consists of ordering, experiment-

ing and arranging. The creative process

unwinds in a similar manner regardless

if the assignment is free-form without

subject or tied to a specific topic:

First, the youngsters select a back-

ground, followed by a series of drawing

elements. They arrange, experiment,

move, latch on to an idea or discard it.

They move pictorial elements, e.g., fur-

niture, animals, people, etc. back and

forth across the chosen background un-

til they arrive at a pleasing arrangement.

It happens from time to time that a

student, in follow up to this introductory

experience, desires to change the back-

ground to a different one from the one

chosen initially. I advise making this an

option. It has also happened to me that a

student would rather design an entire

background on his own against which to

position the prepared picture elements.

This type of initiative taking should be

supported anytime, with the rule of

thumb being: As many rules and pre-

structuring by the teacher as necessary,

as much independent creativity by the

students as possible.

Anyone not needing the Movable

Layout who would rather work free-

hand should be allowed to do it! The

method is designed as an aid in inde-

pendent composition and should there-

fore not be experienced as confining.

But cases like this are the exception to

the rule.

Next is selecting and then attaching

the picture elements, followed by pho-

tocopying the layout. The loose ele-

ments are attached with small strips of

double-sided adhesive masking tape and

one or more photocopies are made of

the prepared layout. These copies are

then enhanced using various artistic

methods.

The image backgrounds and moving

elements are reusable and find their way

back into the cases or folders. When

enhancing the copied composition with

artistic means, one possibility for fur-

ther creative work on the picture is to

complete drawing it or adding draw-

ings.

Students who have learning prob-

lems or learning disabilities in particular

usually begin by coloring in their pic-

tures or over them with felt tip markers.

Variations here might consist of offer-

ing the children and teenagers crayons,

oil pastels or water colors.

Even just coloring as an entry into

higher artistic compositional processes

is worthwhile, because the almost al-

ways handsome and brilliantly colored

resulting pictures give satisfaction to the

students who are often accustomed to

failure; they fill them with pride and so

motivate them to go on.

75

In my experience, youngster with

behavioral problems especially like

working with black felt tip pens. Wher-

ever possible, I encourage the students

to draw in missing shape parts or simple

lines, extend them or to add entirely

new details to the pictures by drawing

them in.

Another possibility for artistically

enhancing the copies besides drawing

with felt-tip pen, pencil, fountain pen or

nib is painting on them with brush and

opaque colors to the point where the

contours of the graphic elements are

covered to the extent possible, perhaps

gradually becoming completely invisi-

ble.

Other artistic options are to be found

in transforming, experimenting and ab-

stracting. Based on many years of ob-

servation, students with behavior prob-

lems – as opposed to those with severe

learning difficulties – tend to do more

spontaneous drawing on the copied

compositions and so transform the con-

tent.

Transformation to some extent corre-

sponds to their natural tendency, a cir-

cumstance that can be honored as thor-

oughly positive in this context, for this

natural tendency to transformation that

numerous students with emotional and

social needs evidence here is put in the

service of artistic work.

Impressively original results can be

achieved with the help of monotype or

flat screen printing. In this process,

sheets of plexiglass (real glass is not

used for safety reasons), have a thick

coat of water-soluble ink rolled onto

them. The layout copy with the picture

side facing up is deposited lightly on the

inked surface and then the contours of

the landscape, houses, people, or ani-

mals are traced firmly with a pencil so

that they are pressed into the ink.

The sheet can also be placed step-

wise on differently colored plates. Once

again, the image produced by the mono-

type can be painted on by dissolving the

water-based remaining paint for a

clouded or fogged appearance or adding

a new color accent. To encourage such

experiments and playfulness, it is best

to make several copies of the previously

created template.

In addition, several computer-based

image processing applications offer the

ability to twist scanned-in compositions,

to distort, manipulate and change them

by using various filters. The resulting

images can once more be painted or

drawn on, both on the computer screen

and also on a paper print. The picture

versions can also be cut up and assem-

bled in new or different ways.

Also, experiments on the copy ma-

chine or on a scanner can be done by

turning the template during the expo-

sure process or pulling it out sideways.

This produces abstraction and distortion

effects. Depending on which direction

you pull the sheet, it results in stretch-

ing or compressions, twisting of figures,

buildings, etc.

From these copies, complete new

pictorial compositions can be collaged

and overpainted again. In this way, an

increasing degree of freedom is experi-

enced in handling the original design.

Another alternative is creating a short

picture story or sequence of pictures

from several individual pictures, as in a

comic strip. It need only have the same

characters and elements differently ar-

ranged from scene to scene and each

time it is copied or scanned, then varied

and combined into a story.

76

It is also conceivable that a certain

composition is varied in different ways.

This can lead to staging a kind of sym-

bolic trial action or also creative action

on the picture level that could also play

a role later on in helping the young

people deal with real-world tasks con-

fronting them.

Multiple references to the world of

art are given. The history of art is filled

with examples of pictures, which can be

used by way of introduction, concur-

rently, in conclusion or in comparison,

etc. The topics of abstraction, working

in series, or confrontation with art

works already pose markedly higher

intellectual demands on the students.

For many of them, this is unfamiliar

territory, but the Movable Layout with

its rich set of variations provides an

orientation that also gives youngsters

with emotional and social difficulties

the confidence to explore this terrain

step by step.

Pedagogic Integration with

School Instruction

The method can be used in different

teaching contexts. Hence, I successfully

made the technique the focus of a

teacher-guided series of classes and

systematically worked through the work

steps and variable possibilities with the

student in a formal course. This method

is useful, for example, when I teach art

as subject teacher to a specialized class

for two hours per week. It works simi-

larly in an inclusive setting, where I

mostly work in a class as a part-time co-

teacher.

As a class teacher in a specialized

school I also have the option of making

available to my students the picture

backgrounds and picture elements over

several weeks during specific class

hours as part of course offerings under

daily and weekly lesson plans. The

Movable Layout system here is part of a

broader overall palette of curricular

offerings which the students can choose

from.

The first phase of choosing and ar-

ranging of picture elements is easier

when done with the study group as a

whole. It requires the use of all availa-

ble tables for two hours on which to

spread all the material. I think it is ad-

visable to do further enhancement work

in more open learning processes. In this

way, more opportunities are provided

for individual guidance discussions with

the students.

It is also a fact that not all students

show the same degree of perseverance

when it comes to working on the pic-

tures. The first phase of choosing and

arranging usually proceeds in a highly

motivated way. When faced with a copy

of their own composition, it already

starts to look more like work.

Some students, particularly those

with severe behavioral problems, often

only color the pictures very cursorily or

in a fragmentary way or soon break off

their artistic activity again.

The parallel installation of other

learning stations with different contents

and methods allows these learners to

easily switch from one activity to the

another and relieves me of the pressure

of having to make the students continue

working against their will or forcing me

to come up immediately in that situation

with an alternative way of occupying

those still unsettled, hurried, impatient

learners.

77

Often, after ten or twenty minutes

doing arithmetic on the computer, they

return to their picture to continue work-

ing on it for a while. In this connection,

too, choice-making is operating as a

fundamental pedagogical principle.

The Movable Layout allows the con-

struction of complex visual narratives,

so the chance to discuss the students’

compositions should definitely be

grasped. There are opportunities to re-

spond on several levels here, through

conversation but also in the form of

mini essays.

During inclusive instruction in pri-

mary schools, I have usually let the

whole class write stories about their

finished pictures. In classes with up to

thirty children, this is often the only

way to get to hear something from eve-

ryone and to learn. Depending on the

specific setting, the texts can be read in

small groups and discussed.

I gave special support to the groups

of students with emotional and social

needs, so that an active participation by

all and a constructive working atmos-

phere in working with the pictures and

self-written stories prevailed. For stu-

dents with emotional and social issues

that have concurrent learning problems,

it is often useful to specify beginning

sentences fragments that they then

complete or to let the students talk

about their pictures while I record them.

The text that I write down and then

type up I hand back to the student to

read, add to and develop further. Fun-

damental here is assessing the written

expression skills carefully case by case

to avoid provoking any refusal reactions

stemming from negative expectations

regarding success.

The Bridging Function of

The Movable Layout

Even students with emotional and social

difficulties who initially very much

shrink from aesthetic-creative tasks or

learning opportunities or reject them

vehemently – be it because of the task’s

high complexity and the resulting ex-

pectations of failure or because of un-

settling gender identity issues that are

associated with art – unexpectedly find

themselves in a complex process of de-

signing, experimenting and composing

thanks to the Movable Layout system.

In this way, escape-maintained dis-

ruptive student behavior can be circum-

vented, by substituting missing artistic

potential and, when it comes to the pro-

cess of creating pictures, by reducing

the complexity of pictorial composition

and segmenting it into steps that the

students are capable of mastering.

By employing this method, work in-

terruptions triggered by frustration can

be avoided. Students with serious artis-

tic difficulties or refusal attitudes are

easily and successfully guided into the

artistic terrain and encouraged to inde-

pendently lay out pictures and creative

compositions in a fun way. It opens up

ways to freer forms of artistic work.

78

Movable Layout Technique: Work Results from a Specialized Classroom

79

Movable Layout Technique: Work Result of a University Student

Jaqueline Rosenbaum, University of Cologne, Germany

80

Movable Layout Technique: Work Result of a University Student

Isabella Giehler, University of Cologne, Germany

81

Be it Campania, the Basilicata, Apulia, Calabria, Sardinia or Sicily, southern Italy was

and remained throughout the years of teaching school a longed-for destination, a world

to retreat to, to slow down in, to contemplate it all from – a counter world to my solid-

booked professional and familial existence. One time I traveled to Procida, Ischia or

Capri, always combining it with a shorter stay in Naples; another time it was to Bari,

Monopoli, or Lecce. Learning the Italian language also served this tapping into and nav-

igating this alternate world.

Southern Italy,

A Counter World

To My Solid-Booked

Professional and

Familial Existence

82

The murals I discovered on one of these journeys in the small coastal town of Diamante

reflected at once the story of economic and social hardships of my cherished Mez-

zogiorno and the resulting great wave of emigration to the United States that took off in

the 19th century.

The Murals in the Small

Coastal Town of Diamante

Reflect the Story of Economic

And Social Hardships of My

Cherished Mezzogiorno

83

Having Chalked up Many Quite Varied Experiences as Teacher

And Vice-Principal over the Years with Respect to Leadership Styles

and School Organizational Cultures, It Was a Wonderful Chance to

Translate My Own Leadership Philosophy into Action

I capped the last phase of my active teaching career by leading a specialized school for

students with emotional, behavioral and learning difficulties. Having chalked up many

quite varied experiences as teacher and vice-principal over the years with respect to

leadership styles and school organizational cultures, it was a wonderful chance to trans-

late my own leadership philosophy into action. I developed this philosophy on the one

hand through extensive reading, but also by taking continuing education courses in this

field and, of course, also from my own experiences gathered in all those schools through

the years. Above all, I fused together a school community, i.e. the teachers, students,

parents and other stakeholders, into a network whose hallmark was mutual trust and

support. It included the cleaning crew and the janitor. How often these individuals func-

tioned as effective social helpers who engaged students in informal situations and con-

versed with them!

84

163

5.

THE YEARS IN HIGHER

EDUCATION

`The well of your mind flows

out of ancient ground´

(O´Donohue, Eternal Echoes, p. 19).

For seven years I had worked on my postdoctoral thesis while I was

employed, i.e., while I was teaching school after completing my

teacher training. I had used the many class room periods in the

schools for reconstructing the life worlds and life themes of children

and youth with emotional and behavioral difficulties and/or learning

problems on the basis of their drawings, other pictorial design and

youth culture productions. The scene shows me with some of the

well-wishers after my inaugural lecture as a private docent at the

University of Cologne. Second from right is Professor Dr. Hans-

Günther Richter, advisor for my postdoctoral thesis and my mentor.

164

In Stendal, in the City of

Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s Birth,

I Spun Many a Thought and

Penned Many a Sentence

The photo shows my kitchen that doubled as my study in the back of a roughly 300 year

old half-timbered house in Stendal, East Germany. Here, in the city of Johann Joachim

Winckelmann’s birth (1717-1768), I spun many a thought and penned many a sentence.

Sitting at this table, I also read a great number of literary works, to unlock other worlds

and for a while lose myself in them. From here I had a view of a rear building that had a

great hall in it and had stood empty for years. From the year 1900 on, when the house in

which I lived was still a parsonage, this hall had served as a church assembly room.

Now all was silent – the piano and the organ that stood in it, the cabinets with dishes

and hymnal books had been untouched for decades. Of course, you had to climb a bit

because the stairwell’s rotten woodwork had collapsed. In those cold Stendal winters,

fern frost collected on the tall windows. It was a suggestive place that gave wings to the

imagination.

165

What Tales

This School Building

In Stendal,

In the State of

Saxony-Anhalt,

Alone Could Tell

About the Times

What tales this school building in Stendal, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, alone could

tell about the times since it was built! About the Bauhaus style developed in the archi-

tecture and art of the 1920s and 1930s, then all that happened during the Third Reich,

and, after the Second World War, life in the Soviet occupation zone and then the GDR

until the Wall came down and the transition that followed. Then came my collaboration

as professor with the Comenius School, mentoring a group of university students and

helping its teachers work with children and youth with special learning needs. Bicycling

through Stendal in the summer, it was easy to imagine yourself back in the 1920s!

166

167

`One of the most fascinating questions about your thinking is

why do you have the thoughts that you do and why do you link

them together in these patterns? The secret bridges from thought

to thought are invisible´ (O´Donohue, Eternal Echoes, p. 38).

Occasionally, there materialized complete unexpected sojourns,

such as one in Scotland’s Aboyne. My older son in the middle of

his volunteer social year landed in a special education institution

near Aberdeen. And since our younger son was in Colorado for

a year of school and living with a host family in Fort Collins, we

simply relocated our Christmas and New Year celebration to

Scotland. The heavy snows that fell that winter ennobled the al-

ready very beautiful landscape at the foot of the Highlands. We

spent restful and also companionable days in this house by the

River Dee, and I also profited from the unique, white clad natu-

ral beauty surrounding us for taking notes, writing, and spinning

my thoughts.

I also Profited from the

Unique, White Clad

Natural Beauty

Surrounding Us for

Taking Notes, Writing,

And Spinning My

Thoughts

168

When Your Heart Is

Confused or Heavy,

A Day Outside in

Nature´s Quiet Eternity

Restores Your Lost

Tranquillity

`Nature calls us to tranquillity and rhythm. When your heart is confused or heavy, a day

outside in nature´s quiet eternity restores your lost tranquillity´ (O´Donohue, Eternal

Echoes, p. 22)… `In the inner landscape of the soul there is a nourishing and melodious

voice of freedom always calling you. It encourages you to enlarge your frames of be-

longing – not to settle for a false shelter that does not serve your potential. There is no

cage for the soul. Each of us should travel inwards from the surface constraints and visit

the wild places within us. There are no small rooms there´ (ibid., p. 145).

I rode my bicycle to the banks of the Elbe from Stendal while I was teaching there. I

found a still countryside, almost devoid of humans, a singular, meditation-inducing flow

of water – just me, my bicycle and my thoughts.

169

The Terminal

For Flights to America at

Frankfurt am Main Airport

Here Assumes Symbolic Importance,

As My Own, Salutary

Luftbrücke

Human science departments in German universities can at times be very politico-

ideologically stamped, intellectually narrow constructs with only a modicum of academ-

ic freedom left in them to think and act. Instead, micropolitical tactical maneuvering,

power struggles and intrigues condition the daily academic routine and the work atmos-

phere. Having involuntarily found myself in such a situation for a number of years, I

began to seek out collaboration partners in the USA as a positive counterweight. The

transatlantic work, the appreciation for freedom and pragmatism of my American part-

ners reinvigorated me, gave me new meaning and perspectives. The terminal for flights

to America at Frankfurt am Main airport here assumes symbolic importance, as my

own, salutary Luftbrücke.

Luftbrücke refers to the Berlin Airlift organized by the Western Allied army air forces in

1948-1949 to break the Soviet blockade of Berlin.

170

TRANSATLANTIC

WORKSHOPS AND

FIELD TRIPS

Working Together with View

Over the Roofs of Cologne

And the River Rhine

That afternoon the group went to the

Cologne Teachers’ College where the

university students that become teachers

get a practical training for eighteen

months. There we had a three-hour

workshop with a team of instructors,

from the English department, all experi-

enced teachers, and their student teach-

ers.

The team of the Cologne Teachers’

College and the faculty from Lenoir-

Rhyne University, North Carolina, and

University of Applied Sciences Magde-

burg-Stendal, collaboratively planned

that workshop, during pre-trip planning.

The topic, that was supposed to in-

clude all the sub-groups, was: `How can

we put individualized learning into

practice in schools?´ The Teachers Col-

lege’s team developed the details of the

meeting, pre-arranged tables, cards with

tasks and themes, and flip charts for

presenting and sharing the results in the

rotunda of the historical building. They

also graciously provided coffee and

biscuits.

Contact between the group members

was facilitated by an opening `Contact

Bingo´ game, followed by small group

exchanges with the Cologne students

sharing their experiences in teacher

training, and also whole group opportu-

nities with the mixed group reading and

discussing a common text in English (a

scene from a play taking place in a

classroom).

The sizes of the groups were small

enough to allow the students to ask

questions and have verbal exchanges

easily, and `best practices´ were dis-

cussed and critiqued. The exciting result

of this pre-arranged didactical structure,

was 100 people working together in the

rotunda with an outstanding view over

the roofs of Cologne and the river

Rhine.

Dinner on Board of

A High Speed Train

To the East

A visit to the old city of Cologne con-

cluded this part of the field trip. The

group continued their trip to the East of

Germany on a high speed train. The

train ride provided an excellent time for

the German and American students and

faculty to have dinner on board and

continue learning about one another,

and to discuss experiences from the

Cologne program…

171

Exploring Schools,

History and Culture in Stendal,

Saxony-Anhalt

Prior to visiting Halle and Weimar the

American and German students and

faculty explored the city of Stendal,

Saxony-Anhalt, in-depth, where the

university is located. This city of around

25.000 inhabitants has much to offer,

from the historical buildings from the

late Middle Ages, the Baroque and

Classic period to the uniform and mo-

notonous buildings from the Soviet

time.

The group also visited different types

of schools in that East German city,

such as preschools, elementary and dif-

ferent types of secondary schools,

watched teaching and learning process-

es in the classrooms, and talked with

principals and teachers. At times, bi-

national smaller groups visited different

institutions. At the end of the day, back

at campus, the various groups ex-

changed experiences and thoughts.

Changes in the

Educational System in

Former East Germany after

The Fall of the Wall

One afternoon, in a large secondary

school, one of the partner schools of the

University of Applied Sciences Magde-

burg-Stendal, Campus Stendal, a dis-

cussion was held with the complete

school staff including the principals, the

teachers and social workers. Topics of

discussion were the changes in the edu-

cational system in former East Germany

after the fall of the Wall; how the teach-

ers and other school staff personally

experienced that transition, and finally

managed to deal with the new situa-

tion…

Cooperative Planning

Of the Field Trips

When planning the field trips of 2010

and 2012, key themes were developed

cooperatively. The actual cultural and

educational programs were then de-

signed around those themes. Both field

trips included the exploration of the

German educational system in compari-

son with the educational system in the

United States, in particular that of North

Carolina.

During the first field trip additional

topics included political and historical

themes from the Third Reich to the

Cold War to the fall of the Wall and the

realignment and transition processes in

East Germany.

The second field trip included an ex-

ploration of the German classical period

but also the corrupting of the Weimar

myth by the Nazis. In the evenings stu-

dents and faculty sat together over din-

ner at the youth hostel and discussed the

events and impressions of the day. Es-

pecially the American students ex-

pressed detailed, profound and mean-

ingful thoughts about their observations,

impressions and experiences.

Value of School-University

Partnerships

The support and cooperation of princi-

pals and teachers of the German schools

participating in the transatlantic work-

shops were extraordinarily good. I had

172

built a network of partner schools in

Stendal, Saxony-Anhalt, to make educa-

tional institutions accessible for my own

students. Now these schools generously

opened their doors to students and fac-

ulty from the United States, on the basis

of these already existing professional

relationships.

Several of the German schools of-

fered the American students and faculty

the opportunity to come back for a

longer internship or for their research.

Indeed, several student teachers from

North Carolina returned to East Germa-

ny to work as assistant teachers at ele-

mentary and secondary schools, under

supervision via Skype from faculty

from the United States. These students

more quickly picked up elements of the

German language. They really accessed

the foreign setting and moved on to an

in-depth experience.

Students Deeply Immersed

While Exploring the

City of Weimar

In Weimar, during the guided tours of

the homes of Goethe and Schiller, the

rococo ballroom in the Anna Amalia

Library, or the Wittums-Palais, one

could observe the students deeply im-

mersed with the audio guides moving

from room to room, pausing for exam-

ple in Schiller’s office, or the famous

dining room of Anna Amalia, where the

intellectual elite of that time used to

meet.

The students were also deeply moved

by the exhibits and the extensive

grounds of the concentration camp

Buchenwald, where everybody could

move with German or English speaking

audio guides in an individual manner. In

addition to the scheduled tours in Wei-

mar, there was also sufficient time for

self-scheduled activities for the stu-

dents.

Bi-national groups of students ac-

tively explored the city, e.g. the famous

crypt. Some single students also made

their way to the Nietzsche-Villa. And

always there were small conversations

inspired by these places and by the

young people exploring them.

Informal Student Activities

Happened on the Green Meadows

By the River Ilm

Perhaps because of the beautiful and

sunny May weather, a great part of the

informal student activities happened on

the green meadows by the river Ilm,

very close to the castle and the Anna

Amalia library. While students of both

nations sat by the cool water of the river

to refresh themselves, they vividly dis-

cussed the devastating fire in the library

in the year 2004. Or they contemplated

about the rock of fortune that can be

found in Goethe’s garden. It seems that

learning can happen very individualized

and informally during such a field trip.

Residents of Stendal Extremely

Helpful in Hosting the

American Students

The residents of Stendal were extremely

helpful in hosting the students and tak-

ing them to the various program sites.

While the American guests were in

town, one had the impression that the

whole population participated in the

173

international exchange program. Almost

daily the local newspapers reported

about the program and the next steps the

group had taken.

During the first year the mayor gave

a reception. He would have done the

same during the second year, but the

time was needed for the field trip to

Weimar. The American students per-

ceived this closeness to and with the

residents of Stendal as laudable and a

very positive aspect of their experience,

regardless if they were hosted in student

apartments, family homes with both

parents and small children, single adults

or elder couples, where the children had

moved away and now there was a bed

available.

In some cases, the American students

became so attached to the host family

that communication between the two

individuals continues nearly two years

later. In two cases, German students

came to the United States to visit with

American students they met during the

transatlantic workshop.

174

Values that Guide My Actions:

Reflecting on Insight, Knowledge, Truth and

Responsibility for the Societal Whole

On this Planet Earth

What are the values that guide my actions as holder of a university chair in a small

specialty field of pedagogy? What can, may, and must I convey to the young people

who come to study in my department? These questions came up as I recently stood in

Rome before this balcony from which the Pope broadcasts his messages to the world.

Even if my area of responsibility fortunately is much smaller than the Pope’s, I, too,

have to reflect on insight, knowledge, truth and responsibility for the societal whole on

this planet Earth.

175

Leaving the Conference Hotel

Across from Chicago’s Hancock Tower

After Lectures and Workshops,

I put on Jogging Shoes and

Ran down the City’s Wide Avenues

All the Way to the Loop

Leaving the conference hotel across from Chicago’s Hancock Tower after lectures and

workshops, I put on jogging shoes and ran down the city’s wide avenues all the way to

the Loop, the city’s heart. The run induced a wonderful sort of euphoria as did my entire

stay in this city. I reflected that our American lineage - my paternal forebears, emigrat-

ing in the 1850s from South Westphalia - helped build this, too. And, of course, so did

the Irish who color the Chicago River green on St. Patrick’s day every year and make

music in the streets: such dynamism!

176

These sculptures in a fountain on Rome’s Piazza Navona remind me

of the pitched battle that I had to wage as vice-principal at a special-

ized school for children and youth with emotional and behavioral dif-

ficulties, against the malice, intellectual limitation, lack of imagina-

tion, cynicism and resultant inhumane pedagogy of a female school

principal, her coterie of teachers that she had suborned by privileges,

and the politicians and bureaucrats who gave aid and comfort to this

system from behind the scenes out of micropolitical motives. The

struggle went on for years, but ultimately it succeeded.

The Pitched Battle that

I had to Wage as

Vice-Principal

177

`Over the edge of the mountain you can hear the chorus of the ocean´ (O´Donohue,

Eternal Echoes, p. 22)…`Each day that is given to you is full of the shy graciousness of

divine tenderness. It is a valuable practice at night to spent a little while revisiting the

invisible sanctuaries of your lived day. Each day is a secret story woven around the ra-

diant heart of wonder´ (ibid., p. 110).

Being permanently bound up in the institutional processes and compulsions of schools

and universities invariably produced in me the need to leave it all behind, at least for a

limited time, to come up for air, to clear the head, to open the perceptions and con-

sciousness again for things other than the professional details and to strip away the insti-

tutional conditioning and psychic deformation that can result. For this, backpacking

trips on the South West Coast Path through Cornwall and Devon were the highly con-

ducive means. The photo shows the view from a bedroom in a cottage near Porthleven.

The Atlantic Ocean breakers roll in right behind those hills.

To Open the

Perceptions and

Consciousness

Again for Things

Other than the

Professional

Details and to

Strip Away the

Institutional

Conditioning

And Psychic

Deformation that

Can Result

178

Suffering Damage

After Being Active in

Pedagogical Institutions

For Periods of Time

Is Unavoidable

Unless now and then

A Time-out is Taken

Suffering damage after being active in pedagogical institutions for periods of time is

unavoidable unless now and then a time-out is taken. Its survival value resides in con-

templative phases, breathing fresh air, movement, mountain ascents, or looking into the

distance. Sils-Maria is an auspicious starting point for this.

179

It is About

Stepping Back

From the Many

Small Impositions

Of the Pedagogic

Workaday,

Be It in Schools

Or in Universities

It is about stepping back from the many small impositions of the pedagogic workaday,

be it in schools or in universities; about distancing the self from the many small admin-

istrative acts which we must contribute simply in order to secure our livelihood. The

mountains surrounding Lake Sils in the Upper Engadin are highly conducive places for

me in this respect, because of the region’s special character that so many intellectuals

experienced before me.

180

I visualized the library in the Hotel Waldhaus as a place for conversation and reflection,

for thinking through discrete episodes from schools and universities. The idea was once

more to have the various stages of professional and familial life pass in review with an

attentive conversation partner.

Thinking Through

Discrete Episodes from

Schools and Universities

In Review with an Attentive

Conversation Partner

181

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Inspirational Moments in an Educator‘s Life: It Is All About Responsible Relationships, Important Learning, Philosophic Imagination and the Will to Move Ahead

Abstract