Day 13 (Yandamé)

This morning I had to get up pretty early. My host sister plays in the Jazz Band of the school every day in period 0 and today I was supposed to join her, so we headed for school together at approximately 7. After one hour of already very jazzy sounding music (the Jazz Band is quite new) me and my host went to her regular first period, which is U.S. History. The students had to work on several information worksheets in order to choose a topic for a project for the so-called History Day, where everyone will have a presentation of their project. 

Later on, all of us German visitors were being awaited at the library to have a panel discussion with a few American students. Eight of us and eight of them were sitting in the front, the moderator Mr Buehring in the middle. After a short introduction through Mr French the first round was about to start. The general topic was “Differences between the German and American school system”, and the point we started with: mobile phones. Obviously we at Gymnasium Farmsen are not allowed to use our phones at all, while the students at South High basically use it all the time, even when the teacher is talking. This was kind of shocking for us. But honestly, now, after having seen the complete opposite, I tend to like the rule we have at our school. Of course, sometimes it would be easier to be able to have a quick look at your phone in class, but I can’t imagine that I really learn something when I play with it non-stop. 

Another point was the security at South High. It’s the case that they have a lot of security guards walking around the whole building, watching you and even telling you to get to class when you don’t hurry. We as Germans said we wouldn’t like being watched all the time and always being kind of “suspected” ofhaving done something bad – even the Americans agreed with us that the security represents how little trust the school administration has in the students. Nevertheless I think security guards can be helpful if it really comes to an issue.

Then we showed the Americans what a typical German schedule looks like. This caused many questions concerning different subjects, homework and school day organization. The biggest difference between both school systems is probably that American students have the same schedule every day, while we have a changing one. We didn’t really have time to talk about advantages and disadvantages of this, but after having experienced exactly the same process day after day here I am almost sure I prefer the German kind.

After a short break, in which some students left and others joined us, we started the second round. Now the topics were getting more social. The first one: activities after school. When we compared a normal day, we noticed that many Americans happen to participate in the school’s clubs and activities – the reason for that is most likely that their school offers a lot of different things like sport teams, creative clubs, organization groups. At Gymnasium Farmsen you haven’t got many opportunities to do so as soon as you turn older than 13, in addition it’s not that common. 

What was very interesting for all of us was the following discussion about alcohol, drugs and guns. In the States you aren’t allowed to drink alcohol before you reach the age of 21, which caused the question “Do you always stick to that rule?”. Because of teachers being present we agreed on answering like this: “So, I heard from a friend of a friend…”. Although it is a serious topic this quickly became the funniest part of the discussion.

The whole panel discussion took about two hours, and we had to leave soon to get the bus to the MIA, the Minneapolis Art Institute. So we stopped at the cafeteria for a quick lunch (which wasn’t the best, as expected) and then walked over to the next bus stop. Having arrived at the MIA, we dropped our bags and jackets and went for a tour through the Institute with Larry and Victoria, two South High students who work there. We saw a lot of modern art, antique sculptures and a real painting of Van Gogh, which we could relate and compare to another Van Gogh painting we had seen at the MoMA in New York City. Two hours later, when everyone got a coffee from the MIA’s coffee shop and felt strong enough to return to the bus stop, we grabbed our bags and started our way back to school. As we were able to manage some calling difficulties, my host father came to pick me up there soon. In the evening the grandparents of my host sisters arrived and we had dinner all together. I fell asleep early after this interesting, but exhausting day.