Caspar Kuhlmann

Caspar Kuhlmann (born May 28, 1926 in Bremen ; † September 18, 1990 there ) was a German teacher and educational planner . As a high school councilor in the Bremen Senate Administration for Education and Science, he was responsible for the content of the school from 1972 to 1990.

Life

Kuhlmann was born as the second son of the doctor Robert Kuhlmann and his wife Milly. After graduating from high school, he studied English , history and Latin at the Universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg , initially not with the aim of becoming a high school teacher. His first doctoral thesis , which he began at the age of 21 but could not complete due to the death of his doctoral supervisor in 1947, showed his scientific interest. From 1957 to 1958 he worked for a year as part of the Fulbright program as an exchange teacher in the USA at Ripon High School in Wisconsin . After the clerkship he was from 1958 to 1964 at the Gerhard-Rohlfs-Gymnasium in Bremen-Nord as assessor and teacher worked.

In 1970 he switched from teaching to teacher training at the Scientific Institute for School Practice (WIS) in Bremen. Two years later he was appointed to a senior school board position in the senatorial authority and commissioned to set up the newly established learning planning department .

He was married to Ilse Kuhlmann, nee Kuhlenkampff.

Work in the Max Planck Institute for Human Development

From 1965 to 1967 Kuhlmann worked at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin under the direction of Hellmut Becker . In collaboration with Saul B. Robinsohn , he wrote the book School Reform in the Social Process . Together with Robinsohn, he published the essay Two Decades of Non-Reform in West-German Education , which can be counted among the decisive impulses that addressed the need for fundamental school reform in Germany. During this time, Caspar Kuhlmann's report on learning and administration for the German Education Council also fell . His dissertation under Rudolf Lennert emerged from his work at the Max Planck Institute , which he completed in 1970.

Curriculum development and learning planning in Bremen

The name Kuhlmann combines curriculum development and learning planning over a period of almost two decades (1972–1990) in the state of Bremen. In the early 1970s, influenced by his collaboration with Saul B. Robinsohn at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Kuhlmann developed a pragmatic concept for curriculum development for schools in Bremen and, with the participation of the Bremen teaching staff, the content and goals of school learning were thoroughly redefined subjected. The results were a new generation of learning goal-oriented curricula - noted on the "Kuhlmann bar" named after him - which, following on from the curriculum theoretical concepts of the 1970s, went structurally and in terms of content far beyond what was previously the standard for teaching at schools in Bremen. The new curricula and additional teaching materials formed the content-related complementation and basis for the structural changes in the school sector implemented by the SPD state government in the 1970s (introduction of the multi-level school with orientation level , establishment of school centers , integration of general and vocational education in secondary school centers) for the didactic reorientation of teaching at the schools in Bremen. Kuhlmann founded in his book Our school is changing educational and learning theory the many structural changes in the Bremen education. He published on a variety of educational topics. During his agency work, he often worked as a ghostwriter for several senators.

Contributions to peace education

Inspired by his work in the foundation for peace work “ die schwelle ”, Kuhlmann was one of the first in Germany to take up the topic of peace education in the context of textbook analysis in the early 1980s. He was interested in answers to the question of why the subjects of peace and peacekeeping in school books were far less of an interest than the depiction of wars and violence. His investigations and analyzes resulted in several essays and in particular in the book publication Peace - not a subject of European school history books , which has been translated into several languages. His studies were taken up by other authors and supplemented for the countries of England, France, Poland and Switzerland. Lectures followed, among others in Poland and the former GDR as well as in several federal states. The positive supra-regional and international response led to a more intensive occupation with peace education topics for the classroom. Several workbooks for peace education were developed as teaching material and used for teaching purposes.

Publications (selection)

• With Saul B. Robinsohn: Two Decades of Non-Reform in West-German Education. In: Comparative Education Review. No 3/1967.
• Ten theses on school reform and education policy. In: C. Führ (Hrsg.): On the educational reform in the Federal Republic of Germany. Weinheim 1969. (Report and documentation on a conference at the Unesco Institute for Education in Hamburg from June 18 to 21, 1968)
• School reform and society in the Federal Republic of Germany 1946–1966 . Stuttgart 1970.
• Learning and Administration, German Education Council . (= Reports and studies of the education commission. Volume 23). Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-12-925070-0 .
• Basics of learning planning in the state of Bremen. Edited by Senator for Education, Science and the Arts. Bremen 1974.
• Our school is changing . Edited by the Senator for Education, Science and Art. Bremen 1979.
• Peace - Not an Issue in European School History Books? Frankfurt 1982, ISBN 3-8204-7028-X .
• With R. Möhlenbrock: Status and perspectives of learning planning in the state of Bremen . Edited by the Senator for Education, Science and Art. Bremen 1988.
• Psychological aspects of learning planning in the state of Bremen. In: H. Heye, W. Arnold (Ed.): Texts on school psychology and educational counseling. Volume 3, Braunschweig 1979.
• Change of perspective in history class. Peace education as the subject of school books. In: New Collection. Issue 1/1981.
• Peace, a topic in European history text-books. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-8204-7029-8 .
• Discovery learning and basic skills. In: U. Hameyer (Ed.): Aktif - Experience reports and studies. (= IPN materials ). Kiel 1987, ISBN 3-89088-021-5 .
• Namibia in school lessons . Edited by Senator for Education, Science and the Arts. Bremen 1987.
• Education for our time - food for thought on school design . Edited by Rolf Möhlenbrock. Bremen 1992.

Web links

• Literature by and about Caspar Kuhlmann in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Threshold, website