Class life
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Class life |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2005 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hubertus Siegert |
| script | Hubertus Siegert |
| production | Hubertus Siegert |
| camera | Armin Fausten |
| cut | Bernd Euscher |
Klassenleben is a documentary film from 2005 about class 5d at a Berlin elementary school that has been teaching disabled and non-disabled children together for thirty years - from highly gifted to severely disabled. This “school for everyone” became a model for integration schools in Berlin and other federal states. Siegert observed the extraordinary everyday school life for half a year and shows what learning in a school looks like for everyone.
content
February 2004. Luca, Marwin, Natalie, Dennis, Johanna, Christian and 15 other children meet at the beginning of the semester at the Fläming School in Berlin. They belong to class 5d, the school's remedial class, in which students learn extremely different skills together. Four of the children are classified as disabled, from learning difficulties to severely disabled, and are not graded. The class has two supervisors, some subject teachers and the class teacher, Ms. Haase. It is considered strict but fair. Her great love is the theater.
The director Hubertus Siegert takes part in the adventure of a school half-year at eye level with the children. Success and conflicts, fun and tears, wit and hardship, rivalries and friendships flash in the various stories that together paint the moving picture of a multi-layered and exciting, very unique universe: a class life.
A school theater project is being rehearsed, " The Girl from Harry's Street, " but who is playing the main role? The children prepare presentations in extremely heterogeneous working groups. But I learn faster on my own, says one person, and I notice how difficult it is to pass on your lead to others. School is not fun every day. Homework is forgotten, tears are shed after the unjust exam. Dictation means stress, and I'd rather not sit next to it. During the break you play “boys catch girls” or jump over a long chain of school bags.
School is not just about teaching and learning. One laughs, is sad, makes nonsense, is afraid, plays, fights, gives in and gives up big; alone and, that is what matters at this school, together. At the end, the children celebrate a classmate's birthday. She suffers from an incurable disease, can no longer move or speak and is still a living part of this class community.
Hubertus Siegert does not explain a pedagogical concept, but observes the everyday life of eleven-year-olds outside of the usual segregation in grammar school, secondary school, secondary school and special school with great attention and sympathy, without sentimental glorification or pedagogical index finger: No PISA debate, but an exciting and moving one Adventures full of passions, moments of happiness and catastrophes, aha experiences, expectations and insights. In the loving closeness to its protagonists, class life opens up a strangely forgotten world that is completely different, very present.
Quotes
“I think upbringing has to do with everything: bribery, blackmail, yelling and being kind. The latter is necessary so that the children do not hate the teachers. "
“I wanted to see how the different children in this unusual class develop and see how you can put that together into a film. So I didn't want to document the concept of this school, I wanted to see what was happening in the class. I was attracted by the contradictions that always arise when implementing educational concepts. "
"And then, after the dictation, she would ask me if there is heat-free today. And I would answer: No, today in the sixth and seventh hours you have sports outside in the heat, six laps of endurance run. "
evaluation
The film opened in German cinemas in September 2005 (25,000 viewers). In May 2007, ARTE and rbb repeatedly showed a 52-minute version.
criticism
"Sensitive documentary with a clear educational focus, which was produced for television, but also deserves attention in the cinema because of its concern."
“Hubertus Siegert watched, listened, observed and produced images that make you forget that a camera was present. The screen becomes transparent like the window on the second floor where the light goes on early in the morning. It provides a view of a world that is familiar and yet alien - of what is rarely and in any case too little talked about in the excitement about Pisa studies and in the debates about location: the children with their school bags, broader than their narrow shoulders. "
background
The Fläming Primary School pursues a reform pedagogical concept. The focus is on the question of how a school has to be designed so that it represents a suitable learning environment for every student: regardless of whether they are children with or without disabilities, whether they come from the upper class or socially disadvantaged families. This includes that a school psychologist works with the classes in cases of conflict, and that relaxation and concentration exercises are integrated into the lessons. The teachers evaluate the students as a team and in the context of their personal development steps. So teaching is about much more than just arithmetic, reading and memorization.
Siegert's film was discussed against the background of the so-called “ PISA shock”. By and large, class life confirms a school pedagogical position that relies on professional and developed inclusion in combination with individual support and psychological care instead of segregation and elite education. The special quality of the school model of the Fläming School should not be confused with a form of inclusion, where the real differences in talent and disability are not taken into account in terms of educational effort. The director points out that “inclusion must not be a model of savings in education policy, where special needs schools are dismantled and staff are simply saved”.
Web links
- Class life in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official web presence for the film
- Class life at filmportal.de
- [1]
- www.critic.de
- www.filmzentrale.com
- Film booklet from the Federal Agency for Civic Education
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for class life . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2005 (PDF; test number: 103 364 K).