Traffic jam

The Verkehrskasper is the main character of the hand puppet show of the same name, named after him . The traffic joke is a method of traffic education with a tradition that is now (2019) more than 60 years. The classic teaching theater has been preserved in a modernized form and has found numerous imitators in other teaching areas due to its attractiveness. The Verkehrskasper casts its spell over children and young people from pre-school to the final years of compulsory schooling in various functions as spectators or actors.

history

The education ministries of the federal German states reacted to the rapidly growing motorization and the increasing number of accidents with children in the early 1950s with the establishment of " traffic kindergartens " and "traffic schools". They should promote road safety. In 1956, ordinances followed, imposing the introduction of a traffic science subject on general education schools , which was intended to raise children's “traffic discipline ” across the board. In the search for suitable teaching methods that would make the new subject, which children and teachers perceived as annoying and boring, attractive, the Verkehrskasper, which was developed in 1956 by Edgar Perseke together with Will Hermanns , was discovered. Because of the initial defensive attitude of the schools, officers of the traffic police , who felt they were primarily responsible for safety education, pioneered the traffic jam. The police officer and puppeteer Heinz Krause founded the first police puppet theater in Hamburg , which worked with great success and which was soon followed by dozens of other establishments throughout the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria. The police stages increasingly acted as mobile touring stages that were made available to schools for traffic lessons and were gladly accepted. As in Stuttgart , the German Traffic Guard got involved with similar appearances by their volunteer members. In order to satisfy the strong demand, radio plays and records were also produced in the high phase of the traffic jasper in the 1960s and 1970s with titles such as "Kasper chases the traffic light sinners", "Kasper stops the street balls" or "Kasper catches the bicycle thief". After a brief phase of declining interest, due to declining financial support, but also due to outdated didactics, the Verkehrskasper celebrated a resurrection in a new didactic form at the end of the 1970s and even expanded its target group: Older students became game masters and players in the Events were included, and schools, along with the police, increasingly became carriers of the traffic joke.

stage

Verkehrskasper by Till de Kock

The Hohnsteiner Kasper (figure by Theo Eggink )

The figures of the traffic stage are similar to those of the traditional puppet theater . They are usually hand puppets , supplemented by an arsenal of stick puppets , including vehicles, traffic lights or traffic signs. The Verkehrskasper dominates the theater stage as always cheerful, friendly helper of the children. It is accordingly popular with the children. His evil opponent is the traffic devil who wants to seduce you to carelessness and selfish behavior, but ultimately always fails and takes the damage himself. The tribe of the Kasperbühne still includes the honest traffic policeman , the dumb but good-natured Seppl as well as magicians and fairies as helpful spirits. The backdrop in which the action takes place is usually a road crossing or road crossing.

New characters were added to the Karlsruhe puppet show, such as the black and white zebra as a personification of the zebra crossing, the super-smart traffic dog, floppy-eared, who as an experienced traffic expert helps with contentious issues, or the children Tobias and Bärbel, with whom problems of the children present can be depicted. The Punch is the main actor who questions and moderates what is happening, who repeatedly initiates learning processes and likes to be instructed by the children himself on all subjects. Changing backdrops create new tension and allow different scenarios to be played out. Interchangeable props such as traffic lights or zebra crossings enable flexible actions.

didactics

Playing with the traffic bugger is not content with entertaining the children. The Verkehrskasperbühne is a teaching and learning theater. She tries to bring the unloved material closer to the children in an entertaining way, to sensitize them to the dangers of road traffic and to advertise the "correct" behavior when driving with scenes from everyday traffic. To do this, she makes use of the attractiveness of puppet shows for preschoolers and school beginners. The traffic jasper game offers the opportunity to play out all situations, dangers, fears and problems that children encounter in traffic as a representative with the dolls, without endangering the children. Shy children can project their emotions into the dolls without having to show their faces.

The original traffic theater was primarily committed to accident prevention and road safety . According to the thinking of the times, this depended on knowledge of the rules and on the traffic discipline that had to be stabilized. The beginnings of the traffic puppet game were characterized by a clear distinction between good and bad, right and wrong, friend and foe, as dictated by the tradition of the puppet game. The idea was based on the assumption that only a simple black and white representation would correspond to the understanding of the children and that they would be overwhelmed by changeable characters. The characters were accordingly designed as so-called “types”, whose behavior was strictly defined and could not be changed by the course of action. One expected the devil as an enemy who always harms and the fairy as a friend who always wants to protect. In the widespread authoritarian style of upbringing of the time, problems were solved by brutal and drastic means. The traffic devil, caught by Kasper trying to seduce him, was beaten with a frying pan or a rolling pin amid the laughter of the children . Slaps with the clap served as a thought impulse for non-compliant traffic offenders .

With the integration of traffic studies into educational science during the 1970s and the change from the subject of "traffic studies" to an interdisciplinary field of "traffic education", the traffic cask theater developed from instructive to dialogical forms of communication. Within the framework of the Karlsruhe didactic model " Traffic Education from the Child " ( Siegbert A. Warwitz ), the traffic jasper method was reoriented based on the model of Montessori pedagogy : the children became the focus of the drama, both in the audience and on the stage. They were holistically challenged in project form . This created a greater closeness to children and achieved a significant increase in learning success by promoting self-employment.

methodology

The early traffic junk game with its scenarios often moved in exciting fantasy spaces, incorporating magic and magic into real traffic events, with which it often served more for entertainment than actual traffic knowledge. The only actors were the characters on the stage. The punishments for non-compliant behavior were physical punishment and therefore often did not correspond to traffic logic. Difficult problems were sometimes solved by the magician. Fairies acted as guardian angels.

The still chastising old traffic jasper (1831)

The old traffic juggernaut was also largely mono-directional: competent stage characters conveyed their knowledge in the direction of the learning audience. They taught the children the applicable traffic rules in the form of frontal lessons , and taught them how "to" behave in traffic. With the further development of the educational theater, the listening children were then increasingly involved in the action in a question-answer game. The punishments of traffic offenses were made more objective. The consequences of wrongdoing were no longer determined by corporal punishment, but by the necessity of what happened. With the Karlsruhe traffic education concept, the traffic theater finally moved away from the projection stage. It no longer relied solely on the transfer of knowledge and attitudes through the actors on the theater stage, but instead designed the transport stage in the Socratic sense into a forum for discussion and decision-making, in which puppets and children discuss transport issues with each other and struggle for appropriate solutions. The role of traffic experts from the police and teachers changed from that of entertainers and teachers to that of moderators and animators . With their retreat into the advisory background, older students and the activated audience received more play in the learning processes. At the same time, the target group of the Verkehrskasper was expanded: The older children and adolescents involved are given the opportunity in the overall concept of "traffic education from the child " to grow into their intended roles as responsible mentors by participating in the Verkehrskasper . As such, they have important functions, for example when they acquire a pedestrian diploma.

The Karlsruher Verkehrstheater works with the project method . According to the interdisciplinary concept, the figures, the stage, the scenery and the props are made by the children themselves. You will learn how to handle the dolls as a matter of course. Older students write the game scenarios and current texts from the school environment.

Contemporary traffic theater

Today's teaching and learning theater with the Verkehrskasper works according to the principles of non-violence, dialogue, acquisition of skills, partnership and willingness to compromise. It can be characterized as follows:

• The actors behind the puppets are no longer just teachers and police officers, but also introduced older children and young people
• The adults are limited to key roles such as the moderator (Kasper), an animator (traffic devil) or technical experts (clever dog floppy ear)
• Traffic rules are not taught, but rather developed by the children in a process-like manner
• The puppet ensemble and the audience conduct an open dialogue on current issues relating to traffic
• By swapping roles , the children can also represent vehicles, traffic signs or police officers and speak for them in the form of dolls
• The audience determines the progress and outcome of the events on the stage
• In principle, all figures are capable of learning
• Not the Punch, but the children solve the problems at hand
• The solutions must be realistic and sensible, and not be brought about by magic or violence

With the change in society and the further development of traffic education , the traffic joke has found a form that ensures its relevance and attractiveness in the learning process to this day.

literature

• Hartmut Binder: Unloved and inevitable - can traffic education be education? In: Karlsruhe educational contributions. 28, 1992, pp. 26-41.
• Wolfgang Böcher among others: Traffic education - alibi or educational opportunity? Bonn 1981.
• V. Brody: Puppet play book for children . Ravensburg 1982.
• Wolfram Ellwanger, A. Grömminger: Hand puppet show in kindergarten and elementary school . Freiburg 1978.
• B. Kochan (Ed.): Role play as a method of social learning . Koenigstein 1981.
• K. Wagner: Traffic education then and now. 50 years of Verkehrskasper . Scientific state examination work (GHS) Karlsruhe 2002.
• Siegbert A. Warwitz : Seducers at the crosswalk. In: Traffic education from the child. Perceive-play-think-act. 6th edition. Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 257-272.
• Siegbert A. Warwitz: The traffic jasper is coming. In: Traffic education from the child. Perceive-play-think-act. 6th edition. Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 245-248 and pp. 252-257.
• Siegbert A. Warwitz: We create a game for ourselves on the way to school. First grader in an interdisciplinary project. In: thing-word-number. 30, 2002, pp. 23-27.
• Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Punch and Judy Theater. In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas. 4th edition. Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 .

See also

• Kasper
• Police puppet stage
• Traffic education
• Traffic didactics

Web links

Wiktionary: Verkehrskasper  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ^ K. Wagner: Traffic education then and now. 50 years of Verkehrskasper . Scientific state examination work (GHS) Karlsruhe 2002.
2. ↑ H. Binder: Unloved and inevitable - can traffic education be education? In: Karlsruhe educational contributions. 28, 1992, pp. 26-41.
3. ^ K. Wagner: Traffic education then and now. 50 years of Verkehrskasper . Scientific state examination work (GHS) Karlsruhe 2002.
4. ^ SA Warwitz: The traffic jasper is coming. In: Traffic education from the child. Perceive-play-think-act. 6th edition. Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 245-248 and pp. 252-257.
5. ^ W. Ellwanger, A. Grömminger: Hand puppet show in kindergarten and elementary school. Freiburg 1978.
6. ↑ B. Kochan (Ed.): Role play as a method of social learning . Koenigstein 1981.
7. ↑ S. Warwitz: Seducer at the crosswalk. In: Traffic education from the child. Perceive-play-think-act. 6th edition. Baltmannsweiler 2009, pp. 257-272.
8. ^ S. Warwitz: We create a game for ourselves on the way to school. First grader in an interdisciplinary project. In: thing-word-number. 30, 2002, pp. 23-27.
9. ^ S. Warwitz, A. Rudolf: Kasperletheater. In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas. 2nd Edition. Baltmannsweiler 2004, pp. 225-228.
10. ^ K. Wagner: Traffic education then and now. 50 years of Verkehrskasper . Knowledge State examination thesis (GHS) Karlsruhe 2002.
11. ↑ B. Kochan (Ed.): Role play as a method of social learning . Koenigstein 1981.