School for Adult Education (Berlin)
| School for Adult Education e. V. | |
|---|---|
|
|
| founding | 1973 |
| address |
Gneisenaustrasse 2a |
| place | Berlin-Kreuzberg |
| country | Berlin |
| Country | Germany |
| Coordinates | 52 ° 29 ′ 31 ″ N , 13 ° 23 ′ 19 ″ E |
| student | about 200 (2016) |
| management | School meeting |
| Website | sfeberlin.de |
The school for adult education e. V. (SfE) is an institution of the second educational path established in West Berlin in 1973 to prepare for exams for the general higher education entrance qualification ( Abitur ) as well as the secondary school leaving certificate . The SfE is the only self-governing democratic school in German-speaking countries that is organized by students and teachers on a grassroots basis .
On the origin of the SfE
The trigger for the foundation was a school strike in 1972 at the private Gabbe-Lehranstalt in Berlin, which was directed against an authoritarian headmaster, reactionary school rules, overcrowded classes, pressure to perform and dismissals from students and teachers for political reasons . The strikers were dealt with with a massive police operation and dismissals by students, whereupon the school was reoccupied and teachers with strike solidarity gave counter-lessons for the dismissed students. As a result, there were further dismissals from teachers and students and another massive police operation to evacuate the school. In this situation, the decision was made to found an independent and self-governing school (from the Gabbe-Lehranstalt), which should meet an emancipatory claim . The appeal was made known through youth broadcasts on the radio, posters and word of mouth . Five hundred interested parties and seventy teachers expressed their interest in the new school, which was founded in 1973 as a non-profit association. The SfE was recognized as a private supplementary school of the second educational path, the students received financial support according to the BAföG . A year later she moved into a 950 m² office floor at Burgemeisterstrasse 30–32 in the Tempelhof district . In 1980, together with other projects, she bought a former factory building, today's Mehringhof cultural center in Kreuzberg . In 1981 the school with 800 students was the largest and at the same time the largest democratic school in the world.
School structure
Depending on personal requirements, the lessons take place in the collegiate classes, the classes of the grammar school branch or the middle-Reife class.
- Collegiate classes:
A minimum age of 19 years, middle school leaving certificate and completed vocational training or three years of employment to secure subsistence are required (general requirements for the second educational path ).
The training lasts 6 semesters including exams.
Parent-independent funding under BAföG is possible. - Gymnasium branch:
A minimum age of 18 years and secondary school leaving certificate are required. A professional qualification is not required.
The training takes 5–6 semesters including exams.
Parent-dependent funding under BAföG may be possible. - Middle-Reife Class:
The minimum age is 18 years (in exceptional cases also 16). The general compulsory school attendance has to be fulfilled, a secondary school certificate is not required.
The training lasts ten months including the examination.
Funding according to BAföG is not possible.
Self-determined learning
The lessons are based - based on the framework plan - according to the interests of the students. Together with the teachers, you determine the focus and teaching materials. The focus is on developing your own motivation to learn and on the learning experience. There is no grading in class. The presence is voluntary.
Self-management
The school for adult education is a (basic) democratic school project under self-administration, without a traditional school management. This means that everyday school life is organized jointly by the students and the thirteen employees (as of 2016). The central "administrative location" of the SfE is the school assembly (also called a forum or general assembly ). It takes place every two weeks and is a gathering of all interested students and employees. All things that are currently relevant to the school are discussed and discussed here. Classes organize their internal issues, provided they do not affect the school as a whole, in "class conferences". Experience shows that they take place once a month or as required with or without a teacher. Regular organizational tasks are carried out jointly or alternately by everyone. B. Every week a different class or the employees do the cleaning service for the whole school.
Subject offer
The preparation for the Abitur examination takes place in the subjects German , mathematics, art, biology, history, politics, English , French and Spanish .
The lessons in the Middle-Reife class include the subjects German, mathematics, biology, geography, English and history.
In addition, there is the possibility of preparing for other approved examination subjects in self-organized learning groups and working groups.
exam
The SfE is a school without state examination approval . That is why the exams are taken at state schools (so-called foreign examinations or non - student Abitur ). Since no grades are given in advance, the secondary school leaving examination is carried out in six subjects and the Abitur examination in eight subjects.
Political commitment
The school for adult education was a self-governing school for young adults in Berlin-Kreuzberg in the 1970s, typically strongly left-wing and politically active. In 1976/77 the school had a particularly strong political impact. During the planned reform of the second educational path, which wanted to restrict freedoms in state schools and to make SfE pedagogy virtually impossible, large meetings were called and strikes were carried out several times across Berlin. The SfE was strongly present in all activities. In 1977, 200 SfEers broke into the office of the Senator for Social Affairs to protest against the fact that school fees were no longer counted towards social welfare for many students, and they were successful.
Even today, the SfE is left-alternative. She writes about herself on her homepage:
“The SfE is something unfinished. It resists any attempt to be presented as a closed model. It offers students the opportunity to rethink their own points of view and to discover new ways of living and working. Perhaps there is the utopian in it: triggering social processes without paralyzing goals; to take negative experiences without perishing; having positive experiences without being able to rest on them; to confess what is unfinished without a guilty conscience. Daily irritation as a principle - no convenient recipe, no miracle cure and always too little, but still a good recipe against a society in which everything is regulated. "
Partner school
Currently, the SfE homepage only refers to another democratic school, namely the state democratic partner school Lycée experimental de Saint-Nazaire, which was established in France in 1982. In 2005 the SfE organized the IDEC in Berlin together with the Democratic Network School Berlin .
Media reception
In 2017 the documentary Berlin Rebel High School was released.
Awards
In 2016 the SfE won the 2nd prize at the German School Prize.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b About the SFE, accessed on December 3, 2016
- ↑ a b c Quote from About the SfE. In: sfeberlin.de. Retrieved November 24, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Nitsche, Rainer; Rothaus, Ulli; Bauer, Mense: Open doors and other obstacles. Experience in a self-governing adult school. Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1981, p. 12-18 .
- ↑ Bolda, Siebeky: Subject .: Application for 2,000 m² of usable area PRAKMA - building. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de. June 11, 1979, archived from the original on August 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Nitsche, Rainer; Rothaus, Ulli; Bauer, Mense: Open doors and other obstacles. Experience in a self-governing adult school. Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1981, p. 36-42 .
- ↑ Marcella Henglein: This school saved me. In: The time . May 8, 2017. Retrieved November 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Nitsche, Rainer; Rothaus, Ulli; Bauer, Mense: Open doors and other obstacles. Experience in a self-governing adult school. Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1981, p. 24 .
- ↑ Nitsche, Rainer; Rothaus, Ulli; Bauer, Mense: Open doors and other obstacles. Experience in a self-governing adult school. Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1981, p. 141 .
- ^ School for Adult Education - SFE Berlin (2018a): About the SfE. Available online at http://www.sfeberlin.de/schule-fuer-erwachsenenbildung.html, last updated on March 6th, 2020, last checked on March 6th, 2020.
- ^ School for Adult Education - SFE Berlin (2018): Links. Available online at http://www.sfeberlin.de/links.html, last updated on August 27, 2018, last checked on March 6, 2020.
- ^ International Democratic Education Network (2005): Welcome. International Democratic Education Conference. Berlin. Available online at http://de.idec2005.org/home/, last checked on March 6th, 2020.
- ^ Robert Bosch Stiftung: The German School Prize - School for Adult Education e. V. in Berlin. In: schulpreis.bosch-stiftung.de. Retrieved June 9, 2016 .