Dam Elementary School

Feature photo: © Shutterstock

I've been an enthusiastic reading mentor at my old elementary school for a good two years and I have fond memories of how our parents organized and maintained reading mentorships and circles for us back then.

A lot has changed in the meantime and certainly not for the best, but the commitment of the local teachers is still more than exemplary. Although I cannot claim to have ever been a pleasant student myself, I can claim that my teachers at the time, especially my class teacher Mrs. Pillar, with me did not know such challenges as they find today's teachers.

Among these challenges, to which I also count the fact that on the one hand many parents only "dispose of" their children in daycare centers and schools in order to have to deal with them as little as possible, and on the other hand, the teachers hardly any more be able to do justice to their actual task, because the existing deficits of their students are already too serious from the start to be able to master a curriculum that is unsuitable for these conditions, there is also the fact that the students at the Dam Elementary School, who have been housed in containers for years, find hardly any opportunities to let off steam in an age-appropriate way, so that they can clear their heads for learning content and follow the lessons with concentration [at least Mr. Hofer would be happy about this sentence from me].

What is new is that another voluntary organization at the Dammgrundschule, namely the brotZeit breakfast, is looking for helpers to prepare and organize a school breakfast. It would be a pity if there were no parents, grandparents, former dam pupils or even other interested people, and this commitment, which is very important for the development of the children, would soon have to be further restricted or even stopped!

I have already written the following about school and education in general: https://kuemmerle.name/schule-bildung