Featured photo: School desk
Since 2015, I have been visiting schools in Heilbronn more often, not only as part of the European competition, but also as a reading mentor, tutor and, most recently, even as a local politician.
The conclusion my better half and I came to is that we were lucky not to have to entrust our children to a school in Heilbronn. But not because of the teachers, because in my opinion at least they are much better today, more approachable and surprisingly more motivated than they were when I was at school.
I recently went to Mönchsee-Gymnasium and marveled at the classrooms, which were still in the same condition the last time I went to school there, that was before we as students were allowed to move there after the renovation of the Robert-Mayer-Gymnasium — OK, the rooms have probably been painted once or twice by now.
My old elementary school has now been renovated after the students were locked away in containers for years and this can be seen as a small improvement, especially in the eyes of those Heilbronners who still rave about the imperial era and think everything that is completely antiquated is good.
Shows how it can be done better Dieter schwarz with its school for the “more important” people among us in the Neckarbogen, and not only the members of the city administration, but also our local councilors rely on the fact that they can at least accommodate their children in one of Heilbronn's private schools. Meanwhile, other “important” residents of Heilbronn manage to get their children into schools in the Heilbronn area.
My first suggestion goes to our somewhat richer fellow citizens. Instead of building mausoleums or even establishing their own schools, these could ensure that all public schools in Heilbronn are brought into a condition so that our previously good school system can be made to function again, at least in terms of the structural requirements.
My second suggestion is that we as a society rely more heavily on our public school system again and thus counteract further social division.
My third suggestion is that our local councilors don't listen to what the responsible mayor or the mayor tells them, because at least in this regard they are as ignorant and therefore superfluous as a sack of rice in the corner, but rather get an impression of our schools for themselves , instead of looking at the local restaurants in Amsterdam or other beautiful places.
Today we made a corresponding start together with the city councilors Herbert Burkhardt and Eugene Gall took a closer look at the Wilhelm-Hauff-Werkrealschule. Herbert Burkhardt has joined in advance Agnes Christian inquired and they informed him that there was no need for action. A mayor who likes to explain to social associations that there is no poverty in Heilbronn.
The Wilhelm-Hauff-Werkrealschule is a Heilbronn sports school (!) and is now bursting at the seams. That's why the Heilbronn local council rejected an expansion years ago and had a few containers put in the corner. After ten years of temporary construction, the school now received additional containers, which were placed directly on the school sports field, as sport is completely unusual at a Heilbronn sports school - which could also explain why our local councilors would also like to place a new school building on a sports field elsewhere. The rest of the sports field is in such a sorry state that the company Gotthilf Benz commissioned to deliver at least two new small football goals. However, since they did not pay for their installation and the Benz company (shame on them!) is not very accommodating, these gates will probably only be installed in a few years. But that doesn't matter anymore, since a new emergency staircase has been set up for the containers right next to one of the old goals, which will be dangerous for at least every football player. I'm certainly not talking about the balls that miss the goal and inevitably hit the container wall. Since we have a regionally important former football player and trained vocational school teacher in the mayor, he could show the sports teachers and students how “professionals” would solve this problem - which makes me think of a sack of rice again.
The school sports hall is also a real classic, because if the sun doesn't blind the young athletes, it rains in the hall. Since the hall is also used as another school and event room, the students drag chairs through the entire school several times a month, as the corresponding storage room is in a basement at the other end of the school.
Even sadder is the gymnastics room in the basement of the school, where there is a risk of suffocation as soon as the students move a little faster. The whole thing is topped by the unisex changing room, whereby the teachers have access to a slightly smaller broom closet with a huge hole in the ceiling - they have been trying to repair various pipes for months - as a changing room.
A converted classroom also functions as a cafeteria, with around 140 to 150 primary school students eating there in four shifts of 20 minutes each - that could pass for paramilitary training. The school kitchen is a classroom, cafeteria and utility room at the same time: cooking and ironing are possible in parallel lessons.
The school toilets could definitely be a little more numerous, their condition is certainly homemade, but they should still be repaired. Two sinks for a good 150 elementary school students are also no longer appropriate. What is definitely not possible is that the toilets for the 100 or so secondary school students are outside toilets, although access cannot be monitored.
This also applies to the entire school grounds, which are open to everyone and, according to reports, are often used by young people - there are no public youth facilities nearby (!) - as well as the drinking and drug scene.
As is otherwise the case in Heilbronn, the classrooms are outdated. Too cramped for the students and their school supplies and clothing - so you don't have to worry about poor order.
What surprised even me is that school teachers are now buying school furniture themselves because there is too little of it. Another problem is that due to fire protection, there are far too few storage options available and renovations and rearrangements are the order of the day.
Finally, we marveled at the heating system, which ensures that the temperature in the classrooms or containers is between 10 and 12 degrees Celsius or even 37 degrees Celsius. The responsible mayor will certainly look at this as an annual average and talk about comfortable temperatures in our schools.
Herbert Burkhardt and Eugene Gall We motivated us to come to a school in Heilbronn where, according to the responsible mayor, there are no problems. Now I'm curious to see how amazed they will be when we go to a school that has problems recognized by the city.
Meanwhile, the supposedly social councilors are basking in the sun at a standing reception at a private school or the last new school building in the city and are proud of what they are doing for our city - since the mayor keeps drumming it into them, it must be true.
At the end of our visit, even I felt a bit nostalgic when I discovered a school desk that dates back to the time when I was still at the Damm Elementary School.
Addendum 17.10.2023
Here you can find the report on regional school development for the Heilbronn city area (update process 2019/20). All public schools in Heilbronn are listed there.
