Relocated to Berlin: Signing Up for School

I will admit to not knowing much about the German public school system when we started looking for a place for my daughter to go to school.  For the past four years, my daughter had attended the Deutsche Schule just outside of Washington, DC, and this school follows German standards and curriculum.  But the Deutsche Schule is an exclusive private school that caters to the children of diplomats and Volkswagen/Audi executives, and we would be sending our daughter to a Berlin neighborhood public school.

Our minds were not set at ease when, before we left Washington, our daughter's former Kindergarten teacher warned us that we were making a horrible mistake by not sending our daughter to Berlin's private and exclusive John F. Kennedy School.  While she had never lived nor taught there herself, this teacher said she has friends who live in Berlin who tell her horror stories about Berlin public schools.

At the same time, we had no desire to send our daughter to some private American enclave on the other side of the city.  The whole purpose of our move was to at least try to "go native."  We were tired of long commutes to and from school.  We were tired of our daughter not having any neighborhood friends because she went to a different school from everybody else.  We were determined to go the neighborhood public school route.  If it really turned out to be a disaster, we could always transfer our daughter to JFK or some other private school at some point in the future.

Fortunately, as with public schools around the world, much of whether a school is good or bad depends on the engagement of the parents in the educational process.  In Berlin, all schools receive the same amount of funding per student, regardless of neighborhood or school district.  But some schools are extremely successful, while others fail, because the parents take an active part in supporting the teachers and school administration while pushing their own children to take advantage of their educational opportunities.  Our daughter's school is one of these places where parental involvement has bred success.

Admittedly, it was something of a surprise to visit the school for the first time.  While it would look familiar to anybody who ever attended a Midwestern Catholic parochial school - as both my wife and I have at some point in our lives - with ancient red brick walls, heavily worn stone staircases, and Spartan looking decor, it was a far cry from our daughter's former digs.  Her "new" school was built between 1873 and 1877, making it one of the oldest remaining elementary school buildings in Berlin (although it was renovated in 2006).  Unlike the bucolic suburban splendor of her previous school, her new school has no green space to speak of - although the classes do make regular trips to some spectacular local parks if the kids need to run around more than the sandy school playground allows.

Perhaps the most stark reminder that our daughter is not going to a suburban private school in the United States any more comes from the lyrics of her new school's official school song.  I clearly remember my own school's official song waxing poetic about the waving school colors.  Our daughter's new school's song reminisces over how the children used to have to "stand firm" for the Kaiser, about how they would have to learn how to dodge falling bombs to get to school, and about how they tasted freedom for the first time - just 24 years ago - when the Wall fell.

Despite the stark differences, our daughter loves her new school.  She has teachers who challenge her.  She has friends from all over the world with whom she can visit regularly after school.  Her new school is even in the process of building a brand new gymnasium which is scheduled to open in the fall.  As parents, my wife and I could not be happier.