School Day In North Germany Ends At 1 p.m.

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27911, 7 March 1956, Page 2

School Day In North Germany Ends At 1 p.m.

NEWS FOR WOMEN

School finished at 1 p.m. at Eutin, North Germany, where she had taught English at a girls’ secondary school attended by about 600 pupils, said Miss Gertrud Heitmann, a German teacher on exchange duty at Canterbury University College, in an interview in Christchurch yesterday. She has exchanged with Mr T. E. Carter, of Christchurch, who has taken her flat at Eutin, and is teaching English at the girls’ school.

“Mr Carter thinks school starts at Eutin shortly after midnight,” said Miss Heitmann, laughing. School started there at 7.30 a.m., and pupils arrived by bus, train, and bicycle. The secondary course was a nineyear one, and pupils’ ages ranged from 10 to 19, said Miss Heitmann. The primary school course was a four-year one, and the pupils were from six to 10 years old. The pupils she taught were 18 or 19 years of age. Eutin, in the province of Holstein, not far from the Russian border, was called the “small Switzer* land” of North Germany, because of the small lakes, forests, and hills. Refugee Pupils About 80 per cent, of the pupils in her class were refugees. Miss Heitmann said. Many had lost their fathers, and many also had lost their homes during the war. Some had moved to Eutin to be away from the Russian zone.

An Englishwoman who had visited German schools had considered there was too little leisure, Miss Heitmann said. The visitor thought there was too much rushing to get lessons finished just because school finished at 1 p.m. She herself thought that the tempo at which pupils and staff worked was because of the energy which they had needed to build up a new basis for their lives after the war.

“The German children are much more self-reliant now than my generation,” said Miss Heitmann. She thought the faster tempo of living was the result of what Europe had gone through in the war. “I was astonished to see buses go past Canterbury College with only three or four persons in them. Our buses are always crowded.” she said.

She had been in Christchurch only a week, but already she had felt the atmosphere of peace and leisure, said Miss Heitmann. In Christchurch, there was a calmness about the people

and their way of life. The atmosphere of Christchurch was much less strange to her than cities of Australia, though she had liked Australia. The atmosphere here was rather European, and much more the type of life to which she had been accustomed.

Though Miss Heitmann has travelled widely in Europe and lived for a time in England while attending a teachers’ course arranged by the British Council, the voyage to New Zealand had its surprises for her. “How much do we pay for a hot bath?” she asked her cabin-mate in the ship. She was astonished when told it was nothing extra. Cold showers were the usual thing in Germany, she said. In the old homes, there were few bathrooms, and in the modern homes the bathrooms were small. The water was heated by a stove stoked with briquettes, and the bathroom became very hot when the water was being heated. Consequently hot baths were not taken daily.

At a German hotel, one paid about 3s extra for a hot bath, Miss Heitmann said. People became accustomed to washing and bathing in cold waler. At the girls’ secondary school at Eutin, the emphasis was on languages, Miss Heitmann said. It was compulsory for every pupil attending to take at least two languages. Three languages had to be studied by pupils in the linguistic department. Pupils learnt English for nine years. The other two languages most frequently studied were Latin and French. With increasing wealth, travelling was popular, Miss Heitmann said. With members of her class, she had spent 14 days’ holiday in France last year. When a member of a class planning a travel trip had insufficient money to pay travel expenses, all other members of the class and the teacher helped to raise the money. “We helped a farmer to pull turnips one year to defray a pupil’s expenses.” said Miss Heitmann. Asked why schools closed at 1 p.m., Miss Heitmann said the idea was to allow pupils to have more time with their parents. The pupils were given enough school work to keep them occupied for about four hours a day at home.

There had been an attempt to adapt the school hours to the English school time-table, but neither teachers nor parents liked it, she said.