Not a week goes by without hearing something hair-raising from one of Berlin’s neighbourhood schools, for example in Wedding, Moabit or Neukölln. On the surface, education in these districts seems to be going down the drain. Or is it all just scaremongering?
Daniel S. (name changed) has been working as a teacher at one of these disreputable educational establishments for several years, teaching several classes in years seven to ten. Whereby ‘teaching’ seems almost a bit fancy, because he can only do this ideally – a large proportion of his pupils would have problems controlling their own emotions. Sometimes, however, the precarious domestic circumstances also play a role. If, in such a heated situation, you also touch on topics that go against the grain of the pupils, things really start getting heated.
‘What, for example?’ I ask.
Anything that contradicts the Koran according to the students’ judgement.
With guidelines like these, it’s easy to put your foot in your mouth. Needless to say, these orthodox tendencies are sometimes applied very creatively. For example, if a homework assignment is too uncomfortable for the pupils, it can just as quickly be rejected as ‘haram’, which makes the question of whether the classes are Muslim-dominated superfluous at this point. They are, and almost exclusively so. A circumstance that leads to certain problems, as Daniel S. emphasises from experience: ‘If pupils of a dominant faith, such as Islam here, stick completely to themselves and are so indoctrinated that it can only be described as fundamentalist, this affects our Western values in a very immense way.
Some female colleagues often hope in vain for the necessary respect from their male pupils. Homosexuality is also a no-go. According to Daniel S., a number of our Central European freedoms, such as the choice of religion or the free choice of identity, are not only excluded but rejected by the pupils. And of course the Middle East conflict plays a role. When he raises this topic, the class initially falls silent. But it should not stop there.
‘At the end of the lesson, they expect me to convert to Islam,’ he says with a weary smile. ‘Because they think they’ve argued so well that they’re on the right side.’
There was a festive atmosphere in his classes after October 7 last year.
When asked by the pupils whose side he was on, Daniel S. responded with counter questions. Do the pupils mean that politically? Is it about territories or about the people who were murdered and kidnapped? This strategy provokes different, sometimes thoughtful reactions. But in the end, there is no real critical debate.