The political values that schools should teach are always a hotly debated topic. Basic guidelines are provided by the Beutelsbach Consensus, for example, which imposes a ban on indoctrination and the obligation to present opposing opinions on teachers and other educators. But what this actually looks like is the subject of debate and could lead to serious problems for a teacher at Lößnitzgymnasium in Radebeul near Meißen (photo). According to information from newspaper Die Sächsische, during a double lesson in the subject of social studies, education in rights and economics (GRW), the teacher gave a lesson on the legitimization of states, forming of opinions and the role of citizens in this system.
“For example, it would be very efficient to have all AfD members locked up in a prison camp and killed. However, that would be absolutely illegitimate. Because if we were to lock people up in a prison camp here in Germany and kill them, that would violate the principle of legitimacy.” This sentence not only caused unrest among some of the students, but also caused numerous parents to protest. Among them was Thomas Kirste, an AfD district councillor in the region, who brought the case to the state parliament. However, both the state government and the school block the idea and refer to didactic simulation games and the right of teachers to make political statements in class as long as they clearly mark these statements as opinions.
Whether there was such a label in the case of the GRW teacher has not yet been proven in a sustainable way – it is a case of statement against statement. For Kirste, however, the matter does not end with the way his children are taught: “Such a statement from our ranks would have led to a nationwide outcry”. The political climate has long since affected all areas of life and it is to be feared that the political mood will become even more agitated in some places.