What an Opportunity for Students!

So much is being reported about the ever decreasing quality of education, problem students, and teachers unwilling to spend extra time beyond the scope of their official commitments. Not only in North America, but also in Europe.

But wait. Can we really generalize like that?

Take the case of the extra-curricular programmes organized by some teachers, such as Mrs. Marion Hensel. She teaches languages (German, Spanish and Latin) at Waterloo Collegiate Institute (WCI). She considers that learning a language requires more than learning words and grammar; it requires also an appreciation of the peoples and their cultures.

How? By exposing the students to their foreign peers through local ethnic activities, through film, theatre and sports, but most importantly through personal contact by living, travelling and talking with each other in person. In other words, best through a Student Exchange Programme. In her case, for students in the age group from just about 16 to 18.

For the past 8 years, Mrs. Hensel travelled with her students during March Break or Summer Holidays. Two years ago, though, she took it upon herself to generate the contacts necessary to actually organize and implement her first student exchange with Germany. And she did it – successfully, this year.

Talk about dedication. It took in fact two years to put it together. She was lucky enough to be able to connect to Frau Petra Falterbaum at the Hohenstaufen Gymnasium (HSG) in Kaiserslautern, Germany with the assistance of a cousin, who happens to live in Germany. Lucky, because Frau Falterbaum is equally dedicated and has similar aspirations.

A student exchange between schools in Germany and Canada does not come cheap to be sure, particularly, if you also incorporate a bus-tour. The two years lead-time was not only required to organize the cross connection with HSG, it was also needed to motivate students (on both sides of the ocean) to start saving their hard-earned fast food dollars (instead of gaining pounds) and to motivate parents to fork over at least a part of the cost of the trip and to accommodate the foreign students. All the while the two teachers conducted meetings with parents and students, communicated back and forth with each other, correlated trip details and matched students with their exchange partners. Finally the two teachers arranged the host homes in Kaiserslautern and Kitchener – Waterloo and organized participation in their respective classrooms.

Beyond the time with the host families and the classroom, the Canadians went to see a good part of Germany from Frankfurt to Munich and back to Frankfurt via the Rhineland through EF Educational Tours (http://www.eftours.ca/), while the German students were stationed in Kitchener-Waterloo in exchange student homes, sometimes 2 student per home, after their first few days in Toronto. There they visited the sounds and sights of Toronto, such as Casa Loma, CN Tower, Islands, Museums etc and also went to Niagara Falls. Once accommodated by their host families in K-W, they participated in classes, in sports, went to a Blue Jay game at the Roger’s Centre (formerly known as the Skydome), bowled and played games at Laser Quest Inc, etc..

What do students think about the exchange and the tours? "Cool", "Außergewöhnlich", "erlebNisreich", "Aufregend", „beinDruckend", „klAsse" war das Urteil in der Schülerzeitung „Akzent" der HSG.

Normally student exchanges are separated by a year or two. In this case, there was so much enthusiasm, it was all done in the same year - in fact the Canadians just returned to Canada in July. The German students were here in April.

Some of the exchange students

Were there any problems, incidences, health issues, difficulties with student behaviour? Nothing of the sort, confirmed Mrs. Hensel. Neither here, nor in Germany. Health and accident issues are all well covered by insurance in any case.

For Mrs. Hensel and Mrs. Falterbaum the voluntary time-consuming personal effort was extensively rewarded by the enthusiasm of students and their parents. To quote the article about their trip to Canada in the HSG School Magazine "Akzent" : „Wir haben gemeinsam viel Schönes erlebt und sind um unzählige Erfahrungen reicher geworden. Diese unglaublich tolle Zeit wird uns allen in bester Erinnerung bleiben. Die entstandenen Freundschaften werden lange Bestand haben..."

A priceless experience on both sides to be sure. A reward for everyone’s effort. They all had to do their part voluntarily. And contrary to the often quoted public opinion, the two teachers were more than willing to spend their extra-curricular time, and to cover their own costs, to make this exchange an educational experience for their students never to be forgotten.