Gymnase Jean Sturm is a
school unlike any other; it is not only a high school, but also a middle
school, and elementary school. The administration, staff, and students go from
the elementary to the high school and work together to build a strong and
prestigious community. In America we typically have a separate elementary
school, and even though they do feed into the local high school, the elementary
school and the high school do not work together and intermingle to provide a
straight supportive path for their students.
The school has been a
prestigious part of the city of Strasbourg for 471 years! That’s 200 years
longer than America has been a country! The school is private parents pay top
dollar and students have to be evaluated and interviewed before they are
admitted to the school. The school started out as a Protestant school, and even
though there is the separation of church and state in France, Strasbourg is
unique. The Province that Strasbourg is located in has switched between German
and French rule so around the time the separation of church and state was
installed France allowed this province to do what they wished because they
wanted them to stay with France because of the trade that came from the area.
Behavior is not a problem in
this school because students are supported by their teachers, parents, and communities
to the extreme here. If teachers think a student isn't trying as hard or not
performing on the school’s high levels of excellence they can hold a conference
with the student and if improvement isn’t made they can be kicked out. For the
students who are falling behind there is a mentor program, where each teacher
is assigned a student and they meet with them one on one once a week. The
teachers only have that one student so they can devote their full attention to
helping the student achieve academic excellence.
Every year near the end of
the trimester (their school year is broken up into trimesters) the teachers get
together to talk about each class. This means that all of the 9th
grade teachers get together and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the
class that they need to work on to make sure that they succeed. At these meetings are two parent and two student representatives of the class. These
representatives come with questions or concerns that they would like to have
answered and addressed.
Here is a list of more of the
differences I have came across whilst observing at the high school: J
- · These students go to school from 8 A.M- 6 P.M. and still do sports and hang out with friends, on top of all of their homework. (there is no class time set aside for students to type out their papers, or work on homework)
- · No free lunch program. There is a business that works with the school and the students can go buy food from them, or they have an hour to go off campus to eat. (the school is dead center in the city with many restaurants around)
- · There is no form of school transportation, only the city/public transportations systems. (bikes, busses, trams, cars)
- · There are no students with disabilities or differentiated instruction.
- · There are no substitute teachers, so if a high school teacher isn't there then the students don't have class and can wonder around the city until their next class begins.
- · There are small classes, at most 18 in the core French classes. (no more than 11 in the bilingual classes)
- · Teachers jump around from class to class (like college teachers) so there is no real decorations or posters, other than those made by the students.
- · Students are very respectable and organized. They stand by their desks until the teacher allows them to sit down, and ALL of them write down assignments without being instructed to, so they know when the due date is.
- · Students will actually COMPLAIN IF THEY HAVE CLASS CANCELED TO MUCH. They are extremely worried and geared towards learning so that they can all pass their final exam at the end of their senior year.
- · Prayer and Religious Holidays are celebrated in the school even though it technically isn't a Protestant church anymore.
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