Saturday, October 11, 2014

High School of Rock

In the early 90s I changed from an elementary school to a gymnasium, an advanced academic high school. There, I showed that I have many talents: The first year I was successful in being a class clown. The year after I tried out as a know-it-all.
Soon, I found out where my strengths and where my weaknesses were: I failed English and English failed me. On the other hand, I was an A student in STM (in science, technology, and math). In several exams I scored A+. It's a good feeling to score A+ in STM. You know you have done everything right and you can be proud of it. Onetime, I managed to get an A+ in history. That brought some weird questions to my mind: What did I write different from the usual C rated exams? Was the teacher tired rating and scribbled A+ on my exam? It was an exam on marxism and communism - Does it mean I'm a communist deep inside? Ironically, the same teacher, who rated my exam an A+, after another exam presaged I wouldn't graduate. He told the class the name of one or two students, who, he predicted, will graduate, then the name of four or five other students, who, according to my teacher, maybe will graduate. Everyone else, including me, would surely not make it. But he was wrong or maybe he said that because he wanted to motivate us by reverse psychology. I noticed that when teacher told students in advance "you will never score enough to pass", the students scored enough. The teacher, who predicted I wouldn't graduate, forecast I will never write a book, which makes me more hopeful. Eventually, I graduated and had my graduation on my birthday.



Sunday, October 5, 2014

Primary School Musical

Kids, in the late 80s, I changed my school. I went from a regular elementary school, where I didn't understand a word, to a language class, where I learned German. As a kid it is easy to learn a new language. After half a year in the language class and before the summer break my German was not fluent. I remember coming back from the summer break and, somehow, I could speak fluently German.
Before the summer break two Iranian sisters were in my class and they could help me out with things that I didn't understand. The two girls left and two Iranian brothers, twins, joined the class. The mentee became the mentor- I had to help the twins.
In the language class we sang a lot of German children songs. We learned a lot of songs about birds for example the "Bremer town musicians", "the bird wedding", and the sing-off between "the cuckoo and the donkey".
School is of course more then lessons. It was at that school where I was elected class president and was lead actor in two different productions of "Where the Wild Things Are". After one and half years in the language class, I could attend a regular 5th grade at the same school. There my grades dropped. My mother blamed video games and, therefore, she allowed us to play only during school breaks. My mom might have been right. In the sixth grade, I got better grades and I could change school and attend a gymnasium, the advanced academic schools in Germanys education system.