When the Master of the House Speaks, ....

The head custodian, the physical plant manager or the master of the house (Hausmeister), whatever you call him, he had his say today in my English 9b class. In fact, class could not begin because he was there. I found that I could not enter the room because he had corralled all 34 of the pupils at the end of the room near the door, the sink and the defaced furniture. No one was settled, everyone had coats and backpacks on and the Hausmeister was making a speech. I didn't catch every word but the gist of it was rather apparent: the room had been left in full disarray, a few pieces of furniture had been decorated with indecent images and even the cupboard door didn't look quite right. The brand new chalk board didn't look brand new anymore either. The pupils were trying to explain to the man that when they had been out of the room and their parallel class had been using the room for either Latin or religion class, the damage had most likely occurred. Of course I was having a hard time picturing Latin students or religion students, either Catholic or Protestant, going wild with the black markers, but I didn't say a thing. I was just trying to follow the conversation. Two volunteers were mustered to accompany the Hausmeister to this office to fetch supplies and the clean-up was underway. There were girls pushing brooms right and left. There were perfectly clean looking tables being scrubbed to the nub and most important of all, the indecent images were scoured-off. This allowed me lots of time to prepare my instruction and took a chunk out of our double-period. I figured it would be worthwhile to hold a class discussion about what had happened in English, but I held off until half-way through class. It seems that there are plenty of opportunities for kids to wreak havoc in the classrooms, between classes, for example. Kids are in the rooms and teachers aren't. All kinds of stuff happens and that is the polite way to say it. Twice I came into a grade 8 room only to find an injured child where a hand ball had met them in the face to the extent that they needed ice or to go home. Pupils are trusted to an extent that one might not see in other kinds of schools. When things go wrong, it is up to the lead teachers of each class to mediate, make crucial decisions and counsel troubled kids. Each class has a male and a female lead teacher who work closely together, meet with the parents and manage the physical, mental and emotional well-being of the class. Beginning with grade 11 this changes a bit. There are still advisers but they are called grade-level advisers and their role is a bit different. The Hausmeister apologized twice to me. The second time he told me that he had had an English "Leistungskurs" in school himself and would like to hold a discussion the next time (if there is a next time) with the students in English if possible. This means in fact that we have a very educated Hausmeister. He is new at the school and I think that the school is very happy to have him.