During a private stay with relatives in Illinois, USA, Uelzens District Administrator Dr. Heiko Blume made a detour to Jacksonville in August to get an impression of the local high school. The Jacksonville High School and the Herzog-Ernst-Gymnasium in Uelzen are linked by a long-standing school partnership as part of the GAPP (German American Partnership Program).
Lynette Guthrie, German teacher at the local high school, took the time to explain the American school system in general and the high school in Jacksonville in particular to Blume. There are clear differences in the structure and in everyday school life. All-day classes are normal there. The teachers each have their own fixed classroom that they can design. The range of working groups is much broader. “And the school community is really strong, which is reflected in the high school athletic teams and the support they get,” said Blume.
Lynette Guthrie was happy regarding the visit from the district of Uelzen. She and Blume very much hope that in the coming year pupils will be able to visit each other once more as part of the GAPP, following the exchange had to be suspended due to corona. “It’s always good when young people broaden their horizons – and ideally, lasting contacts and friendships develop in the process. In the end, the challenges in Illinois and here in Uelzen are the same anyway,” Blume concludes.
Teacher Nadyne Keßler, as GAPP coordinator of the HEG, expressly agrees: “I really hope that next year we will continue our exchange, which has been going on between our schools for over 30 years. In the last three school years something was somehow missing in October when the HEG flew to Jacksonville and in June when the return visit from the JHS took place.”
The German American Partnership Program (GAPP) was launched in 1972 by the Goethe-Institut in Boston and has been managed since 1983 by the educational exchange service at the secretariat of the Standing Conference of Ministers of Education in the Federal Republic of Germany in cooperation with the New York Goethe-Institut.
PR
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