In 2018, SPÖ teacher union member Susanne Wiesinger sparked a debate about the effects of conservative Islam in schools with her book “Culture War in the Classroom”. Now Christian Klar, director of a problem school in Vienna-Floridsdorf and ÖVP district politician, is following up with his inventory “What’s going on in our schools?” Nationalist and religious tendencies are taking over, he says. A finding shared by teacher representatives.
Also read the comment: Oppressive
In his book, which was published on Friday, Klar, a teacher and headmaster for 40 years, warns of current developments – many of which are linked to the increasing role of Islam in everyday school life. He tells of the contempt shown by Muslim pupils for other religions, of people of other faiths who are bullied and of girls who wear headscarves to protect themselves from classmates who see unveiled women as “whores”. More and more often, girls are also wearing hijabs – a cloak that tightly frames the face and loosely covers the head and shoulders – and the Islamic dress abaya, or even covering themselves completely, out of conviction.
For Thomas Krebs (FCG), Klar describes a widespread development in Vienna in his book. The dynamic is enormous, he told the APA. During Ramadan, for example, normal lessons are hardly possible because of the increasingly widespread and earlier fasting, because the children are dehydrated and have low blood sugar levels and are unable to perform cognitively. Meanwhile, more and more primary school students are also fasting, although children are actually exempt from this. Physical education classes are also becoming more difficult due to rules derived from religion, for example when girls do not want to wear gym clothes or take off their headscarves. There are also increasing calls for prayer rooms in schools. ÖVP teacher representative Krebs is primarily concerned with “dividing”: “The key thing is to promote unity,” which is urgently needed in a multicultural society in a big city.
“Rejection of a secularized liberal society is increasingly being expressed to the outside world, as is rejection of democracy, which is interpreted as a weakness. This is being carried out on a massive scale by students,” said the ÖVP teacher representative, expressing concern. The state itself is also increasingly being rejected. Students have problems, for example, with police officers coming to schools for a prevention program. Many parents, who are themselves very interested in integration, are “absolutely perplexed” by their children’s statements. Apparently, “a lot of brainwashing” is happening on the channels on Tiktok, for example, that the young people follow. Some clubs are also a problem.
No generalization
SPÖ teacher representative Thomas Bulant warns against generalizations in connection with Klar’s descriptions, saying that this is not an empirical study. However, more and more girls in Viennese compulsory schools are certainly covering their faces “and that is an issue that we have to deal with,” especially with regard to equal rights for women. What he also finds in Vienna-Favoriten are boys who, due to their cultural socialization in paternalistic cultures, “act up” and try to dictate the behavior and clothing of their sisters, for example.
Teachers should address this in class and they do so. However, it does happen that they are then accused of racism. The young people who are “susceptible” to this hear on Tiktok and other channels that Islam is under threat in Europe. One thing is clear: “Where it becomes a criminal offense, the rest of the state is called upon – and not the school alone.” The support of police officers and social workers is needed here.
Phenomena also outside Vienna
According to Austria’s top teacher representative Paul Kimberger (FCG), similar phenomena to those described by Klar also occur in other metropolitan areas in Austria – “although certainly not in the same concentration as in Vienna.” For him, the limit is crossed when personal freedoms and the way “we want to live in Austria” are restricted. Integration is a cultural achievement based on reciprocity.
Image: VOLKER WEIHBOLD
“}”>
Image: VOLKER WEIHBOLD
“The teachers’ unions have been demanding for many years that we need to significantly strengthen standards in some areas.” He is therefore once again calling for significantly more support from non-school institutions, education and security authorities. “At the moment, many teachers and school principals often feel left alone with the huge problems that sometimes arise.”
