SPIEGEL Education Newsletter: How Schools Are Dealing with the War in Israel

Actually, you shouldn't find a little break in your inbox today – the next issue is not scheduled until next week. But Hamas' brutal attack on Israel has long since arrived in German classrooms. That's why we decided to send out a special edition of this newsletter.

How schools should deal with the conflict in the Middle East is on the minds of teachers across the country. During the research over the past few days, we in the education team have observed above all how differently educators, school administrators, parents and the young people themselves answer this question. That's why we've put together an overview in this newsletter. The book kicks off with an informative overview piece by Susmita Arp, Swantje Unterberg and Armin Himmelrath, excerpts of which can also be read in the current printed edition of SPIEGEL.

We are very interested in your thoughts on this – and what experiences you have in your classrooms, in the schoolyards and in your families. Feel free to tell us about it! We look forward to receiving mail at bildung@spiegel.de .

Kind regards,
Miriam Olbrisch on behalf of the SPIEGEL education team

What's going on

1. A look at Berlin

After the violent confrontation in the schoolyard of a high school in Berlin-Neukölln, the Senate Administration has set out a clear framework in a letter to all school principals in the capital:

Any "demonstrative action or expression of opinion" that can be understood as endorsement or approval of the attacks against Israel or support for "terrorist organizations such as Hamas or Hezbollah" represents a "threat to school peace" in the current situation and is prohibited, according to the letter from CDU school senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch. The paper is available to SPIEGEL.

The senator provides a few examples of what such an expression of opinion or support could look like: the wearing of "relevant clothing (e.g. the kufiya known as the Palestinian scarf)," the display of stickers and stickers with inscriptions such as "free Palestine" or a "map of Israel in the colors of Palestine (white, red, black, green)."

If the pupils do not comply, school administrators can react with "educational and regulatory measures". In addition, they should report "suspected criminal acts" directly to the police.

In the Tagesspiegel, the Berlin student council had defended the wearing of so-called Palestinian scarves.

2. A look at Lower Saxony

Scenes like those in the schoolyard in Berlin-Neukölln are hard to imagine in Walsrode. In an eleventh grade class at a typical country high school on the southern edge of the Lüneburg Heath, I witnessed young people discussing the Hamas attack and its consequences. Unlike in many schools in the metropolises of this country, the conflict here seemed very abstract and far away. The young people impressed me with their theoretical knowledge – but hardly anyone wanted to take the side of Israel. Russia's invasion of Ukraine was quite different, Rob Homm, the extremely dedicated politics teacher, told me. The students had been collecting donations for months and organizing several solidarity campaigns. You can read here why they view the situation in Israel so differently.

3. View of the Ruhr area and Bavaria

The teacher Mansur Seddiqzai teaches at a grammar school in the Ruhr area. In Die Zeit, he reports in a very personal way how his students view the brutal attack by Hamas – and that the Middle East conflict has not only been a much-discussed topic since these days.

The Bayerischer Rundfunk visited a middle school (the Bavarian equivalent of the Hauptschule) in the district of Dachau and followed the discussion about the war in Israel in a tenth grade.

4. A look at the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs

At their meeting last week, the ministers of culture drafted a joint statement in which they "strongly and emphatically condemn Hamas' terrorist attacks on the Israeli population and the State of Israel." The committee will "do everything in its power to preserve the peace in schools by condemning and preventing all forms of anti-Semitism, expressions of solidarity with and justifications of terrorist activities," the statement said.

What the countries also discussed at their meeting was summarised by my colleague Silke Fokken. Among other things, the results of the new IQB education trend were also discussed, the test results of the ninth graders for the subjects German, English and French. An analysis of this can be found here .

Good news at the end

In the future, teachers will be able to access the entire range of daily reporting from more than 1500 German daily newspapers, consumer magazines and online media for their lessons and use them without restriction – including on the Middle East conflict, of course. The new "Press Portal for Schools" (PfS) works like a classic search engine: enter a search term and receive relevant content from the German press landscape for download for your lessons. For more information, see presseportal-fuer-schulen.de .

That's it for this time. Praise, criticism, suggestions? Feel free to write to bildung@spiegel.de – the team of the »Kleine Pause« thanks you for your interest!