Wednesday, July 22

We checked out of our hotel after breakfast and put our luggage into storage. A bus picked us up and took us to Wilhelm-Maybach Schule. This is an industrial school for vocational and technical education. We were given a very clear and descriptive explanation of how the school system works in Germany. We were also introduced to the various programs offered at this school. Here students learn how to service vehicles, prepare used vehicles for resale and develop the skills to be technical mechanics for all types of vehicles. Students get to work on Mercedes Benz, Volkswagon, and Porche vehicles in their state-of-the-art workshops. Students are also taught how to create models of vehicle parts and run tests on these parts to replicate common break-downs and then look at ways correct these deficiencies. We also learned that students in this vocational school are paid between 600.00 to 800.00 Euro per month for being at school. After graduation, they have the required paperwork to be employed by various vehicle repair shops.

We then went on a short tour of Stuttgart around the centre of the city. Following this quick excursion, we went to the Robert Bosch Foundation for a lunch put on by one of the major sponsors of the Institut. We learned how the Bosch Foundation strives to fund various educational and cultural programs in Germany and the United States.

We were then taken to the Landesinstitut für Schulentwicklung (Institute for School Development) which could loosely be equated with the Department of Education in Manitoba. Dr. Keller explained various trends in the education system in Germany and how the ministry of education in Baden-Württemberg was dealing with these issues. It was fascinating to hear how schools develop a profile which means they develop a specialty in subjects such as history, economics, biology, etc. Students who attend gymnasium must take German, a 1st foreign language and mathematics. Then they must take two other subjects such as history, economics, etc. Students then choose the school they will attend based on the subjects they wish to major in.

Students who take the history route, must spend some time working on a project that requires them to look at primary sources at museums, archives, and libraries. They then complete this project and go through an oral examination where they may be asked to respond to some historical event or passage.

We headed back to the hotel, quickly changed and boarded the train to Frankfurt.
We arrived in Frankfurt and met our two new guides, Jasmine and Cecelia. We checked into the InterCity Hotel in Frankfurt and went out for a late supper and then returned to our hotel room.
It was great to find out that we have free internet at this hotel.