High School Prank Day!

Imagine this is the communication you receive about your first day of a host visit in a foreign school: "On Tuesday our "Abiturienten" (the ones who graduate this year) will have their "prank day", which means that we probably won't make it into the building in the first 2-3 lessons. We don't know what they are planning on doing but usually, it involves water, hay, balloons, and lots of tape, ......we'll let you know next week where to meet us so that we can find a safe spot to survive the first lessons. It's definitely going to be a very special experience."

This was verbatim our email exchange with our host teachers. Our first day at Clara Schumann Gymnasium in Bonn was beyond our wildest dreams.

We arrived to the school and saw students congregating outside the school. Doors were wide open. Students were smoking cigarettes out front. There was toilet paper and tape streaming from windows and stairwells. Music was playing. It was chaotic, it was messy, but it still felt controlled.

We saw our host teachers waving to us across the street at our designated meeting spot. We made introductions and chit-chatted a bit. Our host teachers asked us if we wanted to take a tour of the school in its current state, they said the kids had been in the building since the night prior, having their fun with the building. We did want to see it. The teachers asked permission and the students let us through their currently claimed territory.

We were greeted in the foyer by students in dog large cages- just for fun! Streamers were everywhere. Papers were flying. Desks were removed from classrooms and stacked high in the hallways. The teachers' workroom was full of balloons and post-its. When we made it out to the courtyard, there was music blaring. Students were throwing papers out the windows. Students were also throwing wet toilet paper balls out the windows too. There were chalk messages written onto the blacktop (No More School!). They were also setting up a stage for the annual teacher roast (they called it a comedy show). More photos are available at the end of the post.

The Teacher Roast!

All in all, kids looked like they were having fun making a mess, but much to my surprise, nobody was doing anything destructive or malicious. Kids weren't going out of their way to break or permanently vandalize the materials. As a spectator, it was thrilling. As a teacher, I was overwhelmed. As a former young person, I would've been enthralled had I had a similar opportunity.

Once we had seen enough, we went to a cafe to talk about the German education system. Our host teachers were candid.

After about an hour or so, we made our way back to the school. It was SPOTLESS. You would've never known that the school had been a wreck. Apparently, this right of passage reserved for upperclassmen requires that the lowerclassmen clean up the mess- it's that simple! Also, for clarification, this mess was not for the sake of making a mess. Prank Day is the reward of all fruits of their labor- it is a celebration of the hard work, dedication, and productive struggle that it takes to complete one's academic career. Prank Day is a way to let off steam and celebrate your completion of a mandated education system. Prank Day is something that younger students get to look forward to.

After Prank Day was completed (and cleaned up), students went to their final class periods of the day. We were able to successfully observe experiments and explosions in Chemistry and practice English with the international students. Even after all of the excitement, students went back to class and didn't complain. This felt very jarring compared to the way I have encountered students over the past few years.

Max und die Käsebande: Max and the Cheesegang

Later that night, the school hosted a student musical and families flooded the auditorium. The ambiance of the play, the composure of the students, and the neatness of the auditorium was such a dramatic difference from the excitement of the morning- it was still an exciting atmosphere, just a very different circumstance.

In general, this experience showed me what truly trusting students looks like. In America, we don't tend to trust students. Coupled with America, being an extremely litigious society, I could never imagine a school/district handing over spatial control to students for any period of time. Every spring when high school's brace themselves in a defensive way for whatever "Senior Prank" that may occur. American schools don't tend to celebrate this tradition the way Clara Schumann Gynamisum did.