Edutopia - February/March 2008 - (Page 32) BY HERBERT BAUERNEBEL AUSTRIA A mile high in the Tyrolean Alps, a tiny school uses technology to reach out to the wider world—and sheer pluck to keep teaching alive. higher education Population: 8.3 million Average years of school (adults) 8.4 Language: German Required years of school: 9 va Klingenschmid teaches with the kind of high dedication that seems perfectly appropriate for the school where she works, in the tiny village of Spiss, high on the steep slopes that flank the snow-capped peaks of the Austrian Alps. She sits in front of a school bench, facing two first graders, Gina and Patricia. The girls are learning to read, and Klingenschmid shows them word cards, using a practice in which the students have to read the word as a whole, then continue as letters are blocked out one after another until only one is left. The teacher is soft spoken and attentive, which suits the situation: There are six other children in the very small classroom with cluttered bookshelves, maps, crayon drawings, and colorful decorations hanging from the ceiling. While Frau Lehrer— “Mrs. Teacher,” as she is respectfully addressed—talks to the two girls, the others work on their own on different subjects. The methodology in this classroom in the Volksschule Spiss, a primary K–4 school, is a necessity: There are only eight children in the E isolated village’s school, and Klingenschmid, as the only full-time teacher, must instruct all grades with a system of short, direct teaching intervals in various subjects. “It works well because the group is small,” she explains as she signals two kids roaming the class to return to their places with a quick but determined wave of her hand. She laughs, saying, “Of course, a high degree of discipline is required to make all this work.” The teaching concept used in Spiss, called Kleinschule (small school), allows the survival of schools in remote places. The unhappy alternative would be seemingly LESS IS MORE endless bus rides for the kids Learn about how a small school in from their mountain villages to Oregon gets expansive at the larger towns down in the www.edutopia.org/maca valleys, and in the winter many of the mountain roads are dangerous, if not impassible. Spiss is a perfect example of the kind of place the Kleinschule system serves best: At an 24 EDUTOPIA FEBRUARY/MARCH 2007 http://www.edutopia.org/maca
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