Edutopia - February/March 2008 - (Page 35) go gl bal first grade on is part of the standard Austrian curriculum, and in Spiss, the kids seem to be picking it up very quickly due both to Web sites in English and to Klingenschmid’s direct teaching methods. They will need English later in life, because many people from Spiss work in the tourism industry at the spectacular ski areas of Ischgl-Paznaun nearby. A Splendid Isolation Along with the high tech and advanced teaching techniques that engage kids with the world, being in a setting as beautiful as any in nature offers its own special ways of learning. Weather permitting, Pia Dilitz, a part-time teacher at the school, will take the students on hikes into the mountains, where they can discuss global warming, a concern of increasing urgency, and observe its effects. Often, the kids visit a local bauernhof (farm house) to observe how farming is done under adverse conditions, and to learn how people in parts of the world with equally challenging climatic extremes have survived for hundreds of years. And, of course, there comes a time when the snow falls and kids look longingly out the school windows. “Winters can be hard, but they’re a special treat for the kids,” explains Klingenschmid. “Nothing excites them more than to pack up their ski boots and their skis or boards and head to the lifts.” The school, founded in 1826, has had a long history of struggling against the forces of nature as well as a bureaucracy disinclined to keep high-altitude, isolated education alive. In 1950, students had to be moved to the nearby Customs House due to extreme avalanche danger. The difficult conditions caused some villagers to leave the mountains, and a declining national birth rate has meant that the number of students has dropped from thirty in 1967 to eight today. Klingenschmid, a Spiss native herself, had to move to a boarding school at the age of ten. “After primary school, there were no further education possibilities nearby,” she says. The fear is never far from her mind that one day, despite all her efforts, the school will have to close. “If nothing changes, we could have a real problem by 2012,” she says. The rules are strict within the Austrian school system: There can be no school with fewer than five children. Herbert Bauernebel is the U.S. correspondent for the Austrian daily newspaper Österreich. RICARDO HERRGOTT EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 35 http://EDUTOPIA.ORG
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