Figure 1.-- The younger boys were apparently educated at home. From what I know about Germany, this was not very common except for the very rich. It is depicted here because the Gutshaus was a mannor house and the children were to be educated with the worker's children in the local school.

The classroom in the house confused us. The younger boys were apparently educated at home. From what I know about Germany, this was not very common except for the very rich. I wondered about one matter. Thanks to our German readers I know understand.

German Education

I know the very rich and the aristocracy educated boys at hime. Professional people even quite successful ones sent their boys to school and mostly state schools. Unlike England it was not common to send boys to private school. There were some private schools. In some cases the children of rich parents were sent there because they could not compete academically in the state schools. Professioinal people, even quite successful ones, normally sent their children to Germany's excellent state schools. In many cases state schools had extremely prestigious reputations and achieved better academic results than private schools.

Private Tutoring

Before we understood that the Gutshaus was a mannor house, we did not understand why the childer were beig tutored. A German reader explains what was probably being illustrated in the program. "The local school was presumably for the children of the farm hands and the servants. Thus it was a local state school on a low level. Many of the children attending may even have spoken Polish. Educated families, even if they were not of the noble group, had private higher school teachers, as the distance to a bigger town with a gymnasium or so was out of reach for daily attendance. They may be living in similar big houses looking similar to a “Gutshaus” with “Gesinde” (household people)." We saw only two lesson books and thought at first only two of the boys were being tutored. A viewer tells us that all six sons were educated in the classroom at the Gutshaus. Here we think this would have been unlikely. Suely the older boys would have been sent to lived withrelatives or board so they could attend a prestigious Gymnasium. But of course if they did that, these boys would no longer be in the program.

Script

Another German reader points out, "In the class room-still the inscription “Der erste Tag” on the black board in Latin letters certainly is incorrect. At the beginning of the 20th century, initial writing in German schools was always done in German letters (similar to the Sütterlin writing); you find this in many photos of school children with the sugar cone for the first day in school." A viewer writes, "It is obvious why they used latin script rather than the old Germanhandwriting. The boys didn't know how to read it. And maybe it was a littletoo much to expect them to be able to do that." Fair enough, but is is useful to note just how accurate these reenactment programs are.

Created: 5:43 PM 2/8/2005
Last updated: 6:43 PM 2/8/2005