…außer Bildungspolitik. (“We can do everything. Except for education (literally: ‘educational policy’).”
It’s written in big letters on the sweater that my professor is wearing in this last week before exam week. It’s a joke that’s part of a running gag based on the slogan of Baden-Württemberg, the German federal state that I am now living in. In 1999, Baden-Württemberg proudly presented its new state slogan which back then was met with frowns and is now so popular that every single student dorm I enter has a magnet stuck to their fridge that reads: Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch. (“We can do everything. Except for standard German” - the dialect-less German that is taught in schools and used in official settings.)
And now, here we are: it’s the week before exam week and I feel like I’m back in high school. I’m sitting in front of a green blackboard again, listening to the teacher who desperately tries to explain π-orbitals and their importance for chemical bonds to a group of confused students. My thoughts wander off to what I would like to buy at the bakery after class now that they no longer sell Weckmännle (little men made out of sweet, soft dough) and whether I’ve already eaten too many pretzels this week. They are only brought back to the class when I hear the sentence every student fears: “I might make an exam question out of this.” The wild scribbling from my side (and that of the students next to me) is picked up again.
Wir können alles. Außer Bildungspolitik. I’m not sure if this short sentence might hide a pinch of truth. I wouldn’t argue for it, that’s for sure. But I do catch myself thinking back to my friends in Maastricht every now and then. To how they’re sitting in a classroom right now, complaining about how “PBL just doesn’t work”. How they’re sighing over the pile of readings they still have to go through and the number of papers they have to write. How they’re getting frustrated over this one person in their tutorial who is always questioning everything. Everything.
As the chemical formulas blur in front of my eyes and the voice of my tutor puts me in a trance, I long for that one person. I long for a heated debate about whether we should switch back to nuclear power plants and if the latter can be considered environmentally friendly. I long for piles of readings that first convince me of the one, and then off the other thing. In this high school-like setting, I long to feel like a university student again.
That’s when I start to question everything. Everything.
Jesler van Houdt