R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

In the Primary School that Leon and Aurel attend, five core values ​​are particularly strongly conveyed to the children: respect, consideration, tolerance, responsibility, and honesty. These core values ​​are not only discussed in the classroom, but also in the weekly school assemblies called 'Assemblies'. For example, children from Year 6, the last grade of primary school, give short lectures on tolerance, followed by the presentation of the Respect Awards to those students who have stood out in terms of respect in the past week. 20 to 30 children then proudly stand on stage in front of the entire school community and receive their certificates from the principal.

Each assembly always begins with singing the national anthem and reciting the School Creed together, which is essentially the school's creed. From kindergarten children to Leon's grade, who is in his final year of primary school, all children recite this pathetically beautiful text, which ends with the words: Let us remember that so many hands built this school and so many hearts make up this school.

Since I sat in class with Aurel for the first two weeks, I have gained a pretty good insight into the school system. It was a really funny experience to be back in elementary school at the age of 41! Hocus pocus everybody focused! It would be nice if a little magic could make a whole class pay attention! It takes a lot of patience and rule enforcement... To be honest, my head was smoking around 3 pm when school ended. I could hardly keep up with translating for Aurel whether he should fold his hands and listen attentively, sit on the carpet or, no, kneel, take out his notebook or place it in the little compartment, sorry, the big compartment. And just when I was starting to understand the complexity of the 3-level reward system (child/table group/entire class is rewarded with smiles/checkmarks on a list/dollars for the sports team/small gifts/computer game time) and the many extra tasks that each child is assigned (lights switcher, note distributor, ball box carrier, door opener, good point recorder...), the Friday teacher comes along and everything is completely different again... Aurel was less stressed by this flood of rules and regulations than I was, he just didn't understand or take it as seriously.

I noticed that the teacher always remains very polite even when she has to admonish someone. 'Thomas, would you please stop hanging on the table, darling?' And when Thomas finally stops climbing on the tables, when everyone is supposed to sit on the floor and 'carefully listen', the teacher says: 'Thank you, Thomas!'

Like the man who says 'Sit down' to his dog and then politely adds 'thank you' after the dog has sat down. Have I ever thanked a dog? Or our cat? I still have a lot to learn about respect!