Problems of Pedagogical Continuity Within a Minority

Abstract

The German minority in Denmark has its own highly esteemed private kindergartens and schools, but there is one major problem that this article discusses. The kindergartens are very popular and therefore they attract many children, not only those of endogamous couples but also those of exogamous and majority couples. The German schools do not enjoy the same popularity, even if there are no pedagogical reasons for this. Consequently, only some of the children go on from the German kindergarten to the German school. This creates a lack of pedagogical continuity. This is irrational from a linguistic point of view, for at the age of 3, when the children (most are monolingual Danish-speaking) start in a German kindergarten, they get a "language-bath" in German, but this intensive stimulation comes to an end when at the age of 6 they are transferred to a Danish school. The motives of the parents for choosing both kindergarten and school are analyzed here. Deutscher Schul-und Sprachverein für Nordschleswig (the body responsible for all the schools) wants a higher percentage of the children to go from the German kindergartens to the German schools, emphasizing the unity of the two pedagogical institutions, but this would require such radical changes in the curriculum that it is hardly acceptable for the schools; even if these changes were carried out, it might not solve the problem because the essence of the problem is emotional and therefore irrational: many people in the German-Danish border region are still "blocked" toward Deutschtum [being German].