Addendum

I am reminded that sometimes things work backwards, too. I said that Americans are more culturally inclined to "get 'er done" and Germans seem more likely to just do what's in the job description and no more...but here at BMS the hausmeister (so much more than a custodian) seems to live for school. Not only does he get all kinds of things done (usually cheerfully, I might add) but he even DJ'd the staff party and a colleague's birthday. And while I have worked with a few custodians who were enthused about being in a school and around kids, most could learn something about taking the initiative from Ronny.

It just goes to show that generalizations aren't usually worth depending on.

Sidewalk dodging and graph paper

Yeah, this one is a bit of a stretch, but sometimes we have to allow room for weird connections to work their magic. I had to run home at lunchtime the other day to pick up items left behind by Son #1. On the way, as I enjoyed the warm weather and the flowers planted by my neighbors, I had to maintain strict attention lest I stumble into a doggie calling-card. I wondered why nobody does anything about it. The epiphany was that it seems to be part of a significant cultural difference between Americans and Germans: here, the mindset is "I will do exactly what is listed as part of my job description or contained in a directive." If it isn't directed, its "not my fault, not my problem."

Readers of this blog may remember that we had an incident on the class trip in which the "organizers" (I use the term loosely) put out 19 adult bikes for our 31 9- and 10- year olds. Not their job to wonder if there were enough, or if the kids would fit on them.

And on to education. I had a conversation with a parent recently who seemed to feel that his child needs to use paper with lines on it to keep his writing straight--and that I should be insisting on this not only for his boy but also for everyone else. ("Is it normal practice in an international school," he asked me, "for children to write on paper without lines??") I explained that if he felt his child needed lines, HE was free to suggest this. AND that perhaps sometimes the child has to struggle before he sees the value of the tool. But I don't think he understood--because he wanted his child to use lined/graph paper simply because he was told to. The kid didn't need to think, he only needed to follow directions.

Which leads us back to dog poop. American culture suggests that when you see a problem you should try to figure out how to fix it, or at least what you can do to make it better. German culture seems to be more rule-bound--and if it isn't my job, it isn't my problem. So why would anyone scoop the poop? Leaving the rest of us to dodge, and wish for lines on the sidewalk indicating where the poop should be placed.