Against the Mantra “It Won't Work!”

In January 2020, I held Pauline Kalkbrenner's application in my hand as class tutor for class 10b. She is severely visually impaired. «“After months of searching, several rejections and months of doubt, I am now writing my application to the Waldorf School without knowing the concept behind it. I'm clinging on to every possibility.» For Pauline, after psychologically destabilizing experiences at schools for the blind in Chemnitz and Marburg, it was a desperate attempt to be taught inclusively at a general education school in her home town of Dresden. I asked myself whether this could be an opportunity for the class and the Dresden Waldorf School. In the fragile, sensitive tenth grade, there was a strong social cohesion and a high level of acceptance of behavioral peculiarities. Pauline's acceptance was supported by the creative freedom of an independent school and two more years to complete secondary school. Could we open up a space of togetherness in which Pauline could participate in education, experience personal development and contribute her talents?

We cannot do that!

The parents, Pauline, a colleague from the special needs department and I met at the school in February 2020 to get to know each other. Marie Böttcher, Head of the Competence and Media Center of the Chemnitz State School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, explained to us which accessible teaching materials and aids we would have to provide as teachers. My head could hardly contain the wealth of new specialist vocabulary. We agreed on a two-week trial period. I said goodbye to the parents with the words that this was an experiment. The colleague said to me as she left: “We cannot do that!» Pauline was there for two days in March 2020, then the school doors closed for everyone due to the coronavirus. As a school, we tried to organize lessons online. I put Pauline in touch with the school social worker Ulrike Giese and extended the trial period until June. The majority of the teachers decided against admitting the student. With all the restrictions due to the pandemic, this was not possible. I sadly broke the news to Pauline, her school assistant, her parents and the class that the teaching staff had decided against admitting her.

And what if it does?

Her classmates then wrote 20 letters to the class council questioning this decision. Pauline herself also wrote a letter in which she explained her position and reiterated her situation. «I then got a chance to explain everything at the next upper school conference – in front of all the teachers, my knees were shaking,» says Pauline. Her classmates offered to help with the procurement and conversion of materials. Pauline was allowed to stay. «Right from the start, it was important to me not to be treated any differently,» says Pauline today. «I just wanted to belong like everyone else. I was very nervous at first, being new at school and then with people without disabilities. I was afraid of how they would react to me. I was actually well received, everyone was friendly. But it was a huge change for me and overwhelming. I had only ever been in classes with a maximum of eight people, now there were about 30 of us. It was difficult for me to make friends, simply because I didn't know how to do it.»

Pauline completed her social work internship at the beginning of year eleven at Lloyd's Café & Bar, which provides jobs for people with disabilities. I visited her, was amazed to be seated, served and cashed up by her and had a brief chat with her supervisor Petr Wolf, who later told me that he initially thought it wouldn't work out.

It quickly became clear that Pauline would not be taking part in eurythmy. «I had to pay attention to the music, to the steps, to myself and also to not run into other people. That was not feasible and okay for me,» says Pauline. This was followed by counseling sessions and work shadowing with Marie Böttcher. I learned how to write support plans. We colleagues were supposed to enable equal learning. Pauline says today: «Some teachers succeeded more and better, others less. That's understandable, as every subject is different and one is more accessible than the other. There were days when my teaching assistant was very important to me. There were days that went better, but also days when I sat in the corridor crying and despairing because I felt like I was a burden for many people. Because of course it takes more effort to organize the lessons so that I can keep up, both for the teachers and for myself.»

The learning staff

We colleagues learned to verbalize the illustrations and pictures used in class for Pauline or to use aids. Tactile braille prints had to be made for texts that had to be read several times, such as poems or choral songs. This happened at the 153rd elementary school in Dresden, whose name is a remnant from the GDR, where schools were numbered consecutively as standard. Children with visual impairments have been taught there in Dresden since 2018. I realized the need for qualification in our teaching staff to convert worksheets into digital, accessible Word documents. For example, Pauline needed all her teaching material in a specific digital format so that it could be decoded for her using the Braille display. I took over the typing of the worksheets for my colleague in history. This was an enormous additional effort and could not be done for other subjects. In addition, the transcripts had to meet certain adaptation standards and be written using format templates. However, I first had to learn this procedure at the school for the visually impaired in Chemnitz. Later, we succeeded in having a student adapt texts and old tests for training purposes for a fee. At the beginning of the lesson, math colleague Kornelia Renner had the class do a spatial imagination exercise with a cube. Pauline brought a cube with her, so she managed this exercise quite well. Like other colleagues, Renner became more sensitive to language, slower in her explanations and she repeated more often. When reformatting worksheets into digital Word documents, she thought through them again, which benefited the entire class. It also had to be quiet in class so that Pauline could follow the explanations. In the Analytical Geometry lesson, individual functional equations were to be clearly assigned to curves and drawn as a picture in a coordinate system. Pauline used a geoboard for this and needed three times as much time. In physics lessons, Pauline benefited from podcasts. In music, her sensitivity to experience stood out.

Empowerment

Fellow craftsman Rüdiger Wünsche was amazed that Pauline was better at blacksmithing than some of her classmates. It became her favorite subject. “I have great respect for fire as I can't see it and have often been injured as a result,” explains Pauline. «It was just a shame that I couldn't see the iron on the anvil as the contrast wasn't strong enough, but with precise instructions from my school assistant Lisa, it was easy to do.» In the painting course I taught, the young people abstractly depicted winter and spring to the music of Vivaldi. Lisa mixed the colors according to Pauline's instructions and helped her paint to the rhythm of the music. Her classmates then described the perceptible expressive qualities, particularly in detail, in Pauline's works. She agreed to give a talk about the visually impaired gallery owner Johann König. Pauline brought scarves with her and asked us to be blindfolded with them. Pauline reports: «The response afterwards was incredible; they told me after the lecture how they had perceived it and what you concentrate on with your ears when you can't see anything – for example, more on the content of what you hear, on the sound of the voice and the world of imagination it sparks.» We were asked to guess the tactile relief image she had drawn. Very few of us were able to make out the portrait of Johann König in this way. Nathanael and Pauline went on a tandem bike ride to the Richard Wagner Museum in Graupa during the music history period. Pauline wrote her annual project on prejudices against people with disabilities. She reflected on her high expectations for social change in favor of inclusion and came to the conclusion that more education and more opportunities for encounters are needed to dispel stereotypes, negative perceptions and insecurities when dealing with people with disabilities. Like everyone else, Pauline presented her topic to the public audience with touching personal references. She asked the audience to make themselves heard by clapping if they had any questions. At the interactive exhibition stand, visitors could try their hand at a prejudice memory game. As a specialist mentor to an eighth-grade student, Pauline explained Braille to her. «That was one of the best experiences, because I knew that she had learned something for life and I was able to reduce the barriers in at least one other person's mind a little,» says Pauline. In the twelfth grade art class, Pauline decided to crochet something on the subject of self-expression. This independent and conceptual examination of her self produced a very original result, a crocheted hybrid creature, which she presented to the astonished class with insightful and unsparingly open reflection. The class play The Broken Jug by Heinrich von Kleist challenged her due to the background noise and the concentration required during rehearsals and the performance. In the small role of the court usher, she won over the audience.

Strong community makes it possible

At the end of twelfth grade, Pauline passed the exams for her intermediate secondary school diploma with very good and good results. At first, I only had an inkling that she might succeed – after all, we often encountered the mantra «It won't work!» And yet everything fell into place: Pauline, the school assistant Lisa, the class and the teaching staff were able to shape this time together, supported by other people in the background of the school community such as the management. «In conclusion, I am glad that I was able to attend Dresden Waldorf School and that I have my secondary school diploma in my pocket.»