Play: "Teechers"

Friday night I saw the school production of "Teechers", a play about a drama teacher determined to make a difference in the lives of students at a troubled school. Even with its classic theme, the play is quite controversial in Austria because it criticizes the current educational system that separates "good" students from "poor" students and instead advocates "comprehensive" schools, in which every student is offered an equal chance at education.

In Austria's current system, nine-year-old students must decide whether they want to attend a Hauptschule, which will prepare them to learn a trade, or if they want to enter a Gymnasium, or "academic" school, which will prepare them to enter university or vocational school. At age 14, Austrian students complete their compulsory education and can either leave school and enter the workforce or choose to continue at either an academic or a vocational high school.

Many proponents of comprehensive schools say that students are too young at ages 9 and 14 to make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. The Austrian government has tried to introduce the concept of comprehensive schools, or Gesamtschulen, in which all students would (theoretically) have access to equal educational resources. Many schools, including the one where I teach, are strongly against this movement, mainly due to the fear that "poor" students will hold back the "good" students from succeeding and "good" students will push the classes ahead too quickly at the expense of the "poor" students. This does happen to an extent, but separating students into tracks (Honors, Career Prep, etc.), as is common in the US and in England, helps to alleviate the issue.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, the controversial issues examined in "Teechers", the play was well attended and received all the attention it deserved.