Now that it is O.K. to be ethnic in America, German teachers and students across America have a prime opportunity to ride the wave of excitement in search of their ethnic idenity. Teachers have not only an opporunity, but also a responsibility to help their students discover the rich heritage and impact German immigrants have had on the development, history, and culture of our country. German-american studies and language learning complement and reinforce one another and should not be viewed as naturally exclusive courses in the curriculum.

Realizing that the majority of those students who enroll in a German language class do so because of family heritage, and also with the realization that most will never travel to a German-speaking country, it behooves us as teachers to facilitate this learning process in a manner that will lend substance and quality to their brief encounter with the German language in our classrooms. Capitalizing on the basic reason most enrolled in the first place seems to be a natural phenomenon.

The students at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Indiana, have the opportunity for a five year study of German, French, or Spanish, two years of Russian or Japanese, and one semester of Chinese. The retention rate for those students studying German for five years has been consistently greater than the retention rate for those in the other languages.

At the third and fourth levels, students have been exposed to a program focusing on German-American studies along with their language study. Students have been exposed to a variety of culturally and historically significant events, personalities, and places dealing with local and regional history with a German connection. The students are introduced to broad topics such as:

• the Harmonists in Indiana
  
• the Amish
  
• the Hoosier group of painters
  
• the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis
  
• the state song "on the Banks of the Wabash"
  
• Ragtime music
  
• the town of Oldenburg, where street names are still in German
  
• local church history
  
• immigration patterns in Southern Indiana
  
• local family histories with German ancestry
  
• Camp Atterbury, a local U.S. Army prisoner of war camp for German soldiers during WW II
  
• the Moravians

The list is endless. If time allows, field trips to local museums, cemeteries, state memorials, art exhibits, churches, etc. are suggested. Speakers from these places may also be brought into the classroom.

The students are taught to read passages written in Fraktur and "alte Deutsche Schrift" which was commonly used prior to the introduction of the Su"tterlin-Schrift in 1917.

The above merely sets the stage for the real thrust of the program. Armed with the tools of language, historic reading and writing skills most students never get, and with a clearer definition of local history, our students are ale to launch their own research projects with a German emphasis. Some choose to focus on personalities, some on genealogy, some on community development, church history, tools, dress, folklore, oral history, traditions, old immigration, recent immigration, etc. The resources are limitless. The greatest inhibitor is time. Many students begin for the first time to talk with senior members in their families and in the community. They develop a sense of pride because they are able to use their language skills in a relevant manner outsides the classroom.

Once this student program is in place, the momentum generated by their contacts permeates their families, friends, neighbors, and the total fabric of the community. The students then have become catalyst for family and community involvement in rediscovering and passing on to future generations their German culture, hsitory and heritage. That which happens, evolves in unusual, unexpected, and sometimes serendipitious ways, and all are exciting. Some representative things which have evolved locally since the initiation of these student projects are:

• one student could not stop with the assignment, and continued to write and illustrate the history of Waymansville, a small German community, whose history had never been written. His project is now a part of the local historical society library.
  
• one student discovered a book written by her grandfather to her grandmother while he was a prisoner of war in Germany in WW II. It was a book of poetry and was sewn together from an army blanket.
  
• one local church, after the discovery of a group of immigrant letters in which the history of the congregation and the community was described, has written a pageant in celebration of its 150th years based on the contents of those immigrant letters.
  
• four out of the past five years, a German language student at Columbus North has applied for and been selected to participate in the Congress- Bundestag Student Exchange Program.
  
• fourth year German students were invited to participate in an experimental international computer network telecommunications project with AT&T, with a direct connection with schools in Germany.
  
• two separate local adult groups of families, under the direction of the German teacher, have sought and found their ancestral roots in Germany.
  
• two adult groups from Germany have come to Columbus looking for the descendants of relatives who emigrated.
  
• old letters of various ages and origins have been located and translated for individuals.
  
• an adult group from Quincy, Illinois, visited Columbus, Indiana in search of common German ancestral ties.
  
• local demographic studies on German settlement patterns, researched and prepared by the German teacher, are now located at three universities in Germany, and are used by students at the Universita"t Marburg.
  
• the Bartholomew County Historical Society has had programs and exhibits on German heritage, including:
  
• immigration
  
• settlement patterns
  
• clothing
  
• North German folkdance
  
• churches
  
• local artist and musician T. J. Koch, who studied with T.C. Steele
  
• the Indianapolis Museum of Art has exhibited in Columbus its show on the Hoosier group of painters who studied in Munich, Germany.
  
• an 8-week Conversational German course for business people, offered through the local public school adult education program, was extended to 32 weeks and is being offered again this year.
  
• requests for speaking engagements at conventions, workshops, and seminars on topics related to German-American studies, family history, and immigration have increased significantly.

The sphere of influence and interest has evolved to the world outside the classroom, because of what happened in the classroom. The crescendo of excitement generated by the students using their language and investigative skills has not yet peaked.

In a relay race, the race is won on the skill of the passing of the baton, not necessarily on the speed of the runners. The same is true for language study. Those students who are able to use their skills to transfer a body of knowledge on to future generations are the ones who will succeed. Columbus North High School is running a good race.

This article was presented at a teacher workshop in Ferdinand, Indiana Mar 17-18, 1991 by Arthur Schwenk, German Teacher, Columbus North High School, 1400 25th Street, Columbus, Indiana 47201

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