From the Classroom to Real Life: Experiencing Values at the Gesamtschule am Gluckenstein

In a series of workshops, the students explored values such as responsibility, respect, and social cohesion. In the so-called “Werte-Welten" (Worlds of Values), they then moved from the classroom to real-world experiences: At the youth fire department, the DRK (German Red Cross), and the Oberurseler Werkstätten (Oberursel Workshops), the students saw the importance of community, helpfulness, and responsibility in everyday life at these organizations firsthand.

The event concluded with a joint workshop led by judo world champion Alexander Wieczerzak. In a discussion with the students, he spoke about his journey in competitive sports and the role that values such as respect, fairness, responsibility, and perseverance have played along the way. Afterward, the classes presented the class values they had developed themselves and reflected on their experiences from the previous project days.

We are particularly pleased that we were able to bring together two important partnerships for this project: our support of the WerteStiftung as a “Werte-Partner” and our collaboration with GAG as part of FERI4Education. In this way, we are expanding our commitment to education with a project that enables young people to discuss values, experience them firsthand, and reflect on them together. After all, values become more tangible when they are directly connected to one’s own life experiences.

Many thanks to the teams at GAG and WerteStiftung for their excellent collaboration and the great dedication with which they made “Werte (er)leben” possible.