In memory of Gabi Naundorf

Meeting a very special woman

In 1981 or 1982 (…it seems like such a long time ago) I registered my 9th grade class for the seminar at the Wannseeheim for youth work. I was young, had completed my teacher training and the first few years at the secondary school. My class was very dear to me, and it was important to me to give my students an intensive and positive learning experience outside of the everyday routine of secondary school.

We were lucky, because Gabi Naundorf's team offered us a seminar on political education. Gabi Naundorf, Gabi Heinemann, Michael, and Robert came to the school and introduced themselves and their program. They talked about friendship, love, growing up, and one's own role as a woman or a man. 

The concept: Work was done in gender-specific groups, girls with female team leaders, boys with male team leaders. The teachers were only involved in the team meetings; they stayed away from the working groups themselves. 

What a surprise! I too was involved in the women's movement and enthusiastic about feminist ideas back then, but the separation of girls and boys in the learning process was new to me.

The seminar was fascinating. Within the team, there were interesting discussions about the behavior and learning strategies of girls and boys. How does gender-specific socialization unfold for boys and girls? We were able to discuss numerous questions that had repeatedly arisen for me during my work as a teacher. Ursula Scheu's book, "We Are Not Born Girls – We Are Made into Them," was very popular at the time.

During my studies I was very involved with publications by Klaus Hurrelmann on socialization research, but also with concepts of the old reform pedagogues such as John Dewey.

And here, the answer was put into practice! At the end of the seminar, the students presented their work. This was the absolute highlight for the class. We all witnessed how effective it is when girls and boys work in different learning groups.