It started thirty years ago when a mother called me from a West German
village near the Iron Curtain and asked if I could arrange for her son
Christian to study biochemistry at an American college, at least for
a year. There was a need, however, for monetary support and some creative
financing. Illinois College president Vernon Cain offered the young
man tuition relief, Professor Bob Smith room and board, and Dr. Robert
Kooiker at Passavant Hospital part-time employment at his pathology
lab.
Reciprocating for the help Christian had received in Jacksonville, Bob
Smith was invited to teach English in a college near Uelzen in northern
Germany where Christian had graduated from high school. I was offered
to visit Uelzen with the MacMurray students who joined my January seminar
in Europe, an invitation we gladly accepted. That was the beginning
of a continuing exchange of visits between Jacksonville and Uelzen.
For several years, Mr. Karl Jongeling, a teacher of English at one of
Uelzen's two high schools, brought student groups to visit Jacksonville,
its two colleges, and JHS. In 1982, we learned that the German government
would help high school teachers with their travel expenses if they established
an exchange between a German and an American high school. GAPP, the
project's acronym, stands for German American Partnership Program.
Mr. Jongeling met with JHS principal Tom Young, and they agreed to try
an exchange, at least for a year. Privately, Mr. Young told me that
if the Germans did not behave and roam around in the halls when they
were supposed to be in class, he would call the experiment off.
In October 1983, 18 German students arrived in Jacksonville, accompanied
by Mr. Jongeling and one of the girls' mothers. There was no shortage
of Jacksonville families supplying room and board. The German students'
command of English seemed to be sufficient to make their three-weeks
of activities in school and community academically profitable. Best
of all, Mr. Young gave them an A in attitude and compliance with his
instructions. That meant the exchange would continue.
In June 1986, Mr. Pat Kennedy and Mrs. Vicky Hyatt took the first JHS
contingent to Uelzen and its high school, Herzog-Ernst-Gymnasium or,
abbreviated, HEG. (Herzog Ernst was a duke of the House of Hanover.
Gymnasium is the German term for an academic high school, in contrast
to a Berufsschule, a vocational high school.)
In the meantime, twenty years have passed, and JHS and HEG have ample
reason to celebrate the success of their venture into international
relations on the local level. 400 HEG students have enjoyed Jacksonville's
hospitality, and 300 JHS students Uelzen's. Since 1983, moreover, dozens
of parents have followed their sons and daughters across the Atlantic
in subsequent years.
Nationwide, participation in GAPP has grown from 150 school partnerships
in 1983 to 700 in 2002. Since its beginning, the program has given some
200,000. American and German students an opportunity to become more
familiar with their partners' language, learn first hand about the differences
between their cultures, and share their life experiences and world views
with their peers and host families.
Compared to a commercial tour, the GAPP experience offers free room
and board, free guides, and, best of all, home hospitality, not only
for the students but also for the teachers who serve as chaperons. To
keep them out of trouble, German students, for example, have to be told,
as soon as they step off the bus, that the drinking age in the United
States is 21, not 16, while American students learn quickly that to
drive an automobile in Germany, you have to be 18, not 16.
It's the beauty of people-to-people exchanges that they thrive upon
local initiatives. In the case of GAPP, for example, no exchange was
called off just because the German Chancellor disagreed with one of
President Bush's pet projects.