TomSilver:
Just another word about the 'friendly' germans: a friend brought his 14y old son to school, with his Cayenne. One day, the english teacher saw that. From that day, the poor kid was constantly mobbed by the teacher. At the end they had to take the boy from the school because it would have seriously affected his graduation.
My daughter is on the same school. I always park the car one street further. That is Germany nowadays. Successful people must hide here.
Don't tell me about teachers. My daughter's last year religion teacher made several comments about my daughter's name (Grünberg), apparently he thought we are of jewish decent or whatever (there is a German town Grünberg btw. and the nobel price laureate Peter Grünberg, who is related to us, is not of jewish decent either). Why would a jewish girl attend catholic religion classes or even be christened? Anyway...no matter how good her tests were (she is a good kid in school), she always received very bad marks (between 4 and 6, which basically means between D, E and F). This year, she has a different religion teacher and she already got three marks. Guess what? 1, 2 and 1 (A, B and A). I was actually to school last year to talk to this teacher and he kind of told me in a very friendly way that my girl is lazy and doesn't prepare for lessons (which of course is BS, I know my girl, she has great marks in school) and when he said good-bye to me, he put a strong emphasis on my name, which I considered to be very weird (but I "got" it). He never said out loud that it is about the name (or a possible jewish decent), so I couldn't "nail his ass" (discrimination because of religion would be unacceptable over here) but it was pretty clear because even during lessons, he put a strange emphasis on her name, which her best friend confirmed. Anyway...this guy is no longer her teacher and everything is OK now but it was kind of a shock for me. I had issues because of my last name before when I was younger, even now I have people coming in my business asking if I am of jewish decent (I'm not but what does it matter?) but I never could have imagined that it would affect my kids, especially since they are fully integrated in the catholic community over here. I'm not a religious person and I have friends among ALL religions (jews, muslims, even buddhists) and stuff like that just makes me very very mad.
Then, there is her current religion teacher who tells the kids every day that the "rich" are filthy, that material things are not important at all, that everything we own should be shared with others and that modern technology is somehow an evil thing and we should find back to simple things in life. Sound familiar? Anyway, apparently this teacher is fair, she has these ideas and tries to communicate them to the kids but she doesn't discriminate the kids (she knows that my daughter comes from a wealthy family, she knows me and my wife from various meetings at school).
Now get this: The school principals released a note last week to all parents. Apparently even in the 5. grade (first grade in that particular school type) kids are "mobbed" because they do not own a smartphone. It is true, most kids in school have smartphones (c'mon, this is the 21st century) but they are not allowed to use them in school, Bavarian school policy. Only in case of emergencies they can use them (after requesting permission from a teacher) or outside the school. I can live with that. Anyway: Apparently some kids in the 5th grade make fun of others because they do not own a smartphone. Now the principal wants to forbid all smartphones in school, I mean completely. This is insane. So I need to buy my kids a 20 EUR crappy cell phone just because some parents apparently don't get their education right, so their kids make fun of others? Of course I'm not the only one opposing the complete forbidding of smartphones, so we requested that the parents of the kids "mobbing" others should be called into school, so the principal and teachers can talk to them to teach their kids not to make fun of other kids because they don't own the same stuff they own.
Seriously: I don't get this stuff. I tell my kids every single day that they shouldn't brag about their phones, house, vacations, cars, whatever because it could hurt other kids. Our kids understood and they are good kids, they shut up. Of course some of their friends know and brag about it "for them", which is always annoying but anyway, our kids do not mob others for not having what they have. My daughter even keeps taking her old phone to school, so nobody sees her using an iPhone 5S. It was HER decision, not ours and I am pretty proud of her, even if it is also somehow sad that they she needs to hide things from others.
We live in weird times and I think that sooner or later, school needs to address these problems in a different manner than just forbidding stuff and be done with it. This may be the easiest solution but it won't solve the real issue at hand.
Speaking of cars: I wouldn't dare to drive to school in my 991 Turbo S. I could "hurt" my kids. Not only teachers would be a problem but also other kids, who could start picking on them.
If you think this is a German thing only: I remember someone here in the forum driving in a Ferrari 430 to university in the US. Apparently one of his professors didn't take this lightly, if you get my point, so he stopped driving in a Ferrari to school anymore. I guess people are the same all over the world but unfortunately it seems that in some regions, they are more likely to act on their (evil) feelings than in others.
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991 Turbo S, Cayenne GTS (958), BMW X3 35d (2013)