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LAWRENCE -- More than 300 high school students of German will flock to the annual Schuelerkongress at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 2, on the fourth floor of Wescoe Hall at the University of Kansas, ready to compete for medals.
Top competitors receive awards in a 1:30 p.m. ceremony in 3139 Wescoe Hall.
"Schuelerkongress translates as 'student congress,' but the day feels almost like the Olympics when they get their medals," said William Keel, KU professor of German.
The Kansas Association of Teachers of German sponsors the daylong event, which includes contests in poetry recitations, prose reading, spelling, cultural tests and oral proficiency.
Keel said he expected some of the cultural tests would focus on the euro, which was introduced in Europe this year. Cultural test questions may run the gamut of geography, cuisine, history -- anything related to German-speaking countries, Keel said.
Keel said that recent budget constraints are compelling some school districts to consider restricting foreign language classes. He noted an irony in the increased emphasis on globalization in the business world and the difficulties of budgeting for foreign language classes in junior high and high schools.
"Studying a foreign language not only helps you learn another language and culture, but it also helps you understand your own language better," Keel said, noting the need for and importance of foreign language classes.
In the Schuelerkongress, poetry and prose recitations tend to attract students because more can win medals in those competitions, Keel said. The poems and prose selections are made in advance by a committee of high school teachers to match students' level of study, such as first-year or second-year German.
Few of the poems and prose selections would be readily recognized by the general public, but some communities in Kansas with large settlements of German immigrants would recognize some of the German poets, Keel said.
For example, "The town of Ellinwood has street names, if you drive from east to west, named for famous Germans, including several poets -- Humboldt, Schiller, Goethe, Wieland, Bismarck -- even Kennedy Street used to be Arndt," Keel said. "Arndt was a poet during the time of the Napoleonic wars in Germany."
KU's first professor of German, William Herbert Carruth, offered a course in the 1890s on "German poets of the wars against Napoleon," and Arndt was a featured poet, Keel said.
Faculty and graduate teaching assistants from KU's Department of German and Germanic languages serve as judges for the various contests.
Schools planning to compete in the 2002 Schuelerkongress are:
Blue Valley Northwest High School
Buhler High School
Hayden High School
Hays High School
Junction City High School
Lawrence High School
Lawrence South Junior High
Lyons High School
Maize High School
McPherson High School
Newton High School
Olathe North High School
Seaman High School
Shawnee Mission South High School
Smoky Valley High School (Lindsborg)
Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences (Kansas City, Kan.)
Topeka West High School
Wichita East High School
Wichita Northwest High School
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