German International School Chicago, Chicago | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Our son attended the German International School in Chicago for 2 days and we knew very quickly that our approach to education diverges too much from the school’s in order to continue there.
I understand that some parents might share the school’s values and setup, and I am only sharing my own observations and experiences here.

This review applies in particular to the preschool context in the school.
I am German and live in North America; when we decided to come to Chicago for 1 year, I was truly excited about the prospect of sending our child to the German International School! It seemed to be a wonderful opportunity for us since we are a multilingual family who lives in North America. My son is fluent in German and I thought this would be a great way to connect with the German community in Chicago and give him some “German culture” while continuing to strengthen his language. Because the school is run by Germans, claims to use Montessori based approaches, and is in the price range of good independent schools, I trusted that it must be a good school.

Let me be clear about what were the reasons that motivated us to immediately take him out of this preschool (though I was very motivated to make it work), and look for a different school:

PHILOSOPHY & PARENT-SCHOOL-PARTNERSHIP:
– there is no gradual entry for preschool children. At the age of 3, children are immediately expected to stay at school all day. Parents were only allowed to stay for 15 minutes on day 1, afterwards they were forced to leave right away after drop off (“curb-side drop off” at the street is even more welcome). This is developmentally absolutely inappropriate, and does not help the children feel safe and transition well. The school, as a consequence, had to deal with groups of emotionally overwhelmed children who could not cope. The educators were not able to support/console so many overwhelmed children at the same time, and there was simply chaos while parents were kicked out. Several moms told me that their (potty trained) children wetted 4 sets of clothes daily for the first 2 days because they were so stressed. The school did not consider this to be a reason to inform the parents to pick up their child early, or to adjust their plans of how to have children enter the school system. The school did not take the children’s emotions seriously!
– forming nurturing, caring relationships with children is not a priority in this school (it should be!)
– The educators literally kicked parents out of the room and said “no, you cannot help your child, you cannot stay for another 10 minutes, it’s not allowed”
– The family is clearly not part of this school system. The principal with whom I had a lengthy talk said to me “This is school and you as parents are hindering your child! Once you leave, your child will get over it quickly and in 3 weeks they won’t be screaming anymore; they won’t remember” — I am still digesting those words. No acknowledgment, no empathy, no interest in connecting.
– The focus is on academics rather than play-based learning. Children get to exercise their left area of their brain intensely, but the fantasy, imagination, creativity, free play, exploration comes way too short (if it exists at all). The work material isn’t impressive either for the tuition you pay
– Preschoolers need to develop their social and emotional skills in order to thrive and succeed in and outside of school (cooperation, communication, decision making, etc.); there was no attention given to those crucial areas of development

SPACE:
– hardly any outside space: the “playground” is a euphemism; it’s tiny and does not give children quality outside time. The building was originally not designed to be a school – this becomes clear in many parts of the space (gloomy rooms, no windows in some classrooms)

I think the school would benefit from new and strong leadership who has a clear philosophy, a clear concept for the school, and a more timely understanding of education and child development.

As parents we spend countless hours (and sometimes years) searching to find an elementary school where we know our precious children will be safe, loved, happy and intellectually challenged each day. In my case, the search to find this school started when my daughter was born in the fall of 2008 and I became a stay-at-home dad. From the start of our search, my wife and I were doubtful we would come across a school that would meet all of our expectations. The reason we were so pessimistic was because my wife and I are both elementary school teachers. We know first hand how hard teachers, administration and staff need to work to make each child in the school feel safe, loved, happy and challenged every single day from the minute the students walk into school until the time the students walk out.

Then one day in the fall of 2009, I visited the playgroup at German International School Chicago (GISC) with my daughter just to get a peek inside the school. After two more years of attending the playgroup at GISC, asking a lot of questions, reading a lot of research about the benefits of brain development in bilingual children, and continuing to visit numerous other schools around Chicago, it was crystal clear to me that GISC was the dream school I had been searching for years for my daughter. As soon as my daughter was eligible to attend GISC, in the fall of 2011, I enrolled her.

It is now 2017 and the German International School Chicago still continues to meet the four criteria we all want for our children and they continue to exceed my expectations. The only difference now is that I have two daughters that are enrolled into GISC and both of them speak German fluently.

My daughters’ lives right now could not be any better off educationally, emotionally and developmentally. I owe it all to the GISC teachers, staff, parents, community members and the truly amazing director at GISC, Frau Obritzberger. Thank you so much GISC!

My family and I are looking forward to the very bright future ahead at GISC.

My daughter has been at GISC for three years. She comes from a monolingual household and speaks excellent German, all thanks to GISC. The classes are small, the teachers are caring, the administration is progressive and motivated, and the parent community is very social and fun. The building isn’t top-rate, but we’re working to find a new space… and I’ve seen enough schools to know that improving the space is FAR easier than improving the culture and education. We love GISC!!