Butler students travel Europe
As a fan of cars and automobiles, Gannon Brown was excited for his summer trip this year.
Where he was going, he would also get to see monuments including the Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triomphe. While he traveled to five countries in July with other students, parents and teachers from Butler Area School District, Brown’s favorite destination was Munich, Germany.
“That’s where all the BMWs and Volkswagens are from, so that’s what I was excited to see,” said Brown, who is a rising sophomore at Butler Area High School. “Probably my favorite part was walking around Munich at night.”
The trip took place July 18 - July 26, and took 18 ninth- through twelfth-grade students and 12 teachers and parents to France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein.
Jared Schneider, German teacher at Butler Intermediate High School, said the trip was for members of the French and German clubs at the intermediate and high schools. The trip was planned to allow students to experience the cultures firsthand, and to give them the chance to use knowledge they have gained through the extracurricular clubs.
“Part of the mission is to teach kids languages and give them opportunities to use those languages,” Schneider said. “Obviously it's pretty tough having 30 to 45 minutes a day in the classroom to then go to a country where they speak it, but they had the opportunity to try the languages in places like restaurants.”
Schneider said the club leaders have been planning a trip to Europe since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Even after it was nailed down, organizers were concerned that the influence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would affect the journey.
The plan was able to move forward, however, and on July 18, the group went to the Pittsburgh International Airport, saw no delays or changes in flight schedules, and made it to Paris by the end of the day.
According to Schneider, the group started with a walking tour of Paris, and spent three days total in France visiting historical attractions and cultural landmarks. Schneider said he could tell the students were awed by seeing famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in the Louvre, up close and in person.
“Just seeing these cultural landmarks that we talk about now it’s right in front of them,” Schneider said. “It's overwhelming.”
The monuments and the respect demonstrated to them by locals was one of the most surprising cultural differences to Brown.
“They had a lot of respect for the monuments, they keep them in very good shape over there,” Brown said.
Schneider said the clubs typically meet after school, where members speak to one another in their club’s respective language and learn about the history and culture of Germany and France.
Schneider said practical application of these languages is the best way to learn and develop interpretation skills, so an international trip is a perfect test of the students’ skills.
However, Schneider said there was a small safety net for the American students, thanks to the German educational curriculum.
“English is part of the German curriculum, so everyone has to learn it,” Schneider said. “From a cultural standpoint, a lot of people want the interaction in their native language.”
Brown said the trip involved a lot of nodding.
“We were hearing a lot of French so it was kind of hard to communicate,” he said. “My roommate on the trip helped translate a lot.”
Schneider said the group took a train from Paris to Switzerland, went by bus to Liechtenstein, drove through Austria and arrived at its final stop in Munich in southern Germany.
Schneider said he was originally swayed toward a career in teaching by a trip he took to Germany in high school. Returning to Munich, a former place of residence, with his own pupils was a full-circle moment for him.
“When I was in tenth grade I took a summer abroad trip with the German teacher and that's when I fell in love with German teaching,” Schneider said. “I was in Munich, so it's great to show the group the place I lived in.”
Schneider said he would be happy if the trip impacted his students as much as it impacted him when he was young.
“My hope is that they got some experience traveling and seeing the world, putting in perspective their own world views and growing in their world views,” Schneider said. “That was a goal of mine to give kids the experience.”
Brown said he was also surprised with how pleasant the residents of the other nations were compared to people in the U.S. He said he would make the trip again, despite the crutch of jet lag.
“They were all nice and there wasn’t any disrespect if you got in their way or anything,” he said. “I definitely recommend going if you can.”
