Eleven traffic helpers from the seventh grade of the Waldorf School Werra-Meißner now deployed every day at the crosswalk in Eschwege.
Your task is to guide the primary school students safely across the street. "This is a job that promotes trust and, above all, responsibility," says Ellen Schubert, director of the Free Waldorf School.
To get the children safely across the street between the school buildings, the student pilots are ready as a team at the transition. If someone calls the command "open", the second traffic assistant stands with outstretched arms on the road. So the motorists are moved to stop.
Behind their backs, the younger students cross the street. The pilots constantly keep eye contact with each other, observe the approaching cars and look to the crossing elementary school students. When they are all on the other side of the street, a traffic assistant calls "To" and both leave the lane and release it again for traffic.
Student pilot training at the Waldorf School Werra-Meißner
In ten lessons, the seventh graders were trained by the police superintendents Rüdiger Kunz and Guido Schilling of the police department Eschwege. In doing so, they not only learned the traffic rules and the meaning of traffic signs. Also, how to estimate the speed of the approaching cars and calculate the braking distance, were part of the learning period.
According to Schilling, the Free Waldorf School is the only school in the Werra-Meißner district where there is still a student pilot training. "Too bad it's not anymore," says the police superintendent. Because from a police point of view, the use of student guides is absolutely valuable. "And for the students, it is not lost knowledge. On the contrary, it helps them later in the preparation for the driver's license."
The seventh graders of the Waldorf School have passed the written exam and the practical exam all with flying colors. Now they will make the way to school for the primary school students a bit safer for one year before and after the end of the lesson. Then they clear the way - for the next generation of school students.
The idea of the student guides comes from the USA
A student pilot has the task of enabling children to safely cross a street. These are conducted at the pilotage point in small groups over the roadway. The traffic helper waits for a gap in the traffic and makes himself felt with his trowel. In 1953, the idea originated in the USA was introduced in Germany. Student guides must be at least 13 years old and in seventh grade. Even adults can sign up. A trowel, a cap, and a reflective jacket are used to identify the pilots.