Stay curious! Be critical!

Sabine Weißler, Bezirksstadträtin für Weiterbildung, Kultur, Umwelt, Natur, Straßen und Grünflächen im Bezirk Mitte von Berlin

Dear Sir/Madam,

What do the granddaughter of a Pope – yes, you read that correctly, the granddaughter –, a German philosopher and the principal wife of an Egyptian king have in common?

You probably won’t guess: they are all together on a poster advertising the “Long Night of Adult Education”, which will take place across Germany on Friday, 20 September 2019 from 6 pm to midnight.

Now, I know what you may be thinking: yet another “Long Night” – do the adult education centres really need to celebrate their existence? In fact, they have every reason to do so this year, since it’s their hundredth anniversary. Coincidentally, this year is also the 70th anniversary of our German Basic Law. At the official function “100 years of Adult Education” on 13 February, 2019 in the Paulskirche church in Frankfurt, the president of the Federal Constitutional Court, Andreas Voßkuhle, gave the official speech and explained the significance of adult education for our constitutional state on the occasion of the double anniversary of the Basic Law and adult education centres.

“The Basic Law desires that citizens should be critical and informed”, but above all, curious”, said Voßkuhle, because enlightened citizens are curious. The idea of the adult education centre is an institution that wishes to satisfy curiosity, and for which education does not end when you leave school. Adult education centres, which are timeless institutions in a way, therefore have the Basic Law on their side. They are a place for dialogue and for openness to new ideas. Such places are an irreplaceable part of our democratic constitutional order. This alone would already be a wonderful occasion to celebrate;

but perhaps your personal curiosity about a diverse, sociable, cheerful, thoughtful programme that invites discussion will bring you to Linienstraße 162 on 20 September, 2019. That, too, would be a great reason to come. We already know who won’t be there: Eleonora d’Este (1515–1575), Karl Marx (1818–1883) and Nefertiti (14th century B.C.). They are busy “doing their duty” on the above-mentioned poster for the Long Night. I enjoyed and benefited from my participation in the Paulskirche ceremony; I would be equally pleased to be able to welcome you personally to the Long Night of Adult Education in Berlin Mitte.

Sabine Weißler

Michael Weiß, Leiter der Volkshochschule Berlin Mitte

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are all pleased whenever we find people working in customer service – whether it be in restaurants, administration, hospitals, trade or in shops – who are good at their job and able to help. And, equally important, who want to help and are friendly in the process.

This is exactly what we aim to do!

The customer service and course supervision employees in our adult education centre receive high marks in our representative semi-annual customer surveys. 98% are satisfied with the friendliness of the service employees. When contacting our customer service, 93% of the issues were resolved to the enquirer’s satisfaction. And why we don’t always achieve this? We can’t comply with every customer desire for a course fee refund, rebooking or discount. But you may be assured that our experienced service employees check every customer request with the aim of finding a good solution.

At the same time, administration is often in the shadows. The daily routine and those who carry it out do not receive any special accolades. Creativity and innovation, on the other hand, receive applause, recognition and praise. Why is this?

The reason is that the term “routine” has both positive and negative connotations: most people often think of the negative side of routine, of performing a task that has become a habit, that does not involve any particular commitment and makes people set in their ways. However, we also know the positive side of it, when we say, for example, that a person lacks a certain routine. In other words, that person lacks the skills acquired through many years of experience which make it possible to perform an activity very confidently, very reliably, very quickly and in a superior way. Routine can also mean mastery and great skill.

The significance of a well-functioning administration that runs “like clockwork” is reflected in the 35,000 course bookings we receive each year. However, we need your help here, because every suggestion and every criticism is discussed constructively by our administrators, and our routines are reviewed and adjusted accordingly. You can help us with your criticism and requests. This not only creates customer satisfaction; it’s also simply more fun to perform a task well.

Welcome to the Berlin Mitte Adult Education Centre.

Yours,
Michael Weiß

• Original speech of the president of the Bundesverfassungsgericht, Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Voßkuhle.