German International School of Silicon Valley, or GISSV, is an independent, nonprofit, bilingual school with campuses in Mountain View, Berkeley and San Francisco. The Mountain View campus offers preschool through 12th grade, the Berkeley campus offers preschool through eighth grade and the San Francisco campus offers kindergarten through fourth grade.
What makes this school stand out is its bilingual learning approach. In kindergarten, there are two teachers in the classroom; one always speaks English, and one always speaks German. In first and second grade, instruction is entirely in German. After that, instruction is bilingual.
“Of course the kids, they can reply to me in both languages,” said Jana Buechel, a German-speaking kindergarten teacher at GISSV San Francisco campus. “They can ask me in English and I’ll just answer them in German.”
The curriculum is based on the German government’s approved standards, while also covering the California curriculum. The school follows the United States’ Common Core Standards, and is a recognized MINT school, which is the German equivalent of STEM.
Principal for the Berkeley and San Francisco campuses, Martin Walter, said early bilingual education is very important for brain development and international mindedness.
“You will not get the guarantee of this,” Walter said, “But as far as I know and what I’ve read about it, this is something that is a good idea to do.”
According to a paper published by the American Educational Research Association in the Review of Educational Research, young bilingual speakers can focus their attention easier than monolingual speakers. The same paper said in 20 out of 24 studies, bilingual speakers outperformed monolingual speakers in creative and divergent thinking, and abstract and symbolic reasoning.
Soeren Stamer’s son, Finn, is in kindergarten at the GISSV San Francisco campus. Stamer said the bilingual curriculum is a gift.
“For me, language learning was hard. For my kids, it’s like, effortless,” Stamer said.
In their home, Stamer’s children speak German to him and English to his wife. He said speaking multiple languages helps his children communicate better with others.
“That’s a very powerful idea that language can be different for different people,” Stamer said.
However, not all parents of GISSV are German speakers. During an open house presentation at the San Francisco campus on Nov. 7, one parent asked how she could help her child with homework when she does not speak the language.
“Most of the children stay here for the homework because we have a German-speaking teacher or homework helper,” Buechel said.
Students at the San Francisco campus may be too young to realize the effects of bilingual education, but older students testify its benefits.
In a video testimony presented at the open house, former student Jessica Spradlin said the multilingual and multicultural aspects of her education set her apart from her peers.
“I can really look back and say that my educational experience was both unique and really valuable to me,” Spradlin said.
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