HOLY MOLY! The schools in Germany are so different than American schools! Students are less supervised and on their breaks they can leave and do whatever they please. The lunches are a lot more appetizing. There is no certain lunchtime, instead, they eat their lunches as they need. The teachers switch rooms instead of having their own classrooms. The students are divided into schools based on their academics. So higher performing students go to gymnasium whereas average or below average students attend different schools. Students are EXCELLENT at speaking English and begin learning it in early grades. In America, we do not begin learning a language until high school, and even then we do not retain the language well. It also is very common for students to take trains, buses, bikes, or walk to school. I lived in a small town where the school was very close, so students as young as 1st grade were walking to school on their own.