For example, what it means to be patient. Or how it feels when someone takes a little longer to find the right words while speaking.

At the Taunus Campus of @Phorms Frankfurt,Year 9 students complete a social service year. They visit senior centers, strike up conversations with the residents, and bake or do crafts together.

This project has been an integral part of the school’s curriculum for eight years and leaves a lasting impact—on those who provide support and on those who receive it.

In addition, they visit a hospice and complete what’s known as an “awareness course.”

What the young people learn during this social year cannot be crammed. It must be experienced:

1. A change of perspective
At the hospice, wearing aging suits and glasses that restrict their field of vision, the students experience what it can feel like to be older. How quickly one gets tired. How slow a walk to the door can be.
This experience brings about change: very quietly, but deeply.

2. Connection
At senior care facilities, they play games, do crafts, and bake. But they also listen. They ask questions. They respond with questions of their own.
This gives rise to conversations that have no set schedule but make a huge impact.
One student says:
“I’ve learned to adapt to people so I can have a good conversation.”

3. Lasting Responsibility
The young people learn to get involved. To step outside their comfort zone. To meet people who are different.
And in the process, they also discover themselves in a new role.

And the project continues to grow: In the coming school year, there will be two Year 9 classes completing their social service year. For this expansion , the campus has already secured another partner in the field of senior care.

Incidentally, at the end of each project year, there are no tests—only meaningful report cards.
And young people who seem more mature than before.

Because some things simply can’t be learned from books. They’re learned from people.