On October, 30th, – when the program “Immer noch benachteiligt (still at a disadvantage)” was broadcast – you could hear the following sentence over the “Deutschlandfunk”:
Only 11 per cent of young people from “unskilled labour background families” manage to go to university. Tendency: declining.
On November, 18th, the educational economist Ludger Wössmann wrote in the SZ:
Educational deficits are at the root of the German unemployment problem. If you take two children with a different family background – but exactly the same competence (proved by measurement) – the child of graduates is four times as likely to go to grammar school as the child of manual labourers. 95 % of the children who have one parent with a university degree will attend university. The rate for children with “skilled labour family background” is 17 %.
And:
According to studies, an educational reform that might help to bring Germany up from our medium-range position in the Pisa tests to a top position would improve the BIP per capo by 0.5 to 0.8 per cent in the long run.
And:
Modern economical politics has to be educational politics first and foremost.
The ethical question is: how long can you continue to call a society that fails so dramatically when it comes to equal chances a “democracy”?
Since lighting a small candle is preferable to lamenting about All This Darkness, here are two questions:
Who of you will join me in creating a partisan network?
Who of you is prepared to become a child’s mentor or sponsor?
My visit to the “free school Anne-Sophie” in Künzelsau showed me – among other thngs – that the best way of learning is if you build up a relationship between learner and teacher. In good relationships, you will get good results.
Who of you is prepared to start a relationship with someone who is intelligent, wise and hungry, but who has one disadvantage: he or she was born into the wrong class?
Who of you is prepared to become an education partisan?
Who of you is prepared to give something back? Money, ideas, two discussions a year, publicity, no matter what.
Who is going to give a chance to 6, 12, 24 children who otherwise will have no chance?
I want to do something.
Klaus Berning, Porsche director has joined us.
Dr. Dieter Heuskel (BCG) has joined us.
Reiner Erfert, Ex-CEO MC & LB has joined us.
Bettina Würth (initiator of the movement) says: “Notify me when you have made any progress.”
Replies are welcome at any time.
Thank you for listening.
KK
(Translated by EG)
“The philosophers were content with just interpreting the world differently. What matters, however, is to change the world.”