Primary School, 8-Years-Grammar-School, University – what happened to our educational system?

If I write “G8”, I do not mean the seven (then it is called G7) or eight ladies and gentlemen who meet at economical summits, get a nice group picture taken and, as a side-effect, save the world – be it from a climate catastrophe, be it from the financial crisis. As a result, we hear nice words or high numbers. However, the growing lethargy many people feel towards common affairs these days is not improved by these words. Nevertheless, we are happy that men and women of state from rich countries still meet, because as long as they talk, chances are that problems will still be solved without weapons.
No, what I am writing about in this article is our school and educational system. The initial information is given in order to make you aware of the fact that I, as a father of seven, have actually done my “Go to Gemba” ( HYPERLINK “http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen” o “Der weiße Kreidekreis am Ort des Geschehens” t “_blank” Kaizen): I have witnessed primary school as a concerned party seven times and seen the development of our grammar schools since 1990. During that time, five of my children went to the same grammar school, all of them eventually graduating successfully. The sixth is now in the middle of graduation year and the baby of the family is in her second year of grammar school. Now, a totally new G8- experience is added to the list. My knowledge of the developments at universities comes from job interviews and my own family. Two of my children have successfully finished their university studies, one of them is currently writing the last chapters of his doctorial thesis. The others, too, are close to graduating or well under way. Thus, I have lived through quite a few experiences concerning schools and universities.
Surprise: all of my children somehow managed to do quite well both at school and later at university, even though their fourth-grade teachers have not always given them the unrestricted “go-ahead” for grammar school. Time and again, we were frustrated when the crucial report for entering grammar school was handed out. In the last year of primary school, fellow students of our kids always seemed to pass the “go-ahead” test without difficulty after having been coached by a team of extra tutors like world-class athletes. A few years later, they failed, just like some other children who even at a one-digit-age looked like caricatures of grown-ups to us. Among the girls, the hobby they claimed was “shopping” and among the boys the talk was about how you could get rich with shares instead of hard work. You have to know that we live in a region where children with “migration background” are rare. Only “better circles” live here.
What could be the reason for this phenomenon? I have a theory: while people achieve physical maturity earlier than ever, they achieve intellectual maturity later. One reason for this is that, in our grown-up society, children are no longer permitted to be children for anything like long enough. They are made into small adults too early. Children, however, need time to “sprout”. They need to get a chance for developing the eagerness for learning and knowledge from inside. As soon as this is achieved, the further educational steps are really easy. That is why Barbara and I tried to let our children be children as long as possible. What we got to hear from primary school teachers was that our children were “too absorbed in playing”, “too dreamy”, “not motivated enough” or “not prepared to make an effort” (or other such nonsense).
In primary school, a pre-defined achievement system with strange benchmarking rituals is often rigorously applied by teachers. This is where a reform of the educational system should start: understanding children. Conversely, over the years “our” primary school mutated from a haven of learning to a self-propagating high-society institution. The experienced director retired, the new head of school talked about “modern management” and changed everything according to the motto “nice façade, lousy interior”. Looking good got more important than being good. Bending knees before superiors was complemented by being authoritative towards inferiors. But that can be seen elsewhere, too.
For the teachers, it is and was not easy, either. A curriculum attempting to reform orthography and multiplication has its price. Many pampered single children, often victims of their parent’s projected wishes, sit in class and are bored. In the morning, they are delivered at school by luxurious limousines. Due to their oh-so-hectic lives, their parents hardly have time for the otherwise glorified child and compensate this with money. And at teacher interview day, they throw around all their importance in front of the teacher.
Our Grammar Schools have already had their reform. What we got is a G8 that was introduced too fast and has already been patched over. The reason for its introduction was that our high school graduates are too old by international standards. However, the thirteenth school year is not what is to blame for this. My personal experience is that the last year of high school is just a short torso year (a historical leftover from the time when “defending the country” was reduced from W18 to W15). The students were no longer challenged during their final year, the male half already prepared for the year of bumming around that lay ahead during the obligatory army service and often during social service, as well. A whole year is lost through this, and the re-entry into learning, too, has to be managed. This, however, is only true for the young men who are not “clever” enough to avoid military service. But, as often in life, justice of military service, too, is a matter where being “upright” is just as stupid as being “not clever”.
University reforms leading towards new titles, did not deliver either what they promised. My much-honoured professor F.L. Bauer once said about the new university titles “bachelor” and “master” that they were introduced by people who found the words nice but never realized what their meanings were. Students also have to pay now for entering university, but stipends for young socially disadvantaged people were not added to the concept. Thus, high-school graduates from non-academic families obviously tend to decide against going to university, which cannot have been intended.
On the whole, our educational policy is nothing to boast about. It is full of conflicting demands, random information and foul compromises. There is no common strategy, no concept, not even the wish for a clear reform can be made out. The issue is stuck between federal and state legislation.
But what we badly need is an educational system that promotes and challenges young people. It should introduce values, defend the achievements of an enlightened, democratic society, and, above all, give the young people a chance to make a success of their own lives. Teachers must again get the authority to teach respect. And it goes without saying that our young ones must also get the necessary knowledge for survival in a non-trivial future. Thus, we need clear, efficient educational concepts which are homogeneous and consistent from primary school up until university, without interruptions like army service or social service.
However, the subject of military service is sacrosanct. Still, it should also be open to discussion without pressure or ideological background. When I served as a W18, I was told that we need “our” armed forces in order to defend our democracy and home (and women). Today, they are supposed to fight international terrorism and pacify countries like Afghanistan that cannot really be pacified (besides probably soon being used internally). In those days, the armed forces were an army of enormous numbers. After Germany’s re-unification, the numbers had to be drastically reduced. Now it is supposed to be an army made up of experts. Is that consistent with common obligatory service?
The hope that with the topic “6 years of primary school” during the coalition talks for forming the new Bavarian Government a first step towards a new educational policy will be made remains. It would be nice if grammar schools and universities would be better synchronized. If, on top of this, the abolition of general service would be on the agenda as a step towards a continuous and efficient education, this would be really nice!
RMD (translated by EG))