Thorsten uses the internet for his studies

My family members have taken different paths through the German educational system. To offer you more insight, I interviewed my cousins and my brother. In my first interview, I’m speaking to my cousin Thorsten, 26, who went to school in Germany and Canada. He thinks schools should offer a broad-based education to further society’s cohesion.

What are you doing at the moment?

Thorsten: I’m working on my Master thesis in IT Management at a University of Applied Sciences.

How do you finance your studies?

I’m doing a dual program which means I’m working for a company, earning money there, and I’m studying at the same time.

Did you receive your high school diploma in Germany?

No, I got my diploma from Bishops College School, a Canadian boarding school. Before that I had gone to a Gesamtschule in North-Rhine Westphalia. [An overview of the German school system is available here.]

Comparing your experiences from a Canadian boarding school with those from your German Gesamtschule: What aspects should the two countries learn from each other?

Well, when I compare sixth form in Canada to the Abitur in Germany, I think there are two approaches: The German system still tries to give their pupil a very broad education, while the Canadian (Ontario equivalent) system at my school tried to prepare us for university. In Canada, that meant I only had six main subjects which prepared me for a scientific degree at university, while the German system has many more subjects.

So, which system do you prefer?

It really depends on what one wants to achieve: Do you want your pupils to have very broad knowledge and to deepen their understanding in a specific subject at university? Or should the subject area narrow itself at the end of sixth form to prepare for university? I personally believe it’s better to have a very broad knowledge base at the end of your school career and deepen your knowledge in specific subjects at university.

Why do you think so?

Because I think that society can be more united if everybody is able to communicate with one another. Moreover, everybody personally can profit of a better education because you can develop your own opinion.

Have you felt lost out because you went to a sixth form and got a more specialized degree?

No, thanks to today’s technology I was able to acquire a lot of knowledge. If I want to know something, I can Google the basics of a particular subject within minutes.

In Germany, children of parents without a college education have fewer opportunities to receive an Abitur or to study. What should be done against this inequality, in your opinion?

A football game at Thorsten's Canadian school

I think one of the problems is the way the German system divides students very early into three different kinds of schools after elementary school. I believe every school system should leave it open up to the end whether pupils want to do their Abitur, whether they want to study or not. Thus, all children should be taught together at one school which supports children according to their individual strengths, as the school did that I went to in Germany until tenth grade.

Should the Gymnasium be abolished?

No, it can be kept. But what is important is that all children are individually supported, and this is required at all schools. And here the way of teaching becomes important.

How should teachers teach their students?

I think it’s time to completely re-think schooling. This will happen anyways. It’s only a matter of time. Technology opens new opportunities.

What kinds of opportunities do you mean?

For example, means that enable us to learn from any location. By using those, a five-year-old could theoretically already participate in a university course. In particularly, I’m thinking of models of the Khan Academy, which are already used at schools.

What is the Khan Academy?

Speaking broadly, it is an online platform to study. Kids can acquire the theoretical basics of a subject with videos and digital exercises. Afterwards they put it into practice in group works, discussions, and so on. Teachers follow their students’ progress with the help of the platform and see what kind of individual support their students need.

Do you, therefore, see the key to more equality in the smart use of technologies?

Yes – combined with a good mentoring system. The future of education is in Web 2.0, and the country that uses this potential first will be the first to profit from it – first within its society and then in an economic way.

Sometimes conditions are less than ideal...

During my studies I had several periods of teaching practice where we worked in state schools as language teachers for four to six weeks. I dealt with both a gymnasium, where mostly talented pupils study, and a typical school on the outskirts of my city. So, I can compare them and share a couple of my ideas about what I saw there.

First of all, every pupil has his own psychology: It’s natural to like some subjects more or less or to feel irritated by an inexperienced teacher (or one whose methods and techniques are forever stuck in the past). However, the pupils in the gymnasium (high school) had more motivation to learn. That may be a result of the strict discipline they followed in primary school. But were the teachers the only reason for that? Of course not – a person’s environment matters a lot! Parents who encourage their children to reach higher goals during their upbringing end up with talented and self-confident pupils, who are also able to express their opinions more clearly. And by surroundings, I don’t mean just the atmosphere in a family – even your neighborhood and city have some impact. It makes me think about the broken windows theory – maintaining urban environments in a well-ordered condition stimulates citizens to behave well. What I’m driving at is that we should not consider a pupil’s failures as a result of their problems or conflicts at school only.

The thing is: parents could be of great help to those children who fall behind. But most such children live with only one parent who has to work a lot as a breadwinner and can’t spare much quality time for the kids. Therefore, there should be additional lessons at school where pupils who are not as successful as their classmates gather together to go into more depth on a certain topic one more time. But here the question of payment for additional working hours for teachers arises. It’s not so seldom that local authorities refuse to spend more money from a city’s budget on education.

Kids need family support, even if it's just a question of playing together

When it comes to financial matters, the teaching staff is generally more motivated to work in a gymnasium not only because of the bright children, but due to salary levels that are usually higher than in comprehensive schools. It seems to be a bad gig for those who start their careers in a typical school, doesn’t it? Positive energy from the kids and financial support as your sources of motivation are things many probably envy in their colleagues who work in gymnasiums.

There is no ideal pupil, of course. The key is to find an approach that will motivate them to learn. In case of missteps or bad behavior, a teacher should not just look for ways to punish a pupil. I think it is better to use hints that make the pupil himself discover his mistake and correct it – just like Socrates’ maieutics.

Taking a bit of time before starting college isn't a bad idea

Kathrin’s recent entry mentioned Simon, whose worries as a pupil made me think about something relating to education beyond universities. A favorite topic among those getting ready to graduate: the gap year.

As I understand, it’s quite popular in Western countries. A spare year is open to you; it allows you to broaden your horizons while learning something new or doing some part-time work – or simply travel. One of its aims is to give you some extra time to plan your future. It’s natural that your interests may lie in different spheres by the end of school – so I think it’s good to take some time to think them over and decide where you want your path to lead. But for some reason, this positive phenomenon is practically unknown in lots of countries, including Russia. Why?
One reason is that the number of universities and colleges has increased significantly over the last two decades – getting higher education has been made into a fetish. If you don’t have a diploma or don’t enter a university immediately after school – you are seen as a loser. What about those who have some peculiarities of mental development or have shown no interest in further education? Jobs that require physical skills could be a good solution for them, but the system of colleges and vocational schools has degraded since the early 1990s, when “the new Russia” appeared on the political map. And it is really difficult to rebuild this system – but it is vital if we don’t want to over-saturate the market with university diplomas that are hiding the fact that graduates have few professional skills. That can happen especially in regions where universities created courses within their programs but never found qualified professors to be responsible for teaching them.

I'd like to see gap years become more popular in Russia

Another reason people don’t go for gap years in Russia may be that all males over 18 must spend a year in the army. There are some ways to defer conscription, and studying in a university means getting it. As most boys finish school at 17, they have to enter university right after it, otherwise they will be recruited. But why don’t people want to spend a year in the army? Well, unfortunately, people in Russia think there’s too much violence against younger conscripts and too much corruption. That’s why parents prefer their sons to go on to college. I wonder why don’t consider reforming the army. After all, that’s what civil society is supposed to do when it is not satisfied with a situation.

The third reason that stops people is money. Travelling during a gap year is not what many families can afford (and teenagers usually haven’t saved much money themselves by the end of school), so parents invest in the traditional model of education. Self-education used not to be popular, but as Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a-changin’…”.

I do hope the practice of a gap year will spread among the people in my country. It means experience, learning how to manage your independence – it’s another brick in building your personality.

E-learning: great for some things, but it has its limits

Recently, Emmy wrote about the effects of and potential for e-learning in Kenya. In Germany, the Internet has changed the way educational content can be accessed and how it is taught at schools.

For instance, I use a lot of websites to look up words or study vocabulary. Each week in Spanish class at my university, another person uploaded the most recent vocabulary to the website Vokker. All of my classmates could then access them and study at home.

Generally, I can’t imagine what my studies would have been like without the Internet. I bought a laptop pretty quickly after entering university. During lectures I then took my notes directly on my computer. Most of our professors uploaded their power point presentations after their lectures to our student e-platform where we could download them. That made life so much easier for me – especially when I had missed a class or wanted to study for exams.

Using modern media isn’t a matter of age – as one of my professors proved: He is professor emeritus but was the one who made sure that his lectures were being recorded by students. Afterwards we could easily download them as MP3s from our e-platform after having logged into our accounts. Before my final exams, I listened to a whole lecture – while jogging! I loved not having to learn while sitting around but still being able to do something for university anyway.

Of course, there are also disadvantages. Sometimes I didn’t take notes during lectures because my professors read exactly what they had written on their power point slides. That made many lectures boring. So, I think it’s important that professors are taught how to use new media in the best way.

I can't imagine having studied without the Internet

Then there were those days when I didn’t want to go to class or had other appointments. I told myself that I could download everything later-on. But often I found it difficult to listen to a lecture 90 minutes with full concentration and without any interruptions. There clearly is a difference between sitting with other students in a lecture hall, talking with them afterwards and having the possibility to ask professors questions.

Still, I love those new possibilities and think they make education easier and available to more people. I could even watch lectures from Yale on the Internet! But having since worked with high school students, I realize that you need some basic knowledge to understand and classify what you can access online. As such, I don’t think the Internet can replace a good educational system, but only supplement it.

The elementary school Simon attended until 4th grade

We’ve got warm weather and sunny skies right now in Germany. Most kids here are now going to open air pools, looking forward to six weeks of summer holidays. But some are also afraid of the end of the school year. Their grades aren’t good enough to go on to the next class level or to stay at their school. I talked with one of my mom’s friends, Gaby, about such worries.

Her son Simon is in ninth grade at a Gymnasium (German high school) in Rhineland-Palatinate. In Germany, there are different educational systems because every state’s parliament decides about educational politics (Jürgen commented on this here). In Rhineland-Palatinate, there are three options kids have after finishing fourth grade at a Grundschule (elementary school):

• Realschule Plus: 5th to 10th grade
• Gymnasium: 5th to 12.5th grade, ends with what’s called an Abitur (a certificate allowing students to go to university)
• Gesamtschule: combines the other two kinds of schools into one

After Simon had finished fourth grade, he went to a Gymnasium. His grades have become worse over the years, though.

“His Latin teacher said that he has to make up more than one year of lessons,” Gaby told us sadly.

In other subjects, Simon’s grades are also too bad to go on to grade 10 at his school after summer break. So, what to do? Simon’s mother doesn’t know where to turn in this situation. She would prefer to send her son to a Gesamtschule which has a very good reputation. But Gesamtschulen don’t have to take all pupils who apply.

“Last year I registered Simon already. He was put on a waiting list. But in the end, there were no free spots,” Gaby said. She had already bought all of the school books.

A German Gymnasium (high school)

Should she now register him for a Realschule Plus? Or should he repeat his class level on the Gymnasium he’s attending now? Gaby doesn’t consider the second option workable because Simon would still struggle with Latin. And he wouldn’t be able to make up the missing lessons during summer break.

If Gaby and her husband decide for a Realschule Plus, they can register their son for ninth grade. Here, Simon wouldn’t need to take a second foreign language besides English. So his problems with Latin would be solved. But will this enable Simon to concentrate on the other subjects and to balance his other weaknesses so that he will have a good diploma after tenth grade?

Situations like this are very difficult for children and their parents. It is especially hard for kids to separate from their classmates they’ve known for years. In a new class at a new school, they will have to integrate into an existing class community. And besides these kinds of social difficulties, they have to study hard to be more successful at school. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Simon will find a good place and will master the challenges awaiting him.