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The entire approach to education is different than in the US. For starters, nobody is pushing the idea that you, too, can be President. Instead, there is a sense of realism that acknowledges that some people are smarter than others, some are more ambitious than others, and that there is not shame in being anything other than a lawyer or M.D.
Thus, students can early on be "classified" according to the potential while maintaining fluidity amongst the varying levels of schooling intensity. Some go to Hauptschule, some to Realschule, others to Gymnasium. Some states offer integrated Gesamtschule which allows a cross-over of various schooling levels in just about any subject.
Regardless of schooling level, students are also usually exposed to a variety of more hands-on classes, especially in the Haupt- and Realschule levels.
Accordingly, students graduate after 9, 10, or 13 (sometimes 12) years of education. Only the latter grants admissibility to universities. Those who do not go on to university usually engage in apprenticeships - appropriate to the level of education they received.
Should these students be more ambitious, they can acquire general high school diplomas or, with less of a time investment, they can acquire vocational high school diplomas which allow them to attend specialized universities (Fachhochschule) which teaches things like engineering, etc.
Incidentally, German education in recent years has certainly tried to emulate the US system by introducing B.A. and M.A. degrees.
Unfortunately, there are quite a few downsides to this system: For starters, classification happens early on in life and once you are classified, it may not be the easiest to move to a higher level of education unless you truly prove to be inappropriately placed. Next, apprenticeships take years, are not always available, and tend to be narrowly defined, thus reducing job flexibility. You see, you can't be a sales person today and a bank clerk next year - you don't have the proper training...
Germany also invests heavily in its own industry and German Companies rely on German workers rather than ship their jobs off to cheaper labor countries.
The problem is because it is only fulfilling handicap principle. To illustrate: in football would you want the winner or the loser of a shot put contest? You want the winner due to handicap principle, but the shot put skill is quite useless. Far too much of that in our educational system. We have people who can be trained, but they are untrained.
Not sure I know what a "shot put contest" is, so your metaphor doesn't make any sense to me.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fusilier0770
Getting a trade skill means little if trade skills are not in demand or pay minimum wage
I gotta ask though... what is better... being in a trade making minimum wage or having a bachelor's, 100K in debt and making minimum wage? The biggest problem is that our jobs have been outsourced.. until we take this on, figure out a way to bring back manufacturing, and get the middle-class back to work, every other theory, tax debate, SS debate, health care debate becomes a moot point. I can't believe that this should be this hard. Jobs should be priority #1. Plain and simple. So, yes... blue collar education... It's not really that bad of a lifestyle and at times does have its perks....
Germany also invests heavily in its own industry and German Companies rely on German workers rather than ship their jobs off to cheaper labor countries.
They are a cheaper labor country because their labor does not pay for bloated housing. Will someone who pays a 1k rent accept less then 1k a month?
Brits buy homes, the Germans rent
[indent] the Germans keep the purse strings tight. Stringent lending requirements ensure there isn't an oversupply of housing finance available [/INDENT
Low rent index.
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While many here have a dislike for European socialism, I think people ought to give a try about European education, or more accurately, German education. Their high school education offers a blue-collar alternative for their children, and their secondary education is better than the education offered in many states of the union.
I've had a German language teacher once, and one thing about German education that she liked was that the children had a better work ethic over there, despite having less academic aptitude, compared to the work ethic of children in high school in the USA. At the same time, the academic rigor was much higher in high school Germany, compared to the high school curriculum in America.
...A lack of work ethic and skills in both older and younger Americans is the source of complaints about various issues in this forum.
Most european countries are doig worse than us and most purely socialist coutnries have collpased. zNo system can instill work ehtic which the geramny have always displayed. But one has to remmber that Germany did reforms toward more capitalistic system in the mid 90s'.Scialist sytem has nthig to do with trainig really as that was offered for deades in uS in schools.The socialist system is based on government contolling both the means and fruits of production and distributing it as they see fit. But in the end the very nature of work has changed and what is valued also as to type.Geramny makes most of its moeny on high dollar ;high skilled production and in the 90s those skills took a cut to stay competetive and became the prefer cost basis producers of europe.Oterh nations like UK became more and more fiancial services based economies.
This has gone on for some time but Germany tends to directly finance industry whereas British banking just secures assets. Typically all British banking did was short term loans for circulating capital while Germany funded industrial capital. Its why they are so ferocious in warfare and industry.
We adopted the idiotic British style unfortunately.
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Still not getting your metaphor.
