Schuletüte

All of the little ones are going back to school. The yellow school buses and glorified school supplies are American luxuries that don't exist here. Sadly, you can't even purchase crayola markers in Germany.

The school children don't completely miss out... at least when entering first grade. This momentous occasion is marked with a Schuletüte, which is a cone filled with candies and tiny presents to make the transition a bit easier. Stefan tells me one of his co-workers has a son that just entered first grade and he made his own Schuletüte as a final project in Kindergarten.

The school system in Germany is complex. Can you imagine your grades and test scores in the third grade dictating that professions you could have down the road? In Germany the children are tracked towards attending a Hauptschule (9 years of schooling), Realschule (10 years of schooling), or Gymnasium (12 years of schooling - recently changed from 13).

I still remember my mother in law saying she was amazed that President Obama could come from such humble beginnings and eventually go to a prestigious university and become president. The chances of something like that happening in Germany are slim to none.

Attending Gymnasium paves the easiest route to getting into a University, so the pressure is really on from a very early age. As always, the higher the education the more opportunities and options. This system can be really oppressive to foreigners who haven't grown up with German as a first language.

In the United States, which is the system I am most familiar with, the students attend school until the 12th grade. It strikes Stefan as odd that each and every county and school district can differ in when they have holiday breaks and vacations or when school begins, both in dates and times. What is odd to me is that until recently each and every German state used to decide how many years their children would go to school.

Then there is the issue of perpetual students. Those who were fortunate enough to attend a University often stay there for quite some time they are able to do so because going to a University here is incredibly affordable. Not always, but typically (especially in comparison to the US). There was a large outcry when students were asked to pay roughly 500€ / $700 per semester. Unfortunately at my university it cost about that much for every credit hour - and most people took around 18 a semester.

The perpetual student issue creates a very educated population, however we also have a shrinking population. So many people marry much later here than their counterparts in other countries. That's another issue unto itself.