The West German school system is unexpectedly different from the American system. Americans expect Germans to be organized, but German organization is informal and unstructured. It is not based on authoritarianism, as we imagine, but on cooperation.
While teaching in the Hamburg public school system for nine years, my husband and I observed that German children are taught, from the time they enter school at age seven, to appreciate and contribute to organization. The eleven-year-olds in my sixth-grade English class, for example, were eager to cooperate with each other in making important decisions.
One of the most important decisions of sixth-graders is where to go on the four or five field trips allotted each year. In the United States, school field trips are generally decided in advance by the teachers and frequently correspond to a subject being discussed in class. Not so in Germany.
"We have to decide democratically," Andreas, the sixth-grade class president, explained to me during my first year in Germany. He went to the front of the class and asked for suggestions, which he then wrote on the board: the zoo, a hike along the Elbe River, a visit to a castle north of town, and others. When he called a vote, the zoo won. A few pupils grumbled but were soon willing to abide by the decision of the majority.
Three-tiered system
Many Americans imagine that European schools, particularly in Germany, provide a select group of students with an elite education and restrict others from going to university or entering the best professions. The German system does try to sort out superior students for university study, but spurred in part by the waves of student protest in the 1960s, educators and politicians have tried increasingly to "democratize" the process of finding the elite.
The process begins when students enter elementary school. For the first four years all attend school together. But after the fourth grade, there is a parting of the ways. Those children whose parents wish them to aim for college and professional careers attend the academically more demanding Gymnasium until they are nineteen or twenty. Those destined for other white-collar jobs or the skilled trades attend the middle rank of schools, the Realschule, until they are sixteen. The rest go to the Hauptschule, or main school, until they are fifteen. After attending the Realschule or Hauptschule, most pupils go to a trade or business school to enter an apprenticeship. Apprenticeships are necessary for almost every skilled job, from hairdresser to auto upholsterer to bank teller.
Formerly, only a small percentage youth attended the Gymnasium. To gain acceptance they were required to pass a difficult test. Sine the 1968 school reforms, however, tests are no longer required, and approximately 30 percent of the nation's youth enter the Gymnasium in the fifth grade. Families of all socioeconomic levels can send their children to Gymnasium and university, since there is no charge for either. In fact, students whose families can't afford to support them while they study at a university, trade school, or business school, receive a government stipend to help cover their living
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