In my opinion, apprenticeship is hugely underrated. For example, I think it gives those who undergo the training an excellent opportunity to learn how to handle the trivial frustrations of daily life which is an excellent transferrable skills across many careers and even in the non-professional life.
@@tauvid9798 i fully agree with that. I started my apprenticeship at 16 after graduating from Realschule and started working with a full wage at 19. When I was 25 I started my masters (while working fulltime btw) which I finished at 27 and now at 28 I have work experience of more than 10 years (but only 7 count) and earn money since that. Meanwhile my best friend who is 2 years older got his abitur, went to university for a few years, then he started an apprenticeship whith that degree which didn't work out. In the end he ended up in a job he never thought he'd do. He doesn't even really need his degree for it. And he started that job about 3 years ago. His monthly income is actually not that much higher than mine. He probably doesn't have much room to develop himself in his workfield while for me all doors are open now that I have my masters degree without even attending gymnasium or getting a abitur. Whenever I am asked by parents what kind of route they should go for with their kids, I always tell them this.
@@tauvid9798 That's the hard thing, because the need of the economy when you beginn your education isn't the same need when you finish it. To make an anti-cyclical decision and to predict the future trend right isn't easy. Otherwise I would have bought a lot of Bitcoins a few years ago^^
@@urlauburlaub2222 It's not about race, but who companies cooperate with other acteurs to solve their Problems. In their introductory chapter, Hall and Soskice set out two distinct types of market economy that implement capitalism: liberal market economies (LME) (e.g. US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) and coordinated market economies (CME) (e.g. Germany, Japan, Sweden, Austria). Those two types can be distinguished by the primary way in which firms coordinate with each other and other actors, such as trade unions. In LMEs, firms primarily coordinate their endeavours by way of hierarchies and market mechanisms. Coordinated market economies rely more heavily on non-market forms of interaction in the coordination of their relationships with other actors. Industrial relations - Companies have to coordinate with their workers, trade unions and other employers over wage and productivity. CMEs generally have a higher level of membership in trade unions and employers organizations, and bargaining over wages tends to happen at the industry, sectoral, or national level. Conversely in LMEs, workers and employers are often less organized, and wage negotiations take place at the company level (the interview and hiring process Vocational training and education - In CMEs, workers tend to have specific skills that are tied to the firm or the industry they are working in. In LMEs, workers have more general skills that easily can be used to work at other companies. Corporate governance - Firms in CMEs rely more on patient capital, i.e. capital that does not totally depend on financial openness and short-term return on investment (ROI). LMEs tend to rely more heavily on public information about finances and short-term capital, such as stock markets Inter-firm relations - Inter-firm relations in CMEs tend to be more collaborative, while inter-firm relations in LMEs are more competitive and arms-length. Relations with employees - In CMEs, managers often have to cooperate with employees to reach major decisions, while in LMEs, there are often more adverserial relations between management and employees, in which managers are the prime decision-makers.
As a teacher in germany I must tell you ... you are great. Our school system couldn't be better explained in 20 minutes. Perfect focus on the main points. And even the weird importance of religious education (as a philosophy teacher I might be a bit biased)
@@urlauburlaub2222 Moinsen, eine Reihe deiner Argumente mögen zwar historisch korrekt sein, aber im Sinne der Aufklärung sollte eine humanistische Bildung und Werte auch ohne Kirche möglich sein. Soviel zu meiner Utopie, der Mensch ist nur leider unvollkommen. Wir Lehrer in NRW sind übrigens immernoch lieber Lehrer als Lernberater.
Religious education (esp. Judaism/Christianity) are important because it’s the foundation of the enlightenment and western civilization. And the antidote to Marxism: fascism and communism.
@@RockHudrock ahh of course Jesus himself stopped Hitler and Stalin and there were no german priests blessing tanks. The foundations of the enlightment were the greek philosophy and the wish to leave behind religion
Religious emphasis in American secondary schools and universitorder is mostly racism against African Americans and other dark/brown skin families. Google Brown vs Board of Education USSC.
Separating children by ability is also great for high performers - it's really demotivating to have classes that are too easy and to have to slow down your own progress. Also, less well performing students often bully the "nerds" and it's great when being good at school is not considered "uncool"
@@newasblue1981can still always get your a Level without being sorted into a Gymnasium. U can constanlty switche schooltypes, we have a lot. Also in Berlin and Brandenburg the sorting happens after 6 grade for us. Generally speaking either u do your A level in 12 or 13 years. Or u can do it when u r older at a evening school. U can also attent collages ( Hochschulen), if u finished an apprenticeship, u just cant attent University in most cases, but we have so many Bachelors idk know all of these rules. Usally with an apprenticeship u can only study degrees that r related to said field. We also have something called Fachabitur, wich is not a full A Level, but more valuable then Realschulabschluss. U can learn a lot of Jobs with a 10th grade graduation and allways work yourself up. The A Level just gives u the freedom to study all subjects at Universitys that r possible. (unless u want to get into something in high demand like Medicine, that takes a lot more work and effort) Edit: Also not everyone desires a job in academia or science. + also agree thst kids r way to young, considering how not every school is filled with fair and good teachers and yeah in my case the principal faked my recomendation Letter and made it really bad. ( I wasnt the only one) My class teacher was so done that he quit after this incidence. I was able to go to normal Realschule, since my grades were to good for that to be true and switched schools later on and got my A level in 13 years. 😅❤
One thing about America is that we don't really have one education system. We have 50 different education systems as they are mostly run by the individual states. We do study the trades here. Some states are so heavy in education in the trades that one cannot make much money at it. Ask a welder, for instance, and they'll tell you they can't make much money in California. It's because virtually everyone and their cousin knows how to weld in California. It's similar for construction type jobs like dry wall installation, plumbing, electrical wiring, framing, roofing. One exception are those who climb the trees to trim them or cut them down. They do pretty well wage wise, equivalent to many college grads. But those that work in tree trimming on the ground make about half what the people who climbs the trees.
My daughter and I moved from Philippines to here in Germany when she was in grade 3 with Deutsch knowledge. I was so proud of her for getting in Gymnasium. She will be in grade 11 now in coming September.
My husband and I are Americans and we live in Hamburg. Both our kids were born here and we are dealing now with our first experience with one of our children being separated into one of the school levels. As you said not speaking German at home has hindered his German grades yet he has scored second out of all third and fourth graders that took a specific math test. Now Hamburg is saying they will no longer give „fachzeugnisse“ only „berichtzeugniss“. I have a coworker whose son had a massive mental breakdown because of the stress on the kids in the 5th and 6th grade since the gymnasiums are basically trying to „weed out“ 11 and 12 year olds. The amount of stress they put on these children is in direct conflict with the idea that children shouldn’t be pressured academically and that grades encourage unhealthy competition and comparisons. For these reasons we are strongly considering a private school where the curriculum is more tailored to the individual and they can take advanced math and remedial German or any combination as necessary and they can chose which „abschluss“ they want to do when they are a little older and more aware of the consequences of decisions on schooling.
Yeah, but it also prepares them for the world. Out there in the wild, you need to be competitive to be successful. You cannot say "ah it's so hard, can I not do it easier?" Kids need to learn early on to become stress resistent and able to work their ass of. "Von nichts, kommt nichts!" "From nothing, comes nothing!". It's brutal, but they learn to be handle the world out there. Way better than a young adult that is 22 and never worked in his entire life.
I'm a private instructor in DC. I teach students whose parents work in various embassies. The students who grew up in Europe in general seem to have a much stronger foundation. My German students specifically never cease to amaze me. Much better education in Germany.
I like how the German language sounds. I know a few languages. Very little Italian and French. Fluent in Portuguese (from Brazil here). And of course fluent English. Moderate Spanish. German has been a language I’ve been interested in knowing more about. It’s one of the many reasons I joined this channel. I like educational channels.
@@leosthrivwithautism I agree with you. As a native (American) English-speaker, I have personally been able to get to a decent level of speaking and understanding French in the last two and-a-half years by studying it for an hour every day. For 30 minutes, I listen to the stories module of an app called Duolingo, then I watch 30 minutes of subtitled French-language films or shows. That, and my cultural interest has honestly had more of a fundamental impact than any formal education on my learning French.
I'm a middle-aged American, and for much of my life I found German to be unnerving. As a child and young adult, almost all of the entertainment media with German-speaking people involved Nazis or WWI soldiers. The result was that even innocuous and pleasant interactions between German-speaking characters sounded threatening to me. Fortunately, I've since experienced a lot more entertainment media and real life people with German language, and I no longer have a negative reaction to hearing German. And in hindsight, it's disturbing how much I was influenced by the American entertainment media that I experienced earlier in my life.
@@XX-bn9sf it's greek and used to refer to a place that was used for both sports and lectures, the English speaking world just kept it for sports, and the Germans speaking world for the place where you get lectures. Neither is wrong.
@@sciencefreak7913 I am a German. Unfortunately it's my country. I emigrated 21 years ago. Good riddance Germany. May it fall off the European continent and dissapear into the sea, never to be seen again.
I grew up in the States and did the whole “High School/College/Career” thing. Once I was working it took me a long time figure out what I wanted to do. Now that I’ve seen the German system (my company has about 60 Azubis all the time) I wish I had the chance to do an Ausbildung at 16 so I didn’t have to waste my time and money on a Uni degree.
It, of course, depends on what you are studying in college. Engineering is one thing, philosophy quite another. I'm still not sure what one would do with a philosophy degree other than teach philosophy. Don't get me wrong, I think I'm a better person and thinker for taking the two philosophy classes I did. I just don't understand this business of majoring in it.
@@Anon54387 You can google for "occupational labour market" (Germany) vs. "internal labour market" (USA) for further information. Basically if you learn or study something in Germany you stuck to it for the rest of your live. Whereas in the US there's a lot of change between different business settings, where the employees have more interesst to invest in general skills (which are not related to a specific company) and the company hasn't any interesst at all to invest in human capital, because of the hire&fire culture.
@@Anon54387 Get a job with the state department, work at your father's company, go to law school, join the clergy, etc. Philosophy, classics, etc. have their place, but they're not going to do you much good (outside of the law and clergy) unless you're already in the correct socio-economic class.
@@Anon54387 Let's be real some degrees are like a pyramid scheme - you get the degree and the only option to use the degree is to teach at university or to drive an uber.
@@ravanpee1325 No, you are not stuck for life to an area if you study or learn something in Germany. The difference is more that Americans study because it is expected to study and only a few think about what they want to do after study and if they could use the degree they will get. In Germany most choose what they are interested in and know what they want to do. But there are enough people that still change between branches later in their career.
important fact: In Germany your school schedule varies every day. In high school at least when I went there, you have the same subjects in the same order everyday and I think less subjects too. Also, everybody finishes school at the same time in the US and so school sports teams can practice right after school, you can meet friends after and so on. Sports in general are much more important in school life in the US, also regarding scholarships, see the money discussion
Additionally, "Fachabitur" and "Fachbezogenes Abitur" are two whole different things. The one grants access to a fachhochschule (university of applied science) no matter in which subject you want to graduate where the subject linked abitur does only grant access to that certain subject.
This makes me a little happier with ours (Switzerland). Its basically like the german one, except the kids only need to decide at age 14, we have no religion classes that are compulsory. i would have never had a chance in the us (coming from a broken home) - here i could go to school like everybody else. Went to university, did my masters and am now a Gymnasium Teacher.
Germany doesn't have mandatory religion classes as well. You can take ethics classes instead... I just don't like that those are not compulsory since THIS is the subject where you learn about *every* religion, human rights, media, data security, the meaning of life and - really important - national socialism.
@@niggobetzler5601 I don't know what you mean. You learn about the NS regime and WW2 in your history class but don't really connect that knowledge to recent politics or modern perceptions of human rights. If you go to a religion class, you might miss all of that stuff. It's just too important to leave it out, so I'm not a huge fan of making ethics classes non-obligatory. That's my statement.
@@profieimer42 yes, your opinion is okay and i support the idea of making ethics class mandatory but religion is just pure nonsense, the little useful one learns in religion class is just overwhelmed by so much useless stuff ........ So if you referred to ethics with your statement it's true but for religion, this Trinity of alternatives, it's just wrong.
Actually "Geselle" is just for jobs that are listed as "Handwerk" (trade). Industrial jobs (like offset printer) can simply get the "Gehilfe" - This is because of different chambers: Handwerkskammer versus Industrie- und Handelskammer.
But Gehilfen are mostly workers just roughly trained by the company for a specific task, and most of the time don't have a specific proper 2-4 year long "Ausbildung", at least in my experience. The term "Facharbeiter" is more common for worker that completed this type of split school/company training aka Ausbildung outside the "Handwerk" (construction and craftsmanship related jobs).
@@matteloht NEIN! Ich habe eine Gärtnerausbildung abgeschlossen und einen "Gehilfenbrief" bekommen - keinen "Gesellenbrief". Ich gebe dir recht, Gehilfe klingt nach Hilfsarbeiter und ich hasse diese Bezeichnung, weshalb ich mich immer als "Geselle" bezeichnen würde. Translation by Google: NO! I completed my gardening training and received an "Gehilfenbrief (assistant's letter)" - not a "Gesellenbrief (journeyman's letter)". I agree with you, assistant sounds like unskilled workers and I hate that term, which is why I would always call myself a "Geselle (journeyman)".
I am going to finish school this month in Germany. I went to Gymnasium and got my Abitur. Even though I could go to university and I found an Ausbildung that interested me more so I decided to do that and on the 1.8. I am going to start working there. I am so existed and I know that it's the right path for me. And if I feel like going to university later on, I am able to because I haven't yet and I have my abitur. For me personally this is the right way since I can work first and then later earn money while studying
I am teacher in Germany. I want to correct one fact: the "Schulpflicht" doesnt go until the 18th birthday! It ends with 21 or with the degree "Abitur". The whole "Schulpflicht" is divided into "Vollzeitschulpflicht" which goes 9 years and the "Berufsschulpflicht" which goes 3 years. It can also end after 11 years if you have a contract with an employment relationship. Another exception is if you have the "Mittlere Reife" or "Mittleren Schulabschluss" from the Realschule.
Thanks for your comment. As I said in the video, it varies throughout the Bundesländer. Based on my research, it ends with your 18th birthday in some states (even the Berufsschulpflicht), so I don't think it's right to say that it ends at the age of 21.
@@FelifromGermany In Bavaria eg. with 21 or Abitur you are Berufsschulberechtigt. Under the age of 21 you are Berufsschulpflichtig. For us as teacher its very important to know if the pupil is 21 or not or if he has Abitur or not.
In NRW gibt es tatsächlich ein Art Schulpflicht, die erst mit 18 endet. Wenn man noch nicht volljährig ist kann man alternativ, ein FSJ (inkl. der Seminare) machen, eine Ausbildung, weil man dort zur Berufsschule geht, das schließt auch eine Ausbildung bei der Bundesweg ein. Aber mit 17 von der Schule abgehen (auch mit Schulabschluss) und sagen, ich chille jetzt erst mal und mache nix, geht nicht.
That's not true. The "Schulfplicht" depends on the Bundesland! E.g. In Bw the Schulpflicht ends with 18 [4 Jahre Besuch der Grundschule, danach 5 Jahre Besuch einer weiterführenden Schule (§§ 73 - 76 SchG); zusätzlich für 3 Jahre Berufsschulpflicht oder bis zum Ende des Schuljahrs, in dem das 18. Lebensjahr vollendet wird oder einjähriger Besuch des Berufsvorbereitungsjahres (danach Befreiung von der Berufsschulpflicht, wenn nicht wegen eines Ausbildungsverhältnisses berufsschulpflichtig) oder Besuch einer weiterführenden Schule (§§ 77 ff SchG) oder Besuch der Berufsschulstufe an einer Sonder- oder Förderschule] Before that the police can bring you to school by force or arrest you when you skip school. E.g in Sachsen-Anhalt "Die Schulpflicht "endet nach 12 Jahren, 9 Jahre Vollschulzeitpflicht, danach wenigstens 1 Jahr berufsbildende Schule oder Vergleichbares "
German here, my old school is a "Gesamtschule", but only contains the Haupt-and Realschul-part. Also, if a student has grades good enough, they get the "erweiterten Realschulabschluss" (extended Realschulabschluss). This allows a student to do the Abitur as well. (Abitur is grade 11 to 13). At least here in Saxony-Anhalt. I start my Abitur on the 2nd of September.
Check out the US author Kim Harrison. Her titles from the Rachel Morgan book series (urban fantasy) are named based on Clint Eastwood movies. For example, The good, the bad and the undead!
I have been a teacher for 12 years, 5 of those at a Gesamtschule in NRW. I am American and my husband is German. This was a good explanation but I think some of what you mentioned might be a bit too optimistic considering what I have seen in 2021. Our students by and large are not getting into the practicums and Ausbildung training programs they had counted on. In fact many companies are finding ways to cut costs by cutting out Azubis and so some of the students were not keen on school---they are stuck. The ‘free school’ thing always gets me---nothing is free we just pay much higher taxes in Germany and I wish Americans understood this. Your critique of school districts is fair, but I believe similar discriminatory practices happen in Germany. A student from a first-generation immigrant family is far less likely to get the recommendation for a Gymnasium than a German kid even if they perform academically the same. Furthermore, apart from German as a second language classes, there seems to be little effort made in trying welcome and integrate new students and so of course they fall behind, but no one seems to care after they students reach the older classes. Schools differ wildly too depending on where someone is located---a Gesamtschule in Düsseldorf is not going to provide the same opportunities as a Gesamtschule in Duisburg Marxloh. Sadly 'better' teachers are far more willing to work in the former than the latter. As a teacher the biggest difference I have noticed is within the realm of special education. In the minority of cases where a child has severe and multiple disabilities, they might attend a special school in the United States. In Germany is woeful to me that kids with fairly minor disabilities are relegated to the forderschule/sonderschule route. This is hard to accept because of course these students are going to feel like outsiders and will be denied the experiences and opportunities that they would have gained in an integrated school---it’s also sad to consider what ‘mainstream’ students might have learned if paired with their special needs peers. My understanding is that this is changing and schools are working towards integration in NRW.
As a Sonderschüler I gotta disagree a bit. I personally would have failed in a regular school (at least in Grundschule and Hauptschule) and attending a special needs school was a good thing. I'm visually handicapped and went to a school of the blind for 15 years (Grund- und Hauptschule + M-Zweig und Ausbildung). Even though my class was the first to try to integrate none-handicapped students, it didn't really benefit us handicapped kids. It was more beneficial to the "normal" students since they got an extra year (10 yrs of Hauptschule), more time on tests (since the 25% plus for disabled students were automatically added) and smaller classes. Our society can't really work integrated or inclusive as it is right now. After I finished my apprenticeship I went on to FOS and later got my Bachelors degree and it was hard. I got bullied by teachers and professors for needing special treatment (bigger prints and more time on exams) and integration did not work at all. I had to work extra hard to meet the same standards of someone without a disability. To make it work every teacher would need to be a Sonderpädagoge, the regular classes would have to be at least half the number of students and there would have to be a student aid for each disability at least since the needs are so vastly different. :/
Sorry it's late but damn you hit he nail in the head. That's exactly how I feel about German education, it's so discriminatory, everything and anything is easily regarded as a slow learner and sent to occupational therapy for shit like not knowing German at the age of 7 when the family just came in to Germany. Maybe tell the parents to get their child a private German class instead of sending them to therapy? It's so discriminatory it's baffling
having been a "late bloomer", I didn't feel a lot of "thresholds" as mentioned in the video to get a higher degree, than the one I would have gotten, if I stayed in my original school. I started of in Hauptschule and about half way through I was selected for "Werkrealschule". This is a way for Hauptschule students to get to the same level as Realschule students. By the end of the 9th grade (the end of Hauptschule), the selected students just remained in the school for the 10th grade instead of graduating like the others. So I essentially started in Hauptschule and finished with a Realschule degree, without any big hurdles. Aftwards I attended another special school - Berufskolleg, which is only available in some states. This school can be either 1 or 2 years long (2 years in my case) and gives you a Fachabitur degree (mentioned in the video) or Fachhochschulreife - a degree, that allows you to apply at a Fachhochschule (university of applied sciences). I applied to one and finished my Diplom (comparable with bachelor, but usually regarded a bit higher). So I started of in Hauptschule and finished with a university degree - and I would say, that it was a pretty smooth ride, without any hurdles or thresholds to speak of.
If you go to a 'schoolcenter' where three (or two) schools exisit side by side (usually a hauptschule, a realschule and a gymnasium) it's e.g. pretty commen to switch to the gymnasium after 10th grade. In 11th grade we got like 15 students from our neighbor school. And nearly all of them got their Abitur.
The German schools rank at approx. 5th internationally in student achievement in reading, science, and math. The USA now ranks at about 55th, just behind Uzbekistan and Krygyzstan. There are only 40 'developed' nations.
Because of funding, educational opportunity varies a lot in the US. If you take our wealthy school districts and compare them internationally then the US fares better. Also, because other nations funnel off their students who are less academically-gifted early on these comparisons end up being the best foreign students compared to all of our students. We obviously need to do better. One good step would be to eliminate the local property tax funding and replace it with federal and state funding.
@@jazmine9570 The US are the undisputed top country in terms of favoring entrepreneurship which accounts for Silicon valley for example. This is a different issue from the quality of the educational system. Harvard is a top University but you expect the US to produce enough top students to go to Havard by virtue of its population size alone.
@@ravanpee1325 I guess you are probably right, but I know nothing about SAT. I am French and went through the French educational system and much later on did a degree, part time, in Chemistry in the UK whilst working for a pharmaceutical company. Just watched this out of curiosity as I am reasonably familiar with the German educational system and I now live in Ontario which has much in common with the US.
Thanks Feli. Well researched. Well done. To compare you to the mainstream media in this country would be like comparing Einstein to a 4th grade dropout because your video was so well researched and informative. Education is a hot topic button in this country, but you provided an excellent example of "It is what it is." 10 out of 10.
This is an amazing video. I have worked in both Germany and the United States as an educator. I have never seen a better explanation of this complex issue. Congratulations to you, German girl!!
That was a very interesting episode Feli. Even though I lived in Hesse (Glashütten-Oberems) as a teenager, I attended FIS and never really learned much about the German school system. I can certainly see positives of both systems, but would have to give Germany the win on this one - especially with state-sponsored apprenticeship programs instead of trying to pump everyone into college. To be enabled as a useful journeyman at 17-18 would benefit so many people in the US. As it is now they would (usually) have to pay for some of that apprenticeship on their own, possibly with assistance from and commitment to a future employer where they acquire the OJT. A lot of touchy topics in this one - fairly covered, great job! Your idea for ethics classes makes great sense and would utterly blow the minds of many parents here in the USA!!
I'm a 68 year old man in the US, I have worked as a Tradesman and went through a four year Apprenticeship. I continued working in this trade for most of my adult life. Although I would not have wanted someone else making the choice for me, but I proved time and time again that I was not an "Academic", lol, and that a Vocational school is where I needed to be, I really wish I could have started that a Vocational school right out of 8th grade which I believe would have also helped unload the amount of students per classroom giving those whom are so inclined a better environment for learning.. Love your channel you do a fantastic job of allowing to learn about another culture.
My dad is just about a couple of years older than you, and back then, he actually had to take an entrance exam for our local voke-tech HS, and was waitlisted, so went to the regular HS instead. 40 yrs. later, I, his son, applied and was accepted based on jr. high grades and teacher references. There was no admissions exam. I did well, but since I graduated during the recession, nobody in our graduating class got a job in their respective fields after graduation.😰
I feel like politicians push a one size fits all solution of everyone going to college, but honestly I think technical schools and apprenticeships are great paths forward in life.
Thanks for the great explanation. I believe this "pressure on the children" in Germany is highly overrated. I myself attended Realschule until "Mittlere Reife" went to a "Fachgymnasium" focused on ecconomy for 3 years, got my Bachelore's Degree in engineering at a "Fachhochschule" and my Master's Degree in Engineering on a regular university. At no point i encountered any major obstacles, quite on the contrary. I feel the german School system encourages you to follow your very own path to your goal, but i get that it can be difficult to navigate at some times.
I always liked religion class in school, even though I'm not religious, because it was a simple lesson, really. Attend every class, just be there, and collect an A grade, and then that's it.
It's also worth noting that Western civilization is built chiefly upon the Judeo-Christian worldview. So religion class is really like art appreciation. Our traditional values including on what is right and wrong stem from this view. So it is important, in my humble opinion, to understand from whence we came lest we lose our way going forward. It is something we can all appreciate even if not religious per se.
I really enjoy watching your channel! I took 3 years of German in high school (I don't remember much of it) and I was always amazed on how much different the education was from the US. I wish our system was more setup like in Europe. Main things would be: learning other languages early on, harder classes, more focus on what job they would like to do, and that its OK to go into vocational jobs. We push kids into going to college but there are so many people with college degrees that don't have jobs. But electricians, plumbers, contractors, maintenance can make really good money. Thanks for doing the research and being so informative.
Seperating children after elementary school in different school types like the German school system does is horribly outdated and not common in the rest of Europe. It's pretty much based on an extremely elitist view based on old Prussian education ideals that the "dumb" kids have to be filtered out and seperated from the "gifted" intelligent ones as much as possible, creating a sharp education hierarchy at a very young age. You should be glad that the US doesn't have something like that. Countries that rank on top of international education statistics like Canada, Australia or Japan all have one single secondary school type which provides all students with an equal secondary education standard. Better orient yourself on these countries if you want improve school education in the US, the German system shouldn't be an example. It's too old and in desperate need for big reforms in order to catch up with modern, inclusive and equality-oriented education systems.
To be far, if u not at a Gymnasium our Jobcenter nearly forces u to do an apprenticeship as soon as possible. I even got jelled at and insulted ones that I liked Moderator as a 13 year old and that I am only at a Realschule and will never amount to anything. Even tho I had all of my classes an grades to aply for my alevel wich I did later on. As soon as I was in my Alevel they started to care what my interest r. The only good Job finding talk that I ever had was the advice Service centre at my current University, they also help people to find matching apprenticeships without judgement, if they notice that studying at University does not make them happy. 😅❤
I can tell you put so much time into scripting and researching for this video!! It’s very well done. We just moved to Germany in February with our 4 kids and one of our kids is in 4th klasse and another in 5th klasse. Our son in 4th klasse has had a very difficult workload without being able to speak German fluently. We had to hire a private tutor for him and I always think about other immigrants who might not have the money to do that and how much harder it must be for them. And it’s been quite a challenge to figure out which gymnasium for them to both attend. My husband speaks German pretty well so we were lucky he could call and talk and meet with the gymnasium counselors. Anyway, we totally agree with your perspective on the disadvantages of both systems. Americans need to put a lot less emphasis on college - so many get a useless degree and would be better off working. And the debt! College debt is ridiculous! Prices need to be lowered, Germany has a huge advantage with free college education. But yeah, the pressure in 4th klasse isn’t good. Yeah and school funding in the US should absolutely not be based on property taxes. It’s SO very unfair and wrong for poor districts. We did a whole video about our experience here in school and we had so SO many comments discussing the three choices and many Germans didn’t know that Bavaria (which is where we live) calls Hauptschule Mitteschule. They told us we were saying it wrong 😅. Nope!
In my high school we had an elective that was called Comparative Religion,, it was an objective look and comparison of a bunch of different world religions. We also talked a lot about philosophy.
In Elementary School and in Realschule and basically in the other two levels (Hauptschule and Gymnasium) We have „Religionsunterricht“ the school subject "Religion" The subjekt I had in 8th to 10th class was called Catholic communicated Religion or something like this, because our teacher was a Roman-Catholic Christian. We also learned about different religions and sects. It's the same we learn from a catholic teacher as from a Lutheranian-Evangelist Christian teacher, but the schools have to give it a speacialized authorization or something. It was pretty much the same as your elective. :)
As someone who grew up in Hessen and ended up moving to the US in 9th grade, this video definitely explains the differences better than I ever could. I honestly didn’t even know that the school systems varied by Bundesland. Usually when I explain the differences, I do it in terms of academic tracking. In Germany, after elementary school, you are put in a track separated by school (unless you go to Gesamtschule). You either get/choose an apprenticeship track (Hauptschule), a college track (Gymnasium), a track that prepares you for both Abitur and an apprenticeship (Mittleschule). In the US, you are tracked within the same school by choosing between different levels of the same material (basic, Honors, AP). Probably not completely accurate but it makes sense to me. At least now I can just share this video because it’s so full of great information!
This was great. Both informative and interesting. I live in Hessen and our kids went to 3 different private schools. They usually cost 1-4 grade 350€, 5-7 450€ and 8-10 550€. For every school we had to give info about our income so I am pretty sure the costs vary according to that as well.
I was also under the impression that becoming a teacher in germany takes much longer. they are highly trained and well paid which is why public schools are really good.
I grew up in Switzerland where after 11th grade you can go to university or do an aprenticeship. I chose aprenticeship as a heavy duty truck mechanic. And after that I specialized in electronics and elecric diagnosis on heavy duty trucks and now I have a job as a workshop manager and mechanic and also when needed I drive heavy duty trucks. I work in a little road work company. Repairing trucks and driving them when needed. And I am now attempting my federal professional master as a heavy duty truck mechanic/electrician. (In Switzerland mechanics and automotive electrician are 2 different jobs. and I am both 5years of aprenticeship.) and after that master I can continue to engineering school to become an automotive engrener.
Isn't the seperation after Grundschule more of a recommendation? I'm pretty sure a few of my classmates attenteded a Gymnasium even though they weren't recommend to go to one.
@@Nutzername92a No, not because of money. It's because rich parents often parent their kids better in terms of pre-education. Therefore they are smarter, hence the Gymnasium. You don't even have to be rich to parent better. You just have to be good parents and as we all know most parents lack parenting skills...and it shows in their breed. You are a perfect example of this.
@@Kivas_Fajo Oh, did I offend you, my dear? I'm talking about those rich kids who did *NOT* receive a Gymnasium/Gesamtschule recommendation. Those were obviously not parented well by their oh-so amazing rich parents. I'm talking about kids who still couldn't write their own name in 3rd grade. I'm talking about kids who always had shoes with Klettverschluss, because they couldn't freaking tie shoes with Schnürsenkel. I'm talking about kids who only had a "befriedigend" and "ausreichend" in every single subject. I'm talking about those rich kids who legit weren't good in school and received a "Realschule/Gesamtschule" recommendation, but still ended up on Gymnasium because their parents had money. I'm not saying that their parents gave money to their Gymnasium teachers, but there's a lot of "Listen, I'm a lawyer and my wife is a doctor, our kid is definitely going to Gymnasium no matter what you say" going on. And they'll all get accepted, whereas the good kid from a poor immigrant family has to go to Realschule because they had "sehr gut" and "gut" everywhere but a "befriedigend" in Rechtschreibung.
Highly depends on the state. In Bavaria, if you don't get a recommendation for Gymnasium, that's pretty much set in stone. You can still switch later on, though. At least that's how it was when I finished fourth grade, don't know if it has changed by now.
I went to the “Hauptschule” in Bavaria from 6th-9th grade. After that I went back to America and went to high school for 10-12th grade and went on to college.
@@Thraim. What I learned in the 9th grade Haputschule, was the same things I was learning in 11th grade high school. The value of pi for example. Also, things I learned in the Hauptschule were never touched upon in the High School I attended, like the chemical makeup of plastic polymers, etc. Even in home economics class, the Hauptschule taught us how heated sugar turns to caramel chemically. I find the Haputschule is more advanced than the American High School teaching more in less time, despite the time wasted religious classes.
@@unsignedmusic That's a big oof. I wonder how American universities deal with that. The first couple semesters must be brutal, just to bring the students up to speed. Compared to that Germany is struggling to give Hauptschule more worth because even basic apprentice jobs want at least Realschule these days.
Broadly speaking, we have the same system here in Austria as you do in Germany, and I have always been weirdly proud of it, especially the Lehre (your "Ausbildung") part of it all. So many of my friends are skilled in a profession because of it, and even though most of them ended up in entirely different jobs or even went on to learn or study something else, they can still use those skills to make a little money on the side or just to help people, which is so important for the community. Like, a friend of mine is a nurse and has his own business in the healthcare field advising people now, but back in the days he learned how to be a plumber and still fixes everyone's sinks. Useful and practical skills like this will always be in demand.
I really enjoyed your post. So interesting to hear a clearly presented comparison between the two systems. I think a lot about the German system sounds excellent, except for the age where the kids are divided up into the various types of schools. That sounds way too young for so many reasons. I’m a parent of two, and my youngest has just hit her stride this year, 6th grade, and is now a stellar student. If she had been evaluated at 10 years old, in 4th grade, they would have completely misjudged her abilities.
I agree about 9 years old being way too young. I had middling grades C's, B's, occasional A or D until the last year of middle school. I didn't hit my stride until 8th grade, and went on to be an A+ student all the way through college.
You have forgotten to talk about Abendgymnasium. If after leaving school early without my Abitur or even Mittlere Reife, I choose an apprenticeship or even start working immediately, and I find out after a few years that I would like to go to university, I have the possibility to go to the Abendgymnasium 4 years long and get my Abitur. It is a hard time but these students are more mature and definitely more motivated.
It works the same way here in the US. It’s called “adult school”, and geared toward students who want to obtain their high school diploma. This pertains to students of any age over 18 who did not finish high school. Classes are usually offered in the evening to accommodate working people, but that will vary by school district and demand.
Although the fact that if you gotten your 'Mittlerereife' but you want to get an "Abitur" Right after. You can't join a gymnasium but you can join a Berufskolleg or Oberstufenzentrum to get the Abitur which is the same one from the gymnasium. So you are allowed to got to University...
I lived in Germany for 3 years and couldn't really understand its school system, as I do now with this excellent summary video... thanks, Feli, you are a great reporter too!
You oversimplified a bit when stating that there are only the degrees "Geselle" and "Meister" after apprenticeships. There are many trades where those terms are not used, and some where there isn't even a "Meister"-level degree. I for example am at the tail end of an apprenticeship to become a "Fachinformatiker für Systemintegration" - I won't be a "Geselle", because that's not what it's called - just a "Fachinformatiker". And there is no "Meister"-level program I could attend, because there is no "Meister"-degree in my trade.
Well that’s not a totally true, it’s my may not called *Meister* but you can attend a bachelor of professional / Operative Professionals course for 2 years this an degree on the same level as a *Meister* after you completed this you are able to attend the strategic professional which is on the same qualification level as a university master degree.
@@Puzzleheaded-Owl In Germany nursing isn't a professiona you get into via an apprenticeship but you have to visit a "Krankenpflegeschule" (nursing school).
With the Academics sometimes kids in Elementary School, that are seen as smarter than what they are learning in class, get hand picked to attend GT (Gifted and Talented) classes where they learn material a higher level than what grade they are in. This was my case and when we had math or science lessons I would go to another home room or learn something entirely different to the side.
This or something similar also existed in the German elementary school I went. I loved those classes. We were fewer students and the teacher actually had time for each individual.
You can still go to University even if you went to Hauptschule (the lowest). I did Hauptschule because of „language difficulties“. But then I went to a Berufsfachschule and got my Mittlere Reife (Realschule). After that I did an Apprenticeships and when I started to work in earnest I got my Allgemeines Abitur at an Evening School. I went to a University and studied Game Development when I was around 30. And still I don‘t care what my children will do. It is as good to do an Aprenticeship as it is to study.
I was born and grew up in the USA 🇺🇸 and taught Business English in Germany 🇩🇪 I have to say your pretty much spot on with how the US education system is set up. However we do offer vocational training in some schools. I had technology vocational training. There’s also mechanical, cosmetology, sports science 🧪 depending on your school district
Don't forget the AP courses in the US. Also, some states have educational level tests. Private schools in the US can go to over $50,000 now a days. A lot of US universities are no longer requiring SAT or ACTs
Many US expects criticize that they seperate pupils in Germany after 4th class based on merit, when their own kids were seperated at the beginning of class 1 based of income of the parents aka in which neighbourhood/district they live
It's incredible to me that those universities stopped requiring SATs because a few rich parents bribed their kids into good schools. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Fun fact: Because of restrictive access to german universities that depend on how well you did on your Abitur, we get a lot of "german refugees" at austrian universities, because we only require that you have Abitur, no matter how well you did (Though there are tests for certain courses or universities).
@Lukas zzstu Sikorski As long as you're from the EU or Swiss (and don't take to long to finish) university tuition is free. The austiran government and the taxpayers subsequently pay for it. The EU also encourages this (to study in a different country), so there might be some money from them involved.
This made me wonder how often Germans choose to go to a university in another country or people from other countries choose to go to universities in Germany? Why or why not? And how does that work? In the US, generally you pay one price to attend a state university in the state you live in, but you pay more to attend a state university in another state (although some states work out deals with close neighboring states to charge the same as someone in-state even if you are from a neighbor state). I realize I am comparing our states to your countries. In this case it makes more sense to ask if people generally go to the university or any of the next levels or school in the same state as they are living in? Or does each state have a school or schools that specialize in different studies, so you go to the school that specializes in what you want to study? I hope some of that made sense!?!?
@@DebPederson A bit hard to describe that all in English but I'll try. First of all, in most european countries, taxes pay for education (exceptions usual are some more business oriented schools you attend on weekends). As an example, I paid about 40 euro "ÖH Beitrag" in my first year and that's it. No way I'd go to university if I had to pay thousands of dollars for it (Loaning money is also somewhat frowned upon, you only spend what you have...). I'd say usual you attend school or university in the country you live in, but there are european programs (Erasmus and others) that encourage studying abroad in a different country and more importantly in a different language. I had friends who went to Unviersity in France or Italy (in most highschools you can take those languages in addition to German, English and Latin). I guess it's a very european thing to see another culture and learn or deepen your understand of another language by doing this and as I said, there are programs (which fund this study abroad thing) that actively encourage this. Looks good on your vita too. Still, it's only a small percentage. Germans going to Austria to study is probably closer to studying in another state, as we share a language. And as you said, there might be countries that excel in a certain field and you might want to go to university there to have the best education. As it is usually free and even living in host families is organised thorugh these programs, it's pretty easy to do so. And there are countries where you can easily get a title by doing almost nothing but paying some money so you have a nice title... that is kind of a darkside of this whole thing. I hope I could explain this a bit and sorry if my english is kind of wonky at points.
@@ZethisVA ÖH Beitrag is 20 Euros each semester, why did you pay 200? Or was that a typo? And some studies are just full of Germans, especially in those cities close to the border. The worst I heard was 86 percent Germans. That's just insane.
I love how much you plug HIMYM. It’s my favorite show of all time, to the point that I’ve genuinely lost track of how many times I’ve rewatched it. Not enough people love this show
My dad (who was born in 1944) was born in California and spent the first few years of his life there. He started Kindergarten in California and the classes were set up more for day care than for learning. My grandfather (who was in the Marine Corps) was then transferred to Oregon where he started 1st grade. In Oregon, they teach things like numbers and the alphabet, along with writing and some basic math. 1st graders in Oregon were already expected to know these things, so my dad started 1st grade already a year behind all his classmates. Even today, different standards between states can cause a lot of problems for students who move from one state to another.
When I was 16 years old I finished Realschule without any extra. Then I started an "Ausbildung" which should take four years and conained two different educations. I finished the first one successfully and in doing so I got my permission to go to a normal Gymnasium. That's how I got my "Abitur" and met my later husband :-).
Having experienced how a family’s members in Germany fared in their system where both kids did Realschule, I was awed by how much more demanding the academic standards were for German kids in the Realschule than the standards were in US COLLEGE PREP for US kids! This is huge. Germans are much smarter about dividing the kids up at 10 or so so that kids are grouped with friends and peers of similar abilities. As Feli mentioned, kids brought up through Realschule, Hauptschule and through apprenticeships do really well - even better, than kids who bust their asses at Gymnasium, the at Uni. I’ve Spent 30 plus years explaining the superiority of the German model to our models, but US “experts” and the district leaderships are driven by their own agendas to preserve our awful schools the costs of which have gone up 400% AFTER inflation since 1972- per pupil, while kids are dumber each year. Feli, what percentage of Gymnasium kids i their final years pass and earn the Abitur? Can you also explain Numerus Klausus to the viewers and how that factors in Uni admissions? Great video!
@@helloweener2007 same for ours. 5-6 classes, more than a hundred people and only 2 fell through. though some more had to repeat a year earlier or took off after class 10 with just their Realschulabschluss, earned on a gymnasium.
@@Clauiiix3 As far as I remember, we started out with 4 classes with 30 pupils in each, meaning around 120 pupils. 78 of us made the Abitur (and there were a couple of "new pupils" in that mix, who either moved in the area or came from different schools for other reasons or made it up from Realschule), one finished the 12th class for the so called "Fachabi". Thus said, most of those who didn't make it were sorted out of school in the first two years and where only there because of their overeager parents. Of the ones who came from my Grundschule, less than half made it.
See story of M.H. walking his way up. What do you think, which education system works in most cases for late bloomers, sport jocks, nerds, native English language, immigrant backgroud, Happy family, broken Family, single mum. Quite a list. And which one "produce" less drop-outs?
About private schools in Germany: It is a little more complicated than presented in the video. While it is true that there are private schools, they come in very different levels of being "private". Somme schools are in the administrative hands of an organisation other than the state and therefore "private" in a way but still fully paid for by the state, following all state rules and even with "Beamte" (special kind of public servants in Germany) in the faculty, while others are more private up to being a full-blown boarding school with comparatively little supervision by the state - except for final exams, of course. Those can cost over €30,000 per student and year.
In the US, most states also have some high schools, called technical schools, that focus on a trade rather than academia. They are not in all towns, but usually can be found in larger towns or cities. These still teach the basic subjects found in regular high schools, but also involve apprenticeships.
You are actually like that one Texan dude bragging about his country and comparing countries, but you are actually telling about both sides and don't sound like a complete narcissist. So, it's really great!👍
Well, I'm glad that I'm from Switzerland. The school system here has a Lot of similarity to the German school system though. And I got my Abitur (it's called Matura here in Switzerland) as an adult and let me say, it wasn't easy. It's way easier when you get it as a teen 😅
I really like to hear someone appreciating ethics class. In my experience kids and teachers don't take them very seriously but that's exactly what is good about the classes. The classes are more about discussing topics from various points of view, so kids are encouraged to actually think things through. In many cases there is no right or wrong answer. In the lower classes there is is much drawing and crafting stuff for general topics like nature, friendship and family. Also learning the basics about the various religions early, without giving any of them a preference is a great thing. Where I am from, more than 65% of people do not have a confession but most people are respectful towards religion in general. In later years the lessons also discuss also topics like death, which are very important to talk about. Ethics might not be all that important on the school certificate but highly important for personal development.
12:52 Bruce Springsteen told that story during one of his concerts, that his parents, even when they saw him filling big venues night after night, told him, “it’s not too late. You can still go back to college.” Parents. 🤗 I think his father finally stopped talking like that when he put his Oscar statue on the kitchen table. ^^
Thank you so much for doing this video - we just moved here from germany and our son is about to go to school by next year. We've seen a school / Kindergarten or Preschool or whatever and still don't understand their school system! Greetings from Virginia, Rick and Tamara
In my school system in New England, we separated in 7th grade (12-13 years old) into two tracks- college prep and non-college prep. We also had special education (special Ed) for kids who have developmental disabilities. I was on the college track and I had some services from special ed because i have cerebral palsy. Being in college track and special Ed was rare when I was in high school. Now, it’s a little more common. The people in the non-college track were headed towards trade school (which is a college) or vo-tech (vocational school) like working in a kitchen or becoming a home builder or a caregiver. In the US, you can be a non-college student in high school But you can change after high school. It’s not a “death sentence” so to speak. My dad was non-college and he became a draftsman straight out of high school. (He drew ballbearings for an aerospace company). Mom was a teacher and after they married, he went to college/graduate school and became a teacher too. It still works that way. My became an electrician out of high school at a 2 year trade college. Now he’s got his Bachelors and he’s a manager at a company. As for me: I went to a State College for undergrad and an Ivy League College for graduate school. I was one of the first students with a physical disability at my Ivy League college.
I think you should have given more information about the Gesamtschule, which imo is pretty much comparable to the U.S. high school. The main difference, as far as I know, is, that the Gesamtschule offers additional courses for students to achieve higher levels at particular subjects. E.g. if you are at a high level at maths at primary school, you will attend a math course on a Gymnasium level at Gesamtschule. But if you at a very low level, you will attend a Hauptschule level, plus additional courses to help you to get to the Gymnasium level. That means that at a Gesamtschule, it's possible that you attend a Hauptschule level course at maths, but a Gymnasium level at e.g. geography, in the same year.
It's not about the school, it's about the students willingness to learn. I watch mostly educational youtube videos because at 30 with a masters I still like to learn new things.
Sometimes it’s about the school. In the US there’s a big difference in the resources and teachers available depending on your zip code. Willingness to learn can only do so much if you don’t have access to high speed Internet, books, teachers, supplies, etc.
@@icarusphotovideo Also, tbh, you cannot put all fault on teenagers in their puberty who have many other things in their mind than to learn something by themselves. A lot of people NEED help for learning things. And the school system needs to be adequate for those, too. School is about giving the students resources and guidance. Filtering what's important and what's not (to be fair, in Germany that goal is also not achieved yet).
@Ernst Kahn nothing is stopping you from going to the library or looking up stuff online. It's way easier to teach yourself a new skill now then it has ever been.
I thought it was so interesting going into and attending a few two different German school for an exchange program! It seemed so different but at the time so cool! Like getting the chance to leave school to go get dinner. On like in Minnesota USA we could not leave until the very end of the day. Your videos are so fun and very interesting. Some of your topics make me think back and smile while remember my time when I got to go to Germany and others make me want to go back and see all my amazing friends I made over there!
In my public school in northern Germany (people generally ain't as religious here as they might be in Bavaria), we had to attend a protestant religion class in elementary school called "Biblische Geschichte" (~Bible history??). At the gymnasium we only had religion as an ethics class, where we learned about all major religions in the world and came to discuss ethics itself in higher grades. I must say, I prefer it this way, because it's education about religion, not a believe you might not even share.
Interesting. I heard something at thed end that I’m wondering about though. You said “thank you for watching until here” while I would say “…watching to this point” or “… watching until now”. I’m curious if other English speakers heard this. Not that I didn’t understand, but in the interest of speaking in an American way. Maybe it’s just me. Thanks for your video. I always learn something new.
I'm not native speaker but I also heard it. I believe it was an unintentional mistake. English cannot be translated literally because sometimes it sounds very strange 😀
I think that is just one of her peculilarities when speaking English. Us ESL speakers all have our own little influences from our native languages that we bring into English. In the government buildings of the European Union, some linguists believe to see a new version of English forming (EU-English - google it, it's very funny), with all these ministers coming from all kinds of languages communicating in English. For example, the EU have started using the work actual in the sense of current. It makes no sense for a native English speaker, but the German word for current in aktuell, which is phonetically close to actual. So in the EU actual now means current. This is just one example of how foreign language speakers smuggle in habits from their native languages in to other languages. It really fun to see and happens everywhere, where two languages come in to contact. Other example: Many English speakers in Ireland will say: "We would be close friends", instead of "We are close friends". This is because Irish grammatical structure looks more like the first sentence. And even though Irish is mostly a language learned in school today and only a small percent of the population grows up speaking as Gaeilge and uses it in daily life, parts of the sentence structure have survived in the current English dialects of Ireland. No matter how much the English have tried to suppress the Irish language, it still prevailed even in those that don't speak the language. Anyway, I shall stop my linguistic lecture and just say: socio-linguistics and the field of multi-lingualisim is fun :)
@@amatije Sorry, my linuistic nerd-self just had to jump at the opportunity to write a small essay :D Also, really seriously google EU-English it is my favorite linguistic discovery, maybe ever...
Having gone to private schools myself, the idea that a private school education is always better quality than a public school education is a huge misconception, often perpetuated by people who seek to eliminate free public education. I've encountered more 'lousy' teachers in private school than in public schools. Generally speaking, people send their children to private school either to give children religious indoctrination or to keep them from mixing with other kids who are not like themselves or whom parents think of as 'bad'. The quality of the education is debatable because many private schools are not accredited and therefore aren't required to meet state standards. So, while there are private schools that do offer quality education, it is by no means a guarantee. And the idea that anyone can keep kids away from 'bad' people or drugs is laughable. If you send your child to private school with other wealthy kids (some of whom are there because they were kicked out of other schools & private schools will take anyone with enough money), don't be surprised when they're surrounded by people with money and access to whatever they want. This is not something that is often spoken about publicly but it's a reality.
I agree completely with most of your thoughts about private schools, but the American public school system is total bullshit! And the Founding Fathers of our country absolutely did NOT intend for a national public school system to be created... PERIOD. While the Founding Fathers were definitely not perfect men (and were hypocrites about the system of SLAVERY) and lived in a very different world than we do today, there are MANY reasons why having a government-run school system is a HUGE mistake. And I realize how "good" public schools do exist (in America as well as many other countries) but the existence of government-run, taxpayer-funded schools still creates all kinds of problems which ultimately affect EVERYONE who lives in any given country. America has wasted TRILLIONS of dollars on mostly useless public schools for over 200 years, and yet the idiot hypocrites in this country (and I have both Republicans AND Democrats in mind here) have the AUDACITY to believe the idea that our country lacks enough MONEY to provide BASIC healthcare to all people! Scrap the damned public school system and start taxing everyone to cover the costs of universal healthcare! Problem solved!
@@trentpettit6336 The US can absolutely afford universal healthcare. I have great insurance but we pay a lot and it doesn't cover everything. I'm on the hook for thousands of dollars on top of what I pay in premiums. And even with insurance, I've had to leave prescription meds at the pharmacy because I couldn't afford hundreds of dollars for something that's not an absolute life saving necessity. Universal healthcare might actually save me money. It would be worth it because a healthy population is a more productive and happier population. Same with schools though. They're an investment. There are some problem schools, no doubt. But they're the exception, not the rule. An educated society is more productive. Many students aren't able to afford private school and I don't see how these kids just not going to school could be seen as a good thing. It may have worked in the largely agrarian society of the founding fathers but not today. I believe free public education is a right and the responsibility of the community to provide because everyone benefits (even retirees like my parents who themselves benefitted from it at one time but swear it's a waste of their money now- talk about hypocrites!). Without it, we'd live in a fancy third world society where the rich get even richer and the poor get poorer. If the disparities are great, it's not so far from the horror of enslaving people. Slavery does still exist. My son goes to school with kids whose families escaped it. They're extremely grateful for free public education. The investment is not wasted.
@@reginakeith8187 A tangent here, but I don't think the US can afford universal healthcare simply because 1) our poor health and eating/exercising habits in the country would cause us to consume more healthcare than other countries and therefore cost much more money, and 2) it's just not scalable with the size of our country. Sure, Denmark can do it with all 5.8 million people, but that's 3 million shy of NYC population. I'd like to have it, but it would be a disaster here.
@@mae2759 you have more than enough very rich people in the US so tax them and regulate costs in healthcare and it will be beneficial for everyone. I honestly don't get why taxing the rich seems so ridiculous to a lot of Americans.
9% auf Privatschulen ist echt viel, hätte ich nicht gedacht. Bei uns zu Hause gab es eine kleine Privatschule im Landkreis, da waren aber nur die wohlhabenden, jedoch "schwierigen" Kinder, also unter 1%.
I have always thought that the German system of Schools were much better. The American concept of pushing everyone towards a University style education is a waist of time. When I lived in Germany and went to US schools on base and I heard of how the German schools were set up from our German Teacher, it just made sense.
Agree that trades should be emphasized more. There are "Vo-Tech" programs that do exist though. I always remember there being a bus from my high school that would take students to the local Vo-Tech school for a few hours a day.
I totally agree. In my field - manufacturing engineering - we have no shortage of people with college degrees. What we need are skill trade journeymen - which are hard to find. Our current roster of skill tradesmen are nearing retirement age - quickly.
@@mae2759 I was surprised to find out that other states didn't have much in the way of vocational education for it's so extensive in my state that virtually everyone, for example, can weld by the time they get out of high school. As such, welders make very little money in California. That's the reason I went to college, in fact.
I live in Germany and go to a Gymasium but from my experience it isn’t that hard to switch “school levels” Nice video though, I also learned a lot about my school system
It can be quite difficult. I had a cousin who moved up, but because you need two foreign languages to get your Abitur and his Realschule only taught English, he only had one year to get to the same level as his classmates in the Gymnasium, who had studied their second foreign language since they were 12 years old. This put him at a massive disadvantage. He is studying at a university now, but he only got there through finishing vocational training. His previous education was a not a good enough basis for him to succeed at the Gymnasium. This was very frustrating to him. He is older than me but I am several years ahead in my university studies just because I was sorted into the Gymnasium... It takes someone with a strong will and loads of stamina to still pursue university after so many stumbling blocks were put in your way.
I spent a few years in graduate school at the Max-Planck Institute for polymer research. German scientists had to write a Doktor Arbeit and a Hablitationschrift to get certain professorships. If you ever decide to make a video on this I’d like to provide insight.
Excellent explanation of the distinct differences between our countries' educational systems, Felicia. Much of them I did not know (even though I'm part-German in heritage) and was quite the eye-opener for me. Thank you so much for this!
"In Germany, we don't really have a term like [Kindergarten]." BUT THAT'S LITERALLY A GERMAN WORD! Sorry, I couldn't help myself here. That just cracked me up too much.
We are in Bavaria, south of Munich, and our child is in kindergarten. The year before school (called kindergarten in Canada and the US) is called Vorschule here but it happens AT THE KINDERGARTEN. Lol
Word gets updated from Time to time. Kinder are also not called Kinder any more. If you want to be up to date, you call them Kids. And the official administrative term is Kindertagesstätte, which means something like daycare.
Huh? Where did I say we don't have that term? 😅 Of course, we do! I just said that the word stands for a different thing in Germany than it does in the US.
I still remember as a kid I thought it was 'Kindergarden' for some reason. And my middle school is 'Nelson-Wilks Harron' but I thought it was 'Nelson-Wilks Harrison' lol
The point of there "not being school buses" in Germany is true for cities and when public transportation between the place you live and where you go to school already exists. For me, this wasn't the case and therefore there were buses that picked up kids along certain routes and then dropped them off at school. Those buses were usually "Reisebusse", so kinda different than the buses used in public transportation and there were never enough seats for all the kids, so, you were lucky if you lived at the beginning of the bus route or you had a friend who could save you a seat. After school it was always a rush to get to the bus in order to get a seat as well... 🙈😅
@@nathan2813 well, you then unfortunately had to stand. Not getting a seat on the bus wasn't a valid excuse for staying home from school. Plus the bus route was the same throughout one school year, so it would've always been the same kids who didn't get to school 🙈
@@katjahuskinson3428 I was always surprised riding the school bus in the 80's that they didn't have SEATBELTS for safety (maybe they still don't - I don't know). I'd think STANDING would be especially "dangerous". Maybe this would be prohibited here in the U.S. out of fear of getting sued. (Americans are sue-happy.)
@@nathan2813 i don't know if it was really within regulations, it was accepted however. That's just the way it was. I mean, if you take public transport you also have to stand if there's no seat available or sometimes people simply choose to do so... Also, no seatbelts there either 🤷🏼♀️😅
@@katjahuskinson3428 I guess governments (in the U.S. at least) figure people that ride the bus are just poor people. Thus, it doesn't matter if they die from not having seatbelts! :oD
in the US many parents send their 3- and 4-year-old children to Pre-School. It's usually a one-half-day class that gets kids used to being in school. I never went to pre-school when I was that young because we didn't have pre-school back in the 60's and our kindergarten was only 1/2 day long back then. Now they have all day kindergarten. I did learn to read before kindergarten by watching sesame street and my babysitter also taught me to read before kindergarten. Maybe back then kids learned more at home than they do now.
In the U.S. they've simplified it and just graduate everyone regardless of what they know. There are plenty of high school graduates who can barely read or write. They all have a certificate declaring them 'gifted and talented' though, so they are happy. It's kind of like the degree the Wizard pulled out of his bag and gave to the scarecrow.
Milwaukee is bad for graduating people who can barely read or write. It's no coincidence that they were the first to unionize teachers in 1958 and by 1968 they were graduating people from high school who were virtually illiterate.
A quick tip: in English, a "degree" is awarded only by colleges or universities, not by high schools or elementary schools. A better translation for the the German word "Abschluss" would therefore be "diploma" (for K-12 schools) or "degree" (for colleges and universities). "Abitur" is a tricky word, but I still wouldn't call it "degree" in English, since it's not awarded by a college or university. I guess it's roughly equivalent to the SAT in the US or A-Levels in the UK & Commonwealth. Re the apprenticeship system: I've spent almost half my life here in Austria (they have the same school system as in Germany) and without a doubt the apprenticeship system is THE SECRET to the incredible industrial and technical output of the German and Austrian economies. This is something we need to introduce in the US stat! Instead of spending 4 years drinking in college, kids here start an apprenticeship as early as 15 where they undergo very rigorous and hands-on training in their chosen profession. The list of professions is very long, but it covers everything from store clerk to office worker to car mechanic to orthopedic shoemaker to electrical engineer to kitchen chef, etc. The apprenticeship lasts from 3 to 4 years and during that time the apprentice spends a few hours a week learning the theoretical part of their professional in trade school. The vast majority of their time however is spent in the workplace at a qualified company/business where they learn hands-on skills and techniques. At the tend of their apprenticeship period they take an oral and written exam, and if they pass, then they're considered highly qualified and skilled professionals in their craft. For example, you can't compare a qualified and trained German waiter, who's undergone the apprenticeship system, to their American counterpart. Whereas an American waiter might have just walked up off the street and decided to wait tables in order to earn some extra money, their German or Austrian counterpart spent 3 to 4 years training and learning every facet of their profession. They could basically run the entire restaurant blind-folded! Re college tuition in the US: there's a huge rumor going round Europe that college/university in the US costs tens of thousands of dollars a semester. Everyone I've met here believes this myth which unfortunately gets perpetuated by all the American movies and TV shows available in Europe. This is, of course, not true! In the US we have a public and a private university system. Every state has a tax-funded public university system that offers low tuition to their citizens depending on their family's income. The poorer you are, the less you pay. For those students from the lowest income range, they study for free at public universities. Private universities, however, are a completely different story. There is no limit to how much they can charge for tuition, and so the most well known private universities could easily cost $40,000 and more per year. These are PRIVATE facilities however! They're nice to attend if you have the money, and just like cars, houses, microwave ovens, I'm sure the most expensive universities offer a superior product. But no one is forced to go there. You can get a quality education at any public university for very little money. Furthermore, even private universities charge "needs-based" tuition, meaning how much you pay depends on your family's income. $40,000/year is paid only by the richest students. Poorer students pay only a fraction of this amount. Re socio-economic issues: a few years ago they came out with a series of studies that rocked Austrian society. It turns out that despite having free universities, most university graduates were themselves the children of university graduates, and most tradesmen (those that completed an apprenticeship) were children of tradesmen. This meant that for all their talk of fair and equal educational access and for all their boasting of free tuition (mostly aimed at the US), children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds were still being pigeon-holed into tradesmen professions. Kids from richer households, which invariably meant having parents with university degrees, were ending up in universities. Only a tiny minority of households with non-college parents had students who attended college. This came as a huge surprise, since most Austrians assumed that things like this only happened in America - surely not in Austria with tuition-free university! I suspect that the same thing probably happens in Germany as well. Re property-tax: having spent so much time in Europe, I can definitely say that they have a much better way of financing their schools. Using property taxes to finance schools only leads to a two-tiered school system, where rich school districts produce well-financed schools drowning in cash, while chronically under-funded schools in poorer school districts turn out functionally illiterate citizens. Under the Germanic school system, all schools are equally financed and directly administrated by the central government, which means they all have the same school curriculum, get the same funding and must adhere to the same policies. Situations like violence-ridden, under-funded inner-city schools lacking basic resources and equipment simply don't exist here.
@@arkboy3 uhhhh... give me a break... They school system is funded by local and state taxes... Exactly what tax breaks have come to pass by local and state officials that give "Billionaires" tax breaks in Wyoming? How many "billionaires" live in Wyoming? I think you are confusing local, state and federal levels of gov't. And even the statement, "to give billionaires tax breaks" shows your lack of understanding and your angle of approach. Edit: I looked it up for you... Looks like there are 6 billionaires that live in Wyoming... Would you like to rethink your original statement? or do you actually believe the Wyoming school system has gone downhill for tax breaks for 6 people?
@@donnielama6459 There are ZERO State taxes on personal income here but because the energy sector is tanking especially coal we pretend we have revenue shortfalls so there's no reason to pander to your Libertarian BS. Oh wait! After looking at your "channel" it looks like you live in a Leningrad shit-hole.
Here in Casper Wyoming: NO courses in Critical Thinking or Logic K-12, NO science-based approach to Evolution K-12. Science teachers in Public School teaching false-hoods about global warming, but of course we are an Energy State! I also need to say that we've cut Ed spending 60% in WY since I was a kid in Public Ed 1967-79.
@@nathan2813 Ft Casper, CY and NCHS. Although NCHS was well-funded at the time I attended (79 grad), there was STILL no Ed on Evolution or critical thinking. Aber ich hatte eine gute Deutsch Lehrerin!
@@arkboy3 We discussed evolution in 7th grade life science at CY in '79. Most of what I know about evolution though I acquired from watching PBS in the last 20 years.
@@arkboy3 I've never had Evolution or Critical Thinking as a class - not even later at the U of WY. I had Critical Reading & Writing, Scientific & Technical Writing, and Fiction Writing in college, though.
This was a much better explanation than my college German lecture. Thanks. Coming from a smaller school with only one option for each class, I would have preferred separate schools for kids planning on university vs kids going into trade schools. Looking forward to part two.
I don’t like that in the US, we tell people they’re not successful unless they go to college. There are plenty of lucrative career paths that can be attained by going into trade school or even an apprenticeship. However I don’t like that in Germany, you’re life’s career path can be set when you’re 11 years old. There’s a reason why we call the teenage years the formative years and kids should be expanding their minds.
Trade schools should be more hyped. These are jobs that can pay good money and you don't have to kill yourself pay back loans. Also most US university degrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on. What's the point of getting a degree if they're not many or jobs for it.
@@CatholicTraditional It's more of a society problem. People look in the US look down on blue collar jobs. You can make good money as a plumber, mechanic, etc.
both Systems are outdated, the difference is, that at least every child in Germany has the Chance to go on every school and any university, for most likely free... in the US you can only get a good education with a ton of money, which is just kinda broken....
I'd actually say you can get a good education if you're rich or poor. The middle class is ultimately screwed when it comes to financing higher education. If you're on either end of the spectrum, you (or your parents) can either afford paying for college, or if you're poor, there are tons of financial aid (either federal grants and loans, scholarships, etc) that are available. The middle class are, well, stuck in the middle. I grew up relatively poor and although I still had to take out some federal loans, I was able to attend a good college and was able to pay back my loans fairly quickly. The system worked in my favor without having to burden my family.
@@marzxbarz Good point, I was a few thousand dollars away from having my tuition basically fully funded, the working and middling classes really do get screwed when it comes to this.
The thing is "any university" in Germany is very bare bones. The education is probably good, but the buildings and campus life aren't nearly as extravagant as in the US. Feli did a video on it. If they tried to set something like that up in the US, people would complain that the free school isn't as nice as Harvard. Plus the free school probably wouldn't pay teachers as well, so the good teachers would go to the "expensive" schools and people would complain about that too. Oh well...
When I studied physics at my University, I met a lot of physics majors who said that they would probably be working a non-skilled dead end job if their vocation was decided when they were 10 -- myself included. A High School education is treated as a right that everyone has in the US. One thing I don't think you mention is that after high school in the US you can attend a community or junior college where you can learn to be a nurse, plumber, auto mechanic, electrician, etc. When I was in high school I was also given an opportunity to go to a separate school to learn a trade; although most states don't have that. Also it seems like tests to pass high school used to be more of a thing in the US than they are now. I am old so I had to pass such a test or I would have gotten a "certificate of attendance" instead of a high school diploma. I don't think the test was all that difficult and I don't know anyone who failed it though.
This is the first critical comment I see about this. Lots of Germans want to get rid off the early separation, although it is possible to switch later.
@@MrCmon113its because the seperation is usally not fair for many kids and kids r kinda pushed against each other who is better in some places, sadly.
@ Linda Stricker: I was an exchange student in the Niagara Falls area almost 30 years ago. I took many Regents classes and therefore took Regents Exams. Honestly, they were damn easy. High schook felt like vacation. I graduated with a 96 average and I never studied.
@@BirteK1975 The Regents exams have been updated and revised several times since then, but even around 30 years ago, they represented among the most stringent in the United States, so you have an example of the difficulty level of the American school system. Out of curiosity, did you graduate from NFHS or LaSalle?
the education systems both reflect their countries economical priorities ... to americans, it's always all about freedom, in germany it's always about stability... the german education system is one of the biggest reasons, that it has a very stable economy that is, even in crisis, hard to shake. The american model on the other hand, with its freedoms, is far less critical and maybe, outside of times of crisis, a lot better for a free and open economy but in a crisis, that economy is a lot more vulnerable compared to the german economy. So the reasons, changes in both systems are so hard to get done, is of course all about its bond to its countries economic systems, which would have to be changed in order to get changes in the education done in any meaningful way.
The Canadian system has a lot of similarities with the American system but also the English system. I have often thought the German system was much better because of your apprenticeship structure. In Canada we have been very successful at moving students into College or University however this has lead to far too many over educated people(with big student debt) and not enough people in the trades. We need this option to gain importance in our society and we need to expand what is a trade. Currently only the "Skilled" trades are included in our system, like Electricians, Plumbers, Carpenters, Pipe Fitters, Tool and Die makers etc. Great video I think I better understand the ups and downs of the German educational system
I also attended protestant religion class throughout my school years, even though I am not baptisted. But I really enjoyed taking those classes, since we talked a lot about ethical issues.
