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When I read the blog entries of our three exchange students - who have only two more weeks to go in Belleville,Illinois - I can almost feel their enthusiasms and I am happy for them.Jan Schulze states that he prefers the US school system to the one here - it will be interesting to learn what exactly he is referring to.
Both systems have the same underlying structure and the attached photo may serve as a metaphor.The American system and the German system both rely on a number of boxes ( subjects ) that are taught without any links to each other i.e. the geography teacher may talk about the Arctic whereas the English teacher has Wales as his main theme and "the two shall never meet."
Even the layout of the schools in both countries are very similar.Long corridors with doors to wall enclosed classrooms one next to the other separated only by a wall (again see photo ).
What are the implications: Systemic Thinking can hardly be achieved in a school system based on such a fragmented and compartimentalized structure;the concept of Belonging in the sense of we are all ONE will be very difficult to achieve as well and strategies such as integration and holistic learning will most likely not get very far.
In America the National Center on Education and the Economy has just published a report which the commissioners titled:Tough Choices or Tough Times. In the report they press for dramatic changes in the entire field of education by stating :" we can get where we must go only by changing the system itself". Now that I am actively teaching again I am convinced that the German "box-based"system will also have to be replaced entirely.
