So embarrassed youngsters - the first thing they want is to become university students* - are flooding the universities (75,000 freshpersons in 2016/17). With little guidance, they choose Germanistik, some with only rudimentary knowledge of German orthography, grammar, and linguistic style.
* Of those 6 % graduates of my time, not all went to university. Only one-half of my classmates studied.
Peter Philipp Riedl, professor of modern German literature at Freiburg University, admits: Since I started teaching, I have noticed a strong, even excellent, top group, but the so-called good middle field is thinning.
Lucky America, you do not send your high school graduates to advanced studies at universities right away, but to college first. This system is based on the medieval baccalaureate. In the olden days, the Seven Liberal Arts* had to be mastered first before further studies at the four faculties of theology, law, medicine, and philosophy.
* Of those 6 % graduates of my time, not all went to university. Only one-half of my classmates studied.
Peter Philipp Riedl, professor of modern German literature at Freiburg University, admits: Since I started teaching, I have noticed a strong, even excellent, top group, but the so-called good middle field is thinning.
Lucky America, you do not send your high school graduates to advanced studies at universities right away, but to college first. This system is based on the medieval baccalaureate. In the olden days, the Seven Liberal Arts* had to be mastered first before further studies at the four faculties of theology, law, medicine, and philosophy.
*grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy
Such an approach to higher education is better suited than Humboldt's idea of free study at any university. The Humboldt brothers started with an assumption that no longer holds nowadays. They entered the university as two extremely well-prepared young men. In contrast, German high schools are under pressure nowadays to graduate many pupils with good marks, regardless of their basic knowledge.
*Note the preponderance of science subjects
Coming back to the US, on the one hand, I always admire the top-level researchers who have won most of the Nobel Prizes, whereas, on the other hand, I am told that mass education in the US leaves much to be desired. While German Nobel Prizes remain rare, I fear that we are approaching the United States in terms of the general education of German kids.
Well, I am an old man. Whenever I deplore young people's lack of basic knowledge, I am told that times have changed. Still, it is sad that high school graduates, staring at their iPhones, mistake Schiller for Apple's marketing director. Guys, the poet is called Friedrich and not Phil.
*Note the preponderance of science subjects
Coming back to the US, on the one hand, I always admire the top-level researchers who have won most of the Nobel Prizes, whereas, on the other hand, I am told that mass education in the US leaves much to be desired. While German Nobel Prizes remain rare, I fear that we are approaching the United States in terms of the general education of German kids.
Well, I am an old man. Whenever I deplore young people's lack of basic knowledge, I am told that times have changed. Still, it is sad that high school graduates, staring at their iPhones, mistake Schiller for Apple's marketing director. Guys, the poet is called Friedrich and not Phil.
**
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