I discussed this in my xanga, but I'll reiterate it again: Secondary education in Germany is split into three different camps: Hauptschule (main school), Realschule (real school), and Gymnasium (um... gymnasium). Hauptschule is 5th-9th grades where they learn the basics of a general curriculum, but it is mostly considered a vocational school and ends at about age fifteen. Realschule is ranked above and has a larger general curriculum, but is ultimately the equivalent of our high school diploma and also ends at about the 10th grade. The Gymnasium is the true elite with students graduating at age eighteen and on track to entering a college. In fact, you cannot enter tertiary education with attending a Gymnasium.

The problem with this system is there isn't much flexibility. You enter the school depending on your grades at age ten, meaning if you fucked up in elementary school you're never entering a university and are fucked for life. And it enters a perpetual cycle: Parents who graduated from a Gymnasium definitely have greater resources for pushing their children to study more at an early age.

Today I came across a word I hadn't seen before in German: Gesamtschule (whole school). My teacher told me it was a school that incorporated all students, regardless of their aptitude in elementary, and that this type of school is experiencing a pushback in Germany for being "communist;" anyone can go to there and prepare for college. He said most Germans don't realize that the US has a Gesamtschule system; yeah, some high schools are definitely better than others, but all of them offer the opportunity for further education without an actual prohibition.

I know the communist label is thrown around casually, but it still startled me how something we definitely don't consider communist to the Germans is. In fact for us, education is the great equalizer; even the son of a swineherd can achieve greatness thanks to America's compulsory education. And yet when we have something like nationalized healthcare, that is communist or socialist, and for Germany healthcare is mostly government funded. It's weird how what is abhorrent to one political system is all right for another.