Posted on 02/18/2007 2:54:43 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
German families are increasingly looking to Britain's best public schools to provide the "well rounded", disciplined education they fear is being eroded in their own country.
Early returns to this year's Independent Schools Council census reveal significant numbers of German pupils are being enrolled in British boarding schools, where fees average £20,000 a year.
.....The trend coincides with a growing perception that Germany's predominantly state-run school system, once the envy of Europe, is losing its way.
In recent years, the country's performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) study of literacy levels has been lacklustre. In the 2001 study, the most recent with full figures for the UK, Germany trailed in at 21, while England was ranked seventh. The same study found independent schools in England were the highest performers in the world.
According to German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche, poor discipline, large classes of up to 35, indifferent teachers who are difficult to fire, and minimal sports facilities are turning German parents off their schools.
A growing number seem to prefer British private schools, with their tradition, uniforms and promise of fluency in English, to the German private sector, where only one - Salem, in Baden - is modelled along British lines.
Axel Espe, a German lawyer whose son spent a year at Cheltenham College and whose daughter completed her A-levels at Rugby, said he valued the all-round education offered at UK public schools. "My children were challenged at all levels," he said. "At the same time they learned about respect, manners, trust and how to be easy-going.".............
In the UK, "public school" actually means private school.
Maybe this, along with the shameful way Germany treats homeschoolers, will shame them into making some major changes, including legalization of homeschooling.
Thanks, I was looking at Babel Fish for a English English to American English translator.
German schools sound similar to U.S. public schools.
German schools turned out good little goosestepping robots who would blindly obey the state. Some American public schools are trying to do the same.
Soon they will be madrassas
The whole public school movement started with Prussian kindegarten. It seems to have just about run its course. But Germans may try what America has done to no avail. They could throw money at the problem as the last I saw, their per pupil expenditure is only about $975/yr.
Not trying. Doing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.