Germany has not banned preschool education: Merkel *** vigorously promotes it

Not long ago, there was a much-reprinted article on the Internet, "Why Germans Take Half of the Nobel Prizes: Ban Preschool Education." The author of this article said conclusively: "In Germany's Basic Law (i.e., the Constitution), Article 7, Section 6, clearly stipulates that the establishment of preparatory schools, that is, preschools is prohibited.”

I originally understood what the author meant. The current pressure on Chinese children is too great. The examples of "overseas developed countries" serve as a reminder to Chinese people, and I advise parents not to torture their children too much. The intention of the article is good, but compared with the truth, the facts may not hold up.

Open the "Basic Law" formulated by Germany after the war and turn to Article 7, Paragraph 6. The original text is: "Vorschulen bleiben aufgehoben", which literally translates to "still abolish (all types of) preparatory schools" . The "ban on preschool education" mentioned above may be derived from this.

However, this is precisely a misunderstanding due to a deviation in the understanding of "Vorschule". The word means "pre-school education institutions of all types including kindergartens" in modern German. Another meaning is a one-year preschool attached to a primary school. There are two types of students participating in preschool: either they are school-age children whose cognitive level is different from that of children of the same age due to various reasons; or they are just old enough to enter school based on their birthdays, but are much younger than children who entered school in the same year and have poor mental development. There are still some shortcomings, so it was "downgraded" at the parents' request.

So what does the abolished "Vorschulen" mean? Originally refers to a special three-year primary school that appeared in Prussia and North Germany in history. These schools are either government-run or private. The tuition fees are so high that only children from wealthy families can afford them. This type of "aristocratic school" has good resource allocation, and children from official and wealthy families can receive quality education by studying here. Compared with children in ordinary schools, their enrollment rates are higher, and their chances of entering university in the future are much higher than those of their peers. In addition, just like "noble schools" in various countries, children studying here will naturally form a network. Many years later, whether in politics or business, they will "help each other" and form an invisible network that controls the country's political and economic lifeline. Once such a network is spread, it will inevitably become a natural obstacle for outstanding children from poor families to get ahead.

"World War I" ended, the emperor abdicated, and the first truly democratic republic in German history was born. The Weimar Constitution (1919), which laid the foundation for the Republic of China, explicitly abolished such special "preparatory schools" (Vorschulen) based on the principles of education and social equity. Moreover, according to Article 146 of the Constitution, Germany has implemented a compulsory education system since 1920. All children over the age of six must attend a unified primary school (Grundschule), and there must be no distinction between high and low.

At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into two occupied zones, the east and west. In 1949, with the support of the three giants of the United States, Britain and France, the Western Occupied Area declared the establishment of the German Federal Republic and promulgated a new constitution. With an eye to future unification, this law was not named "Ver-fassung" (Constitution), but was named "Grundgesetz" (Basic Law). The new law classifies the right to education as a "basic right" of citizens and reiterates the principles established in the Weimar Constitution, which is why there is a clause that "still abolishes (all types of) preparatory schools." Therefore, Germany's "ban on preschool education" is a typical Ying Shuyan theory. The fallacy lies in confusing "Vorschule" (preparatory school) and "vorschulische Erziehung/Vorschulerziehung" (preschool education). Whether it is the "preschool" or kindergarten education mentioned in the previous article, they originally belong to the category of preschool education. According to the definition of German pedagogy, the purpose of preschool education is to reduce children's deficiencies in mobility, language, cognition, emotion and social interaction, and to prepare for school. Not only is this kind of education not prohibited in Germany, it is also vigorously supported and promoted.

You must know that the word kindergarten (old translation "kindergarten") in Chinese comes from German. The German educator Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) named the preschool education institution he founded Kindergarten. This model was later imitated by other countries around the world, and this concept was directly introduced into English without modification. How could such a "successful model" be abandoned by the Germans?

However, compared with primary education, preschool education in Germany does not fall into the category of compulsory education. However, according to the provisions of the German Social Code (SGB), all preschool children over 3 years old in Germany have the right to enter kindergartens for education. According to the knowledge of German preschool education, the main tasks of kindergartens are to cultivate children's self-awareness, independent living ability, group communication ability, environmental adaptability, and develop children's intelligence and language abilities, but they must not arrange activities similar to those in primary education. Informative course.

However, lawyers are good at playing with words. The word "right" in the code clause is "Anspruchhaben" (which means "can make requests"), rather than the commonly used "Rechthaben" (right), so the binding force is greatly reduced. For various reasons, the current spatial distribution of early childhood care institutions in Germany is not reasonable. In some places, as long as parents apply in time in advance, their children can get a kindergarten admission quota. In other places, however, the number of applicants greatly exceeds the number of places available in local kindergartens, so that many school-age children are unable to attend. One of the chain reactions of this result is that many parents (especially mothers) are unable to return to work as they wish, which in fact creates inequality between men and women in employment.

Interestingly, whenever this topic is mentioned, the dead "GDR" will be mentioned repeatedly as a conditioned reflex. Because like many "socialist countries", the former East Germany established a large number of public kindergartens in order to encourage women's childbearing and employment so that workers could devote themselves to socialist construction without hesitation, relieving the working people of their worries. Many "old and young" people from the former East Germany always like to say that "everything wasn't all bad back then", and compatriots in the west always sneer at this. But when it comes to the preschool education system, Dongbian’er is really not “worthless”.

After the merger of the two Germanys, the system was one-sided. Even the Basic Law was used by the unified Germany, and the preschool education system in East Germany was also disintegrated. The reunification of the troubled Germany is exciting, but it faces multiple challenges. According to the famous German economist Hans-Werner Sinn, the new Germany has begun a "cold start." There were many difficulties at that time. In comparison, preschool education was not a "leading issue", so it was shelved.

However, in the past few decades, the problem of social aging has become increasingly serious, and the stability of the social security system has also been threatened. As people's family concepts change and pressure increases, Germany's birth rate has dropped year after year. According to the latest statistics, the average German family has 1.3 children. Based on this calculation, Germans will disappear from the earth in seven generations. There are multiple factors leading to low fertility, and one of the most important reasons is that young parents (women are the first among them) worry about finding a job after having children. Therefore, it is urgent to solve the problem of preschool education, because it is not only related to children's education, but also related to the future of the German nation and the future of the country.

In recent years, Merkel has vigorously promoted preschool education in response to the situation and public opinion. In 2005, Merkel invited the well-known political queen Ursula von der Leyen to join her cabinet as the federal minister of women's and family health. This female minister is a proud mother herself, with seven children (two sons and five daughters). She is also a professional woman. She was a doctor before entering politics, so this ministerial position seems to be tailor-made for her. of. After the new minister took office, he introduced a series of new policies, one of which was establishing a system and taking substantive measures to promote early childhood education. In addition to improving and increasing existing kindergartens, she also promised to open more nurseries so that children under the age of three can enter care as soon as possible. According to the design plan at that time, by 2014, all school-age children in Germany will be able to attend day care. Apparently, the plan was too optimistic. So far, many parents are still queuing for the limited number of childcare places available.

So what do children who can attend day care do in day care? I visited several childcare facilities in Germany and talked with the caregivers. They generally believe that their most important task is to take care of children's daily lives and gradually cultivate their good living habits, and early education and intellectual development come second. Children eat with the guidance and help of caregivers and learn the skills they need to eat. If necessary and possible, parents can also come to the nursery to breastfeed in person, or express and fill breast milk or mix formula milk powder and give it to the nursery for feeding on time and on demand. Other than that, it’s game time. The childcare workers divide the children into groups according to their age group and stage of physical and mental development, allowing them to participate in various games and small competitions (including some educational games). If weather conditions permit, priority is given to outdoor activities with the purpose of cultivating the children. motor coordination, communication ability and environmental adaptability. Whether and when to take a lunch break depends entirely on the child's own condition, and should not be forced.

Don’t think that children who enter daycare must be “lucky”. So far, there has been controversy among all walks of life in Germany over whether children should go to day care or even kindergarten. Excluding differences in hardware, an important indicator to measure the quality of a nursery school is the ratio of caregivers to children. According to currently generally accepted standards, the optimal ratio for children under 12 months is 1:2, while for children 12-24 months it should be 1:3, and for children 24-36 months it is 1:4. In fact, many nurseries simply fail to meet this standard. You must know that increasing staff means an increase in school running costs, which will inevitably lead to an increase in fees, which parents are unwilling to accept. This is exactly the problem that the female minister wants to solve. She hopes to subsidize various preschool education institutions by increasing public investment.

However, due to the different opinions within the Communist Party, coupled with the not optimistic financial situation, and the various resistances encountered in the implementation of policies, the promises she made when she took office cannot be fulfilled today.

Many parents are reluctant to send their children to day care because they are influenced by traditional concepts. Germany has a strong Christian tradition and people have a strong sense of family. Many parents believe that it is natural for them to take care of their children before they officially enter school. For middle- and high-income people who are willing to raise more children, they do not have to worry about communication difficulties when their children join the collective in the future. And they think that their children can get more care and better education at home. Many capable parents will invest human and financial resources in the "early development" of their children. When my German friends and I complained about the rampant "early childhood education" in China, several of them confessed that many German parents are the same, allowing their children to learn various "skills" and buy books and intellectual toys. There are many self-recommended advertisements for amateur art teachers in local newspapers and on the Internet. There are also many high-income families who recruit highly educated young nannies from abroad through intermediaries so that they can teach foreign languages ??while taking care of their children. In addition, there are concerns about adverse effects on children entering day care and living with children from low-income families. For these families, it is unfair for *** to use public funds to subsidize child care institutions. Because they think that as a group that pays more taxes, they have been discriminated against and mistreated in this regard.

From this point of view, children’s early education involves all aspects of problems and is intricately intertwined. Returning again to the title of the article quoted at the beginning of this article. The premise of "banning preschool education" no longer exists, so what is the reason for taking away half of the Nobel Prize? Whether to abolish pre-school education is probably not the key. Education is a long-distance race, and preschool education is just the starting point. I think the author of the article still has the idea of ??"don't lose at the starting line" in his mind, although this time it is just in reverse.