too early to start? A post of mine from babylog.at, documented here again.
life between birth and burn-out. Business with the fear of social decline
By Ingolf Erler
`I'll stop and look - it's really hard that I get this on the lips, but it's true - that the share of non-German speaking pupils as low as possible. Everyone does, to be honest. " musicians I-Wolf about his Selection criteria for the school their child (derstandard.at)
And that's true. Even the most ardent advocate of equal opportunity would like their own children but then offer a bit more chances get a average Austrian children. In order to avoid a public elementary school and their social mixing, some children are reported to be even with the grandparents to be registered by another district. Other parents take on long trips to buy or are willing to pay high monthly fees, so the youngsters can be taught in a private school. And such schools now grow as are responsible for operating companies, whose business it is to schools to condition the children as early as possible for the competitive society: mushrooms. Its success is based on the fears of parents of social decline.
Do not play with the Pariah
who has an educational edge to wish him well as his children. The fear runs deep: classmates, from the 'educated classes', might as well pull down with your child `'. Of these, that children benefit greatly, with children from other social classes to be friends, is the question. You wish to protect their own advantage - and that means relatively one-dimensional strategies. hedge
A successful methodology is its own projection, made in an even clearer distinction, demarcation down. Distinction strategy between the social classes are found in all areas of our everyday life. Grossly simplified terms, seek those which are above reason, to remain above those in the middle, trying to social climb and at the bottom we find the deprived, who have to worry about at all to make ends meet. In simple words, who has achieved a privileged place in our society, is still making their own children an equally privileged site to protect. So far, the
worked well in our education system: at the top edge of the social hierarchy standing sent their children to special elite, mostly religious, elite high schools. The underlying bourgeois middle class strove to high school. The underlying social groups were still in secondary school. Who could resist at least eventually, had to content themselves with a special school. To not be misunderstood: the hierarchy described here has nothing to do with the quality of the schools themselves. We often find the most dedicated teachers in the secondary and special schools. The education, however, has a clear consistency in the visibility, the image, the labor market, on future opportunities.
escape from the public school system
The fear of social decline of the children alone due to the fact that it is in a public school, leads to a massive flight into private schools. What dimension has already adopted, the statistics show: In the meantime visited almost every / every tenth Austrian student (8.9%) a private school. While the public school system between 1996/97 and 2006/07 has increased by 0.75%, the number rose to private school students by 15.3%.
This is Austria in Europe as in the OECD countries still below average. The number of private students is, for example in Spain and 31.3%, 31.9% in Malta and the UK at 41.1%.
find parents no private offer on the spot before, it may well be that they also take legal gray areas in department:
" have operated for 14 years parents in Bremen with an illegal tricks elementary school. The parents are also teachers of state schools have been, sent their children prefer their own illegal school. (...) The parents, most of them academics, had joined forces and a total of over 250 children themselves can inform or teach. (...) The Ostertor district, which housed the school, is regarded as an alternative, but bourgeois. The foreign population is small, the percentage of graduates and Green voters high. During the current session in parliament on Tuesday threw the formation Senator Jürgens-Pieper parents, therefore, to attach an "elitist claim of separation". The complaint indicated that the parents would not want to send their children to inferior schools with high percentages of non-governmental, reject the more left-liberal parents. Matthew K. and his girlfriend, the two daughters five years on illegal school sent. "We ourselves have not made good experiences with public schools. For our children, we wanted something else. "180 € per child to them it was a month was worth it."
Elite private schools are often financially better off. This can easily imagine, considering for example that the German luxury boarding costs Salem parents per year € 28,000. There are also government grants, mostly to the amount the state saves computation, whom the child does not take the lessons in a public school to complete. Finally, the parents in Germany for a further 30% of school fees as special expenses tax deductible enforce.
And many of these private schools are, and that is the humanist-influenced education sector of the German-speaking rather new, for-profit business models, in contrast to earlier general-interest private schools, such as limited companies, franchise chains.
old and new elite reproduction sites
Initially, educational institutions at all institutions of Church and nobility. Are known such as the Vienna Schottengymnasium at Freyung, the Theresianum in the favorite street or the Lycée Francais in Liechtenstein of the road. An article in the magazine date was the social mix of these schools once described as follows: "Although all these schools are theoretically available to everyone, is those students who come from low-income families, de facto exception to the rule."
A new boarding schools, as they assume them rather in Switzerland or in the Black Forest , was opened last fall in the Salzkammergut: On the "international school" in St. Gilgen (Flachgau) 35 students are enrolled. The tuition fee is 37,500 euros in the first year, then 40,000 euros / year. The nursing home located in a former school had to contend with massive head wind of the population. In order to calm the tempers are three full scholarships to St. Gilgen and two assigned to the Wolfgangsee region.
In international comparison, Austria - still - returned. Quite otherwise called in the UK with its tradition of public schools and the two elite universities of Oxford and Cambridge, even Oxbridge. In the UK 41.1% of the students go to private schools. Children of their own gardens in London are already specialized in the preparation for the journey to Oxford. The most significant social reproduction to the education system is still in France. In Paris, a third of all pupils from the sixth grade in a private school. Throughout France there are 21%, with much more contenders: So had to reject the Catholic private schools in France 2006 25.000 applications. caught up
Stark is currently in Germany, the Austrian education system is otherwise close, especially with regard to its lack of Veränderungswilligkeit. 2008 one in ten attended a private school - and counting. The Ascended Turkish middle class already operates its own schools to stand out from the crowd.
Überholspurkinder
'Get a head start', the saying goes. What can this mean, is a private language school chain, the English courses for children from three months to offer. The model calls the Helen Doron Early English "with the motto" Baby's Best Start "and opened a new store every two weeks in Germany. The private Lipschule in Zurich offers Chinese courses from three years, the Munich "China Coaching Center" from four years ago.
Such offers are a good deal and promise for the future of high profits. Thus understood, the success of the 1998 founded in the United States education chain "FastTracKids" which is a franchise company now operates in 40 countries. The so-called "Überholspurkinder" are between two and nine years and learn from a panel with built-in loudspeakers a computer voice the fields as astronomy, biology, communications, literature, geography, geology, economics, goals and life strategies (sic), mathematics, science, public speaking, drama and art and technology. Courses are taught in Germany German, English and French. What is the ideology behind it is showing a promotional video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyGhCteWUXk&feature=player_embedded #
It's about the satisfaction of the parents, their children more than others, encouraged, or better 'required' to have in order to be successful later. FastTracKids believes a "head start for offer the entire subsequent school career "to be able to. The parents should then be for two hours a week per month € 120 values. This fear is stoked that your child will be a loser if it is not drilled in time for success. It is an "arms race to the most impressive CV toddler"
also a franchise system is the Japanese Kumon chain, which also maintains a branch office in Vienna. Here cram preschoolers with the stopwatch running mathematics. It was important for the life between birth and burn-out, because "by the time it takes for a child to solve a certain number of computational tasks, we determine if it the subject matter not only understood, but may also apply easily. Only when a child learning his current area really easily mastered, it will be the next higher level with the same result will do and enjoy it. In addition, the child learns to deal competently with the times - that is also a preparation for life ".
happy to argue with these offers with the most amazing Verknüpfungswilligkeit the brain with that age. However brain research with the Nuremberg funnel is confused. Although at this age children can easily acquire a second language, but only if it is part of their everyday world. The neurobiologist from Henning Scheuch Leibniz-Institute in Magdeburg therefore designated courses that are taught focus on foreign languages included enough in the school as "almost to oblivion" (Kramer 2008: 16). States the risks Wolfgang Bergmann, director of the Institute for Child Psychology and Learning therapy in Hanover: "It is obvious that parents pass on the power stress under which they are to the children." Children are robbed of childhood, makes not necessarily wiser.
While these deals bring in the children compared to the personal costs very little. In any case, win the provider: 40 € an infant English course in the month, pay 120 € a month for parents FastTracKids costs.
concert halls, children's yoga and bodyguard - What does the world?
Those who want something exclusive can finally send his child to the newly established private luxury Kindergarten "Villa Ritz" in Potsdam near Berlin. Where luxury is almost an understatement: at 3,000 square meters of land to romp up to 50 children. For 980 € a month, a teacher takes care of a maximum of six children. Children can also stay there when needed. can also be booked chauffeur, bodyguard, or Chinese violin teacher, visiting the spa, sauna, private massage therapists, physiotherapists, yoga, ballet, meditation and more. One might almost think the offer is closer to the needs of parents of young children. Similar nursery also offers the group "Little Giants" in Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Munich, Nuremberg, Leverkusen. This franchise system of course will cost 1000 euros a month.
In the U.S., such elite kindergartens have been established long ago. Proper way this does not mean nursery but Nursery Schools. Legendary is the "Hebrew Association for Young Men and Young Women Nursery School", or "Y" in the Uper East Side of Manhattan. For annual $ 14,000 can elect 175 two-to four-year olds between sports studio, concert hall, restaurant, library, dance, theater, select language, painting and craft courses. The groups of ten children are cared for while three kindergarten teachers. Admit each year, only 65 children, are against the registration lists at least ten times as long. Therefore have been some consulting firms to train as Ivy Wise, specialized in assisting the parents how to bring your children on the best route from the elite nursery school at the elite universities of the Ivy League. Other
make do with less legal means. It was the beginning of the century into a scandal surrounding a stock market analysts. To to give his twins into the Y, he asked a friend from the executive offices of the telephone company AT & T to a letter of recommendation. In return, he rated the shares of AT & T a little better and gave the safe side, a million dollars to the Y.
A school as a public company: the Phorm AG
now has the Phorms AG, a German school chain to gain a foot started: investors have invested 11 million euros in order to ultimately receive from the corporation to high returns. For 140-840 euros a month to get the students bilingual classes from morning to evening, without sitting and standing offer. Like all German private schools is the group of public sector pay extra money per student in addition about the amount that would arise in a public school. A practice by which the public sector promotes good learning conditions for students already familiar privileged, while lacking in other schools the money. Up to 40 branch schools would like to build Phorms AG. They also pursued ideological goals, such as the chairwoman Bea describes best compared to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "Germany's raw materials are the brains of the next generation. From the clips comes from nothing. If we adopt the War-of-talent not raging around the world, we have global scale is not much to "Report.
pressure to perform rather than equal opportunities
Apart from performance pressures placed on these children, the process has also social consequences, which we return to the original question: As an agency selection solidifies the school social Distinguish. Although this still officially adheres to the meritocratic myth, the education system would EVERYONE evaluate primarily on his / her performance on. Secretly, we all know, however, that school promotes primarily those that occur with the knowledge and educated in the school setting.
