Why education at all?
It's easy to recognise: Today's children no longer want to learn. They have no interest. Their attention span is not even long enough to wait for a website to load, so how can they seriously engage in reading, say, «Emilia Galotti» or solving a maths problem? I see this with my children. They are in the third and eighth grade, but neither of them have any desire to learn - yet. The only tools they have are pressure and coercion. Grade point average, tutoring, parent-teacher dialogue - the Bermuda triangle of being an educated parent.
Oh, it's a runaway! My daughter likes to say when she's doing her homework: «School isn't that important.» «What's more important?» I ask. «Playing.»
It may well be that selfies, Minecraft and Let's Play are blunting the kids. But how life-affirming are differential calculus, Walter von der Vogelweide or periodic tables?
Your answer is sweet. But if you think about it, you can't really come up with a counter-argument. Because let's be honest, what of what we learnt at school do we need today? Ten years of French - subjonctif up and down, text analysis of Vercors' «Le silence de la mer» - but in France I don't see myself being able to ask about the half-time score of Paris St-Germain against FC Barcelona or at least order a local beer without making a mistake.
I could probably still recognise the endoplasmic reticulum on a schematic drawing, but I wouldn't know what it's good for. So much for applied biology. Our German teacher, with his preference for Middle High German literature, forced us to engage in soullessly structured discussions; we did not develop a sense for the beauty of the German language or a keen eye for sharp arguments.
Let's be honest, how much of what we learnt at school do we need today?
In maths, I was right in my early assumption that I would never encounter vectors again after school. And what was going on in my favourite subject, history? A Eurocentric view of the world, a completely uncritical veneration of antiquity and a dubious fondness for megalomaniacs like Alexander the Great.
It may well be that selfies, Minecraft and Let's Play are blunting the kids. But how life-affirming are differential calculus, Walter von der Vogelweide or periodic tables? Never again in my life have I been as tired as in maths lessons. Never again did I forget something as quickly as the slowly memorised chemistry formulas.
And it's the other way round: If I look at my life so far, which core characteristics have helped me the most? I would spontaneously name chance, compassion, curiosity and humour. I doubt they were in any curriculum.
I'm not talking about obscure no-schooling practices or homeschooling; it's certainly not wrong to be able to read, write and do maths without making mistakes and to learn things that you'll never use again. I'll just say what I told my daughter: «Go out and play!»
