Excellence and Equity in Germany

Germany's school systems are based through vocational training. From a young age, children are pushed onto a track for a certain type of career, usually based on their family background. This means that from an early age, German children are learning and are immersed in specific schooling and educational practices that are meant to guide them on an educational path motivated by their future career. It would be as if the assignment most Kindergartners were given that has them describe "What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up" actually put them in vocational training to begin their path for that carreer.

My German educational partner for this Blogging journey, Charlotte Freidrich, comes from a family of professors and teachers, meaning she was destined from an early age to follow on the educational vocational track. While some of her peers were destined for the medical field, others for mechanic training, this meant that Charlotte was within a set group of students who took education-based courses as young as six years old. Charlotte remembers taking a class on how to teach counting when she herself was barely old enough to grasp the concept of multiplying and dividing. Charlotte holds firm that this type of education better prepared her for her career as an educator, yet to American standards, having a child enter vocational training at such a young age that basically determines their career over a decade later, seems strange. In terms of equity, however, this educational approach could be considered both positive and negative. While children are given real-life training and educational services for their vocation, what happens if a child decides they no longer are destined to be an engineer, but perhaps a professor instead? Could it be considered equity if the child does not have the opportunity to follow a different track?