USA vs Germany: A Familiar Opponent on a Foreign Playing Field

For decades, the debate over widespread education has torn through government offices all over the globe. Should higher education be widely available to the masses, or strictly to those qualified and for narrow trade purposes?

Most universities, dating back to the Victorian age until the beginning of World War II, existed as enclaves for the elite and wealthy to pass through en route to their future occupations. This route ignored educational pursuit for the intellectually savvy, and rather paved the social road of the already well to do elite. After World War II, specifically in America, universities became public institutions, offering a general education for the masses (in this case, returning soldiers from the war).

From this derives the question of the true purpose of the “university”. Louis Menand, a key contributor to the New York Times, outlined this debate in his work, Live and Learn. Menand derived three theories on the purpose of education. Theory one stated that education was a sorting system, based on merit, in order to weed out the strong from the weak. His second theory stressed that education should build an educated mass and more democratic citizens. Lastly, his third theory argued that education was a vocational pursuit, and simply a stepping stone into a specific field.

Graduating American students

Stemming from these three theories arises three “perceived” values of education. One based on merit, another on democracy, and the last on vocation. Using these theories, I will compare the American education system to the German education system, which has suddenly gained popularity over their newly enacted plan to establish tuition free education to students.

Let’s first look at the American system, which is more common to you and me. In our current generation, college education is something that is widely available, and meant to be for the everyday citizen. Due to this fact, spending on college resources is high, generating a tuition that has grown in recent years to a point that is unattainable to the common family without some sort of aid. American students coming out of college are shackled with student loan debts that are almost unheard of out of the country. In fact, US student debt is currently at 1.2 trillion dollars, with the average student encumbered by 26,600 dollars worth of such debt. Over the past few decades, tuition and room and board has skyrocketed.

A traditional American public university lecture

The American outlook of college fits into Menand’s category of theory two. American colleges view education as a way to give citizens a liberal education, covering a large spectrum, in order to create a more knowledgeable community. An equitable distribution of education is highly valued in American thought, in which many view America as “the land of opportunity.” By valuing equal opportunity, American education is not only very expensive to serve the masses, but also more loose in focus in order to accommodate the diverse paths students entering may take.

Crossing the Atlantic, we come to our German counterparts. German colleges have recently cut all tuition costs out of college education. However, German colleges are very different from American ones. Unlike American colleges, German colleges are much more difficult to attend. In America, if you can take out a loan and have a high school diploma of some sort, you can attend college. German universities are very selective, and vocation oriented. This approach fits into theory one and three of Menand’s work. Liberal education is acquired in high school, the middle part of a three pronged approach to education. The last prong, college, is very selective and each student picks the specific vocational training program he/she wishes to go through before college begins. Thus, what Germany values in education is different from the American view. Germany offers very selective education, meaning smaller class sizes and thus less costly to society. Only the most intellectually able can attend higher education. This sorting system only picks the intellectually elite to attend, a meritocratic view seen in theory one. In addition, German students are sorted into trades before college begins. Once the elite have been selected, they are sorted into trades to pump out specialized workers into the German economy, a vocational view fitting into theory three.

German students at Bard college in Berlin

Analyzing these two different systems, which one would be more beneficial to a society as a whole? The “American” way, in which all citizens have the opportunity to acquire higher education, but along with high costs and limited vocational training. Or would the German model of a highly selective vocational system be better, in which specialized workers are very prepared for the real world without debt, at the expense of other citizens not attending higher education.

If one was an advocate of theory one or three, in which the university serves as a selective or vocational process, then the German model would be the clear choice. If another believed in the values of democracy, stressed by theory two, then America’s vision of “college for all” would seem like the excellent choice.

I am not looking to side with what I think is the right way colleges should function. That is up for you to decide, based on what you value. Menand gives a solid basis of comparing societal values to those of education, and those values are ranked differently to each person. Though, I must conclude with this. If costs of tuition continue to rise, at the rate they have been over the last few years, then I have one piece of advice for high schoolers.

You better start learning German.

Uncle Sam to Uncle…Steiner?