Education differences

To say that Berliners are removed from this dissonance of political culture and ideology is unrealistic. The strong divide between East and west exist today on what some anthropologists might call an axis of social classification. East and West are distinguished by their own culture behavior and character. One can almost call it stereotypical classification: east Germans are characterized as dim-witted versus west German creativity or west German austerity versus east German humanitarianism.

When examining the role of education, it seems that the education institution seems to be governed by those stereotypes. I found a book by Dominic Boyer called Cultural Anthropology, in which she addresses a volume focused “On the Sedimentation and Accreditation of Social Knowledges of Difference: Mass Media, Journalism, and the Reproduction of East/West Alterities in Unified Germany” that discussed the social experiment that was conducted on the Berlin school system after the collapse of the Wall. Based on the theory of “Big fish little pond”, this theory claims that “students attending academically selective schools or classes where other students are particularly bright are likely to experience lower academic self-concepts than equally able students who are educated in a comprehensive setting.” The school systems on the west and east were different from one another. The West German students attended schools and classes based on their achievement levels whereas East German students did not. With the unification of Berlin, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development wanted to evaluate the effects of what would happen when East and West German students are placed within the same schooling system. The anticipation was that while West Germans might be negatively impacted by this shift in schooling more so than East Germans during the first year, East Germans will continually, and increasingly, be negatively affected by this in the long run.

I guess the reason for this anticipation is the realization of East Berlin schooling system being static during the time when West Berlin schooling is becoming diverse and expandable shows a huge discrepancy of knowledge and understanding between the two.

I’m curious to know what the present day implications on the schooling system are. Emergence of both types of institutions seems almost undoable to me, for it feels as if the whole of Berlin would have to accept the Western way of teaching, especially since the dismantling of the East’s political party would show that the old-fashioned way of thinking is inadaptable to this new era that consists of constant change.

No Cars?

The New York Times today published THIS NEWS PIECE about a town in Germany called Vauban. Here, garages, driveways, and street parking are banned from the suburban neighborhoods in an attempt to reduce gas emissions and to encourage residents to trade in their cars for environmentally friendly alternatives (like public transportation, biking, or even walking). What's cool is that this compact town now has more room for other things like shops and larger walk ways.
Can you imagine being able to play an endless game of kickball on the street and never ever be interrupted by a honking car?

I guess the downside is that the convenience of a car would cost you more, but trains are way more fun, anyway.