Nevertheless, all the education systems I know – excepting Elliot Aronson’s  jigsaw class, the Summerhill and the Waldorf school systems are based on making the kids compete for the attention and acknowledgment of the teacher and for grades. They were established in the industrial age with the aim to perpetuate class differences, to provide the industries with workers, engineers and managers and to keep young people within highly organized and disciplined structures.

Now the Culture Ministers (called Kultusminister, i.e. ministers of cult) of the fifteen German federal states  decided to introduce the same standard tests in each state so the can compare students’ performances across the state borders.

The tv programs for kids are mostly structured as team competitions as well.

It looks like those in charge of the reproduction of culture  and administration of learning will never learn. Even the tests the designed were full of mistakes: to redesign them will cost the taxpayers 200.000 euros.