On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 16:22:09 -0800, "Holger Stephan"
wrote:

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 22:42:27 +0000, Robert Perkins wrote:
Oh, I'm using the correct terms. My interviewees were two men in their
early 20's, and our conversations, casual peer conversations that they
were, took place in late 1989.

Asking two guys during a "casual peer conversation" what they remember
from their school time is hardly a base to judge a country's school
system. Your report may be truthful, but it's not even worth mentioning.

Thought that particular criticism was about whether I knew what the
names of the types of German schools were. I do, because some Germans
told me what they were.

Why, just two days ago I was in a NetMeeting conversation with a
15-year-old student at a Rheinland-Pfalz Realschule. He explained it
again.

What they learned there I gleaned from their descriptions of the
curriculum, not their recollections of the details of the curriculum.
Stephan, the *whole era* was missing from their study. And it's not
like I didn't converse with other Germans while there. I did: hundreds
to thousands in my time there. (I lost count.)

In Germany, the subject simply never comes up in polite conversation.
The topic of Nazi's is banned in Germany. The norm by now is expected
to be widespread ignorance of that part of their history.

BTW, the one from Berlin doesn't count anyway. Different world there

I have no idea how to respond to that.

Rob

--
[You] don't make your kids P.C.-proof by keeping them
ignorant, you do it by helping them learn how to
educate themselves.

-- Orson Scott Card