Opinion: Parents' Abitur Posters in Front of Schools: A Shameful Show of Educational Snobbery
- by Kerstin Herrnkind
- ~3-minute read
Visible Parental Abitur Posters in School Fronts: An Unnecessary and potentially Awkward Display. - School plaques displaying parents' names in front of high schools are undeniably shameful.
As students prepare for their Abitur exams, posters flutter outside high schools - including those from parents. Messages range from "You can do it!" and "Many points for you" to "We're crossing our fingers. Abi 2025." Although parental encouragement is appreciated, these displays can feel embarrassing, particularly if they're as extravagant as a poster with homemade letters.
Yes, parents should support their children, but not in this manner, with such public spectacle. If my parents had ever thought about putting up such a poster during my school years, I would have been mortified to the point of wanting them to adopt me away – such an idea would have been beyond them.
These posters epitomize the German educational snobbery. The Abitur, while significant, should not be made into a drama. Unfortunately, these messages only serve to exacerbate the already immense performance pressure facing students and further inflate the importance of the Abitur. it's just a school leaving certificate, after all. Yet, for many in this country, it is the crucial determinant in judging others, as educational researcher Rainer Dollase from Bielefeld University has found.
His study involved questioning 6,500 people about what information they considered important to assess others. Consistently, respondents ranked school leaving certificate, occupation, age, gender, nationality, and religion. Moreover, the school leaving certificate is given the most significance, even when the recipient is 60 years old, and the certificate is decades old.
The Chancellor without an Abitur: A Pointless Debate
The educational snobbery's absurdity was evident in 2017 when Martin Schulz (SPD) aimed to become Chancellor. Commentators seriously questioned whether a man without an Abitur could become Chancellor at all. As if he couldn't understand democracy (a Chancellor or Chancellor can be elected who is at least 18 years old and has German citizenship; there's no need for them to be a member of the Bundestag).
Publishing Abitur-related content in public domains like posters or social media continues to magnify the importance of the Abitur as a public event. Parental expectations, exaggerated at times, now dominate social media. Consider a father who posted his son's primary school report card on Facebook. While he was rightfully proud of the excellent grades, the wider public's involvement was unnecessary. What message was he trying to convey? "Look at my smart kid – how could it be otherwise with this dad?" as the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu would say.
This success celebration has transformed the children's achievements into cultural capital to polish one's own image. The poster in front of the schoolyard is merely the first indication of this competition among parents, which will likely escalate in the coming years, mirroring the lavish Abiballs of the past, and transforming into more professional, expensive events.
The Billionaire and the Multimillionaire: Humble Beginnings
What about those who don't have the time or inclination to create such a poster? Encouragement should be kept private. And if a child fails the Abitur despite the poster, hopefully, it would say on the poster what the parents of a friend wrote: "We love you anyway, even if it doesn't work out."
A long list of successful figures, including Nobel laureates such as Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse, and Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (physics Nobel laureate), did not graduate from high school or did not complete the Abitur due to disciplinary reasons.
Modern examples include Dirk Rossmann, a multibillionaire and founder of the Dirk Rossmann GmbH pharmacy chain (commonly known as Rossmann), and Robert Geiss, a multimillionaire fashion entrepreneur. While specific details about their educational backgrounds are limited, both have achieved significant success in their respective industries with a secondary school leaving certificate.
Barbara Nas (SPD), the current German Federal Minister of Labour, is well-known for her extensive list of further education courses – there's no room here to detail them all. Albert Einstein is rumored to have once remarked, "The only thing that hinders me in learning is my knowledge." Today, over-ambitious parents often seem to be the hindrance. Truly supportive parents don't require a grand stage.
- I am not a member of the European Parliament, but I find it concerning that the display of extravagant Abitur posters outside schools, which often reflect a snobbish attitude towards education, can negatively affect students' self-esteem.
- In the discussion about the importance of the Abitur, it's worth noting that there are numerous successful individuals who have not completed their Abitur or high school education, such as Dirk Rossmann, the founder of Rossmann pharmacies, and several Nobel laureates. Personal growth and success cannot solely be measured by such certificates and require a focus on education-and-self-development, home-and-garden, and lifestyle beyond the rigors of academia.
