German School System

German public education makes it possible for qualified kids to study up to

university level, regardless of their families' financial status.

The German education system is different in many ways from

the ones in other countries, but it produces high-performing students. The overwhelming
majority of German students attend public schools. The whole German education
system, including the universities, is available to the children of bona fide expatriates.
The catch, of course, is that the classes are conducted in German, which is usually all
right for school beginners but becomes more and more of a problem as the children get
older. But, there are also many private schools. Although education is a function of the
federal states, and there are differences from state to state, some generalizations are
possible.

Children aged three to six, may attend kindergarten. After that, school is compulsory for
nine or ten years. From grades 1 through 4 children attend elementary school
(Grundschule), where the subjects taught are the same for all. Then, after the 4th grade,
they are separated according to their academic ability and the wishes of their families,
and attend one of three different kinds of
schools: Hauptschule, Realschule or Gymnasium. Grundschule teachers recommend
their students to a particular school based on such things as academic achievement,
self-confidence and ability to work independently. However, in most states, parents
have the final say as to which school their child attends following the fourth grade.
Hauptschule
The Hauptschule (grades 5-9) teaches the same subjects as
the Realschule and Gymnasium, but at a slower pace and with some vocational-
oriented courses. It leads to part-time enrollment in a vocational school combined with
apprenticeship training until the age of 18.
Realschule
The Realschule (grades 5-10 in most states) leads to part-time vocational schools and
higher vocational schools. It is now possible for students with high academic
achievement at the Realschule to switch to a Gymnasium on graduation.
Gymnasium
The Gymnasium leads to a diploma called the Abitur and prepares students for
university study or for a dual academic and vocational credential. Curricula differ from
school to school, but generally include German, mathematics, computer science,
physics, chemistry, biology, geography, art (as well as crafts and design), music,
history, philosophy, civics, social studies, and several foreign languages. In recent years
many States have changed the curriculum so students can get the "Abi" at the end of
the 12th grade. Other States are making the transition but may still require a 13th grade.
Gesamtschule
The Gesamtschule, or comprehensive school, is only found in some of the states. It
takes the place of both the Hauptschule and Realschule. It enrolls students of all ability
levels in the 5th through the 10th grades. Students who satisfactorily complete
the Gesamtschule through the 9th grade receive the Hauptschule certificate, while
those who satisfactorily complete schooling through the 10th grade receive
the Realschule certificate.
Berufsschule
Beyond the Hauptschule and Realschule lies the Berufsschule, combining part-time
academic study and apprenticeship. The successful completion of an apprenticeship
program leads to certification in a particular trade or field of work. These schools differ
from the other ones mentioned in that control rests not with the local and regional
school authorities, but with the federal government, industry and the trade unions.
No matter what kind of school a student attends, he/she must complete at least nine
years of education. A student dropping out of a Gymnasium, for example, must enroll in
a Realschule or Hauptschule until nine years have been completed. Students are
required to study at minimum one foreign language for at least five years. A second
foreign language is required in Gymnasium.
The School Day
German students at public schools normally attend school in the morning. Classes
normally start between 7:30 and 8:15 a.m. and can end between 12 noon and 1:30 p.m.
Class periods are normally 45 minutes long with a short break in between. However, in
recent years some schools (Ganztagsschule) have started offering longer days. The
additional hours can be used for doing homework or participating in various
extracurricular activities. With the extra hours there is a hot lunch and this has
necessitated adding a cafeteria in these schools. There can be a lot of homework and
heavy emphasis on the "three Rs" - reading, writing and aRithmatic. The curriculum
expands as students move up from Grundschule and depends on which of the three
secondary schools they attend.
The School Year
The school year consists of two semesters and normally starts around the middle to end
of August. There are longer breaks at Christmas and in the summer. Shorter breaks are
around Easter and in autumn. There is no school on public holidays. The Christmas
break is usually 2 weeks and the summer break is about 6 weeks. The exact dates of
the various vacations and breaks are set by the individual Länder.

Special Needs students

There are different schools for students with special needs
called Sonderschule or Förderschule. Depending on the individual's needs and a
school's availability, a student can attend one of the special schools. These schools are
staffed with specially trained teachers and generally have a smaller student to teacher
ratio than the regular schools. Some special needs students don't attend these schools
and are integrated into a Hauptschule or Gesamtschule.
Private Schools
There are a number of different types of private schools in Germany. These schools
usually charge tuition and may offer varied courses leading to the German Abitur as well
as other diplomas and certificates at the conclusion of studies.
Internat
The Internat are German boarding schools. There are several hundred of them in
Germany offering a variety of study programs. Most offer the Abitur and may offer
additional specialized courses in different subjects or pursuits. There are sports Internat,
music Internat as well as Internat that specialize in other areas. There are also some
separate boarding schools for boys and girls.
International Schools
The several dozen International Schools in Germany normally offer courses in English
leading to an IBO or other diploma or certificate that allows the students to continue on
to college or university.

(See the article on International Schools.)

Parochial Schools
There are many Protestant and Catholic private schools that offer the standard
German Abitur.
Home Schooling
Home schooling is illegal in Germany. The law requiring students to attend public
schools or approved private schools has been upheld despite challenges to it.

Higher Education
There are several varieties of university-level schools. The classical universities, in the
tradition of Alexander von Humboldt, provide a broad general education and students
usually attend them for up to six years. However, in recent years there have been
changes to the curriculum allowing a university student (in a normal or technical
university) to normally acquire a Bachelor Degree in either 6 or 7 semesters. A Masters
Degree will normally require an additional 3 or 4 semesters.
The amount of time to acquire a degree depends on the university and not the state.
Curricula may vary slightly from school to school. The Technical Universities
(Technische Hochschulen) are more aimed at training students for specific careers.
There are also Hochschulen for art and music.
There are also many private schools that offer various degree programs in a variety of
subjects. Many of these schools offer instruction in English. (See the article on Higher
Education.)
German Schools Chart
(Click for larger image)

History of Education in Germany

Prussian era
Historically, Lutheranism had a strong influence on German culture, including its education. Martin Luther
advocated compulsory schooling so that all people would independently be able to read and interpret the
Bible. This concept became a model for schools throughout Germany. German public schools generally have
religious education provided by the churches in cooperation with the state ever since.

During the 18th century, the Kingdom of Prussia was among the first countries in the world to introduce free
and generally compulsory primary education, consisting of an eight-year course of basic education,
Volksschule. It provided not only the skills needed in an early industrialized world (reading, writing, and
arithmetic), but also a strict education in ethics, duty, discipline and obedience. Children of affluent parents
often went on to attend preparatory private schools for an additional four years, but the general population
had virtually no access to secondary education.

In 1810, after the Napoleonic wars, Prussia introduced state certification requirements for teachers, which
significantly raised the standard of teaching. The final examination, Abitur, was introduced in 1788,
implemented in all Prussian secondary schools by 1812 and extended to all of Germany in 1871. The state
also established teacher training colleges for prospective teachers in the common or elementary grades.

German Empire
When the German Empire was formed in 1871, the school system became more centralized. In 1872,
Prussia recognized the first separate secondary schools for females. As learned professions demanded well-
educated young people, more secondary schools were established, and the state claimed the sole right to
set standards and to supervise the newly established schools.

Four different types of secondary schools developed:

A nine-year classical Gymnasium (including study of Latin and Classical Greek or Hebrew, plus one modern
language);
A nine-year Realgymnasium (focusing on Latin, modern languages, science and mathematics);
A six-year Realschule (without university entrance qualification, but with the option of becoming a trainee in
one of the modern industrial, office or technical jobs); and
A nine-year Oberrealschule (focusing on modern languages, science and mathematics).
By the turn of the 20th century, the four types of schools had achieved equal rank and privilege, although
they did not have equal prestige.

Weimar Republic
After World War I, the Weimar Republic established a free, universal four-year elementary school
(Grundschule). Most pupils continued at these schools for another four-year course. Those who were able to
pay a small fee went on to a Mittelschule that provided a more challenging curriculum for an additional one
or two years. Upon passing a rigorous entrance exam after year four, pupils could also enter one of the four
types of secondary school.

Nazi Germany
See also: Nazi university
During the Nazi era (1933-1945), teaching of Nazi ideologies was added to the education programme;
however, the basic education system remained unchanged. The Hitler Jugend' actually took only students
out that could fight for Germany. The age range was 7-18, therefore, the children got taught more about the
Nazism than other education. If the children weren't interested in learning about it, their education would
automatically suffer and they would have to repeat classes, or even not graduate from school.

East Germany
The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) started its own standardized education system in the
1960s. The East German equivalent of both primary and secondary schools was the Polytechnic Secondary
School (Polytechnische Oberschule), which all students attended for 10 years, from the ages of 6 to 16. At
the end of the 10th year, an exit examination was set. Depending upon the results, a pupil could choose to
come out of education or undertake an apprenticeship for an additional two years, followed by an Abitur.
Those who performed very well and displayed loyalty to the ruling party could change to the Erweiterte
Oberschule (extended high school), where they could take their Abitur examinations after 12 school years.
Although this system was abolished in the early 1990s after reunification, it continues to influence school life
in the eastern German states.
 West Germany
After World War II, the Allied powers (Soviet Union, France, United Kingdom, and the U.S.) ensured that
Nazi ideology was eliminated from the curriculum. They installed educational systems in their respective
occupation zones that reflected their own ideas. When West Germany gained partial independence in 1949,
its new constitution (Grundgesetz) granted educational autonomy to the state (Länder) governments. This
led to widely varying school systems, often making it difficult for children to continue schooling whilst
moving between states.

Multi-state agreements ensure that basic requirements are universally met by all state school systems.
Thus, all children are required to attend one type of school (five or six days a week) from the age of 6 to the
age of 16. A pupil may change schools in the case of exceptionally good (or exceptionally poor) ability.
Graduation certificates from one state are recognized by all the other states. Qualified teachers are able to
apply for posts in any of the states.

Federal Republic of Germany

Since the 1990s, a few changes have abeen taking place in many schools:
Introduction of bilingual education in some subjects
Experimentation with different styles of teaching
Equipping all schools with computers and Internet access
Creation of local school philosophy and teaching goals ("Schulprogramm"), to be evaluated regularly
Reduction of Gymnasium school years (Abitur after grade 12) and introduction of afternoon periods as in
many other western countries

After 2000 much public debate about Germany's perceived low international ranking in Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA) there has been a trend towards a less ideological discussion on
how to develop schools. These are some of the new trends:
Establishing federal standards on quality of teaching
More practical orientation in teacher training
Transfer of some responsibility from the Ministry of Education to local school

Program Budget of Japan Student Services Organization (FY2020)

The budget for 2020 expenditure is planned to be ¥1,312.3 billion. The breakdown is as follows:

Scholarship Programs for Japanese Students (TOTAL ¥1,290.7 billion)

 ■Program cost of scholarship loans ：¥1,052.9 billion

 ■Program cost of scholarship grants ：¥237.5 billion
 ■Program costs of scholarship donations ：¥400 million
(Achieving Student Awards, support for students affected by disasters, etc)

Support Programs for International Students (TOTAL ¥15.4 billion)

 ■International student acceptance promotion program ：¥3.5 billion

(Monbukagakusho Honors Scolarship for Privately-Financed International Students)
 ■Student exchange support program ：¥7.9 billion
 ■Japan Public-Private Partnership Student Study Abroad Program ：¥2.3 billion
(TOBITATE! Young Ambassador Program)
 ■Support programs for international students ：¥1.7 billion
(accommodation support, follow-up services, information provision, etc.)
 ■Program costs for international student related donations ：¥10 million
 Student Support Programs (TOTAL ¥100 million)

 ■Student support program related training, information gathering/provision ：¥50 million

 ■Research for improvement of student's learning environments ：¥60 million

Other (personnel expenses, general administrative expenses, etc.) ¥6 billion

In Philippine pesos 607, 967, 782, 696

In 1983, Japan has dramatically converted the philosophy from “complete education” to
“lifelong learning.” Hence, the aim of school education shifted to the formation of the “ability to
self-educate” that supports lifelong learning. The new educational policy became firmly
established within the law through subsequent amendments that have continued until today.
Responsively, the educational ministry has decreased the content that was to be taught at schools
as determined by curriculum standards and in the meanwhile shifted the focus onto students’
“ability to self-educate” and onto practical use of basic knowledge, followed by a range of
reforms of learning environments. The chapter addresses the background of the conversion, how
policies were developed and what measures were taken, and the causes of the insufficiently
visible outcomes. Finally, it discusses the future challenges and suggests potential solutions to
tackle the challenges.

Similar Country Ranking

Country Name Education Spending (% of GDP)

Aruba 21.37%

Chile 21.16%

Andorra 19.23%

Hong Kong 18.13%

 Similar Country Ranking

Country Name Education Spending (% of GDP)

Iceland 16.84%

New Zealand 16.82%

Cyprus 16.69%

Norway 15.97%

Sweden 15.73%

Switzerland 15.51%

Israel 15.45%

Uruguay 14.65%

Czech Republic 14.15%

Barbados 14.06%
 Similar Country Ranking

Country Name Education Spending (% of GDP)

United Kingdom 13.83%

Australia 13.77%

Macao 13.52%

Ireland 13.41%

Argentina 13.36%

Estonia 13.11%

Latvia 12.89%

Netherlands 12.81%

Finland 12.34%
 Similar Country Ranking

Country Name Education Spending (% of GDP)

Belgium 12.33%

Lithuania 12.03%

Slovenia 11.75%

Seychelles 11.72%

Brunei 11.44%

Poland 11.29%

Austria 10.95%

Germany 10.93%

Hungary 10.07%
 Similar Country Ranking

Country Name Education Spending (% of GDP)

Spain 9.97%

Slovak Republic 9.42%

Japan 8.38%

Italy 7.81%

Monaco 6.60%

German philosophy

Reggio Emilia approach

“This philosophy aims to develop faculties of perceptive imagination, inspiration and
intuition through the cultivation of a form of thinking independent of sensory
experience”.

Nursery schools (from birth till three years)

 Maria Montessori
 Waldorf schools
 Reggio Amelia
Introduction of Early Childhood Education
Optimizing the early years of children’s lives is the best investment we can make as a
society in ensuring their future success.

Waldorf educational approach and philosophy

Conclusion
Concluding all the scenario, pre-primary education is the basic educational requirement
for kids all over the world. In this assignment the pre-primary school system of Germany
has been taken as the focus to judge their philosophy behind their educational
structures.

Lesestart, the nationwide literacy program for children funded by the German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research and carried out by Stiftung Lesen, continues for
three-year-old children and their parents

 Community-oriented classrooms, with everyone involved, including the cooks,

custodians, parents, etc.
 Classrooms decorated with students' artwork, with an emphasis on natural materials, like
pine cones, sea shells, and plants
 Art studio and materials which are easily accessible to children.

Mission Statement of Few German Schools

Role of Educational Philosophy in Education

 Teachers working in the background, offering gentle guidance only when necessary
 Natural materials like cloth, stones, and shells
 Many Waldorf programs are ru in homes by trained educators, asn there may not be a
Waldorf school nearby
 Children acting out scenes from their lives, and using their imaginations

GERMAN SWISS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

“We are a center of educational excellence, within a vibrant, creative and caring
community”.

GISSV
“The GISSV has committed itself to ensuring students reach their full academic potential
in a nurturing environment that fosters critical and imaginative thinking, a passion for
lifelong learning and an appreciation for cultural diversity”.

Educational philosophy of Germany

Philosophy in practice:

Anthroposophical basis with developmental approach

Your educational philosophy is your beliefs about why, what and how you explain,
whom you teach, and about the nature of learning. It is a set of philosophies that guides
professional action through the events and issues teachers face daily. Sources for your
educational philosophy are your life experiences, your values, the environment in which
you live, interactions with others and awareness of philosophical approaches.

The Aim of this Philosophy

Early childhood education and child care programs in Germany
Preschools in Germany (kindergarten)
Early childhood education program which are been practices in Germany re such as:

 Day cares as child care center/ program

 Nursery schools
 Preschool/ kindergarten school

Day cares as child care center/ program

 Mixed age classrooms, with classrooms for children ages 2½ or 3 to 6 years old by far
the most common
 Student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options
 Uninterrupted blocks of work time, ideally three hours
 A constructivist  or "discovery" model, where students learn concepts from working with
materials, rather than by direct instruction

An overview of German Educational Philosophy at Pre-Primary School

System
“Lesestart” in Germany – Three Milestones for Reading
The word Kindergarten is originally from the German language. The Literally translated
meanings of Kindergarten are "garden of children". Preschools in Germany follow the
kindergarten system as per the philosophical basis of the educational system of the
country. The philosophical thoughts of “Rousseau” have been adopted while
development of kindergarten system.

Day cares in Germany are not offered by state as per the national policy for children
from birth till 3 years is to be spent under supervision of mother. Females who are
working and left their kids in day care centers are considered” heartless”.

Approaches adopted in kindergarten schools of Germany

Main areas:

 Trained early childhood educators

 No specific (educational) teaching methodology is used
 Role of private and public agencies and church

Role of Parents in Early Childhood Education

Montessori Method
“Waldorf educational philosophy emphasizes the role of imagination in learning and
values the integration of intellectual, practical, and artistic activities across the
curriculum. Its overarching goal is to develop free, morally responsible, and integrated
individuals equipped with a high degree of social competence. Especially for younger
children, qualitative methods of assessment are preferred over quantitative methods.
Individual teachers and schools have a great deal of autonomy in determining
curriculum content, teaching methodology and governance”.

The biggest role in early child hood education has been played by the parent. More they
pay attention on their education more they get wonderful responses about their children.

Importance of Childhood Education

The emotional, social and physical development of young children has a direct effect on
their overall development and on the adult they will become. That is why understanding
the need to invest in very young children is so important, so as to maximize their future
well-being.

Typical elements of a Waldorf Preschool

design by Dóri Sirály for Prezi
Germany

Funding in Education
TUESDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER, 2020 - 11:09

On this page

• Public spending on education

• Education budget

The financing of education from the public purse is currently based on the following
arrangements:

 Most educational institutions are maintained by public authorities.

 They receive the greater part of their funds from public budgets.
 Certain groups undergoing training receive financial assistance from the state to
provide them with the money they need to live and study.
 The public financing arrangements for the education system are the result of
decision-making processes in the political and administrative system in which the
various forms of public spending on education are apportioned between
Federation, Länder and Kommunen (local authorities) and according to education
policy and objective requirements.

Public spending on education

The political and administrative hierarchy in the Federal Republic of Germany is made
up of three levels: 1) Federation; 2) Länder; and 3) local authorities (Kommunen), i.e.
districts, municipalities with the status of a district and municipalities forming part of
districts. Decisions on the financing of education are taken at all three levels, but
around 90 per cent of public expenditure are provided by the Länder and the local
authorities.
Since 2008, the Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) has prepared an
annual Educational Finance Report on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – BMBF) and in consultation
with the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs in the
Federal Republic of Germany (Kultusministerkonferenz – KMK). The Educational Finance
Report compiles the most important information that is available on the education
budget. The Educational Finance Report is part of education reporting, which
continuously provides data-based information on the framework, input, progress,
results and effects of educational processes.
The expenditure (basic funds) of the Federation, Länder and local authorities in
Germany are shown in the demarcation of the financing statistics of the public budgets.
In 2017 (preliminary data), according to the financing statistics, the public sector
expended a total of Euro 133.4 billion on day-care centres for children, general and
vocational schools, higher education institutions, financial assistance for pupils and
students, other educational expenditure as well as out-of-school youth education and
youth association work. This amounted to Euro 10.6 billion for the Federation, Euro
94.3 billion for the Länder and Euro 28.5 billion for the local authorities. This
corresponds to 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product and 20.6 per cent of the total
public budget.

Education budget
According to the International Standard Qualification of Education (ISCED), expenditure
on education in Germany in 2017 totalled Euro 185.6 billion on pre-school education,
schools and the associated areas, the tertiary sector, miscellaneous and other
expenses. Additional German expenditure related to education amounted to Euro 20.9
billion for in-company vocational education, further education offers and the promotion
of participants in continuing education. The education budget thus comprised a total
Euro 206.5 billion in 2017. This corresponds to 6.3 per cent of gross domestic product.
The Federation contributed a total 10.5 per cent to educational spending, the Länder
52.7 per cent, local authorities 16.4 per cent, the private sector 20.1 per cent and 0.3
per cent came from abroad. The payment transactions between the public budgets was
taken into account in this calculation.
Based on the internationally applied (ISCED) breakdown for education systems, of the
overall education expenditure in Germany pre-school education accounted for Euro 28.1
billion (Federation Euro 0.2 billion, Länder Euro 7.8 billion, local authorities Euro 14.8
billion, the private sector Euro 5.3 billion), schools and the associated areas accounted
for Euro 93.4 billion (Federation Euro 2.7 billion, Länder Euro 63.7 billion, local
authorities Euro 15.0 billion, the private sector Euro 12.0 billion), the tertiary sector for
Euro 38.3 billion (Federation Euro 6.2 billion, Länder Euro 25.5 billion, local authorities
Euro 0.1 billion, the private sector Euro 5.9 billion, and sources from abroad Euro 0.6
billion), and miscellaneous for Euro 2.5 billion (Federation Euro 0.1 billion, Länder Euro
2.1 billion, local authorities Euro 0.3 billion). Private household expenditure on
educational goods and services outside educational establishments totalled Euro 6.3
billion. The amount spent on promoting participants in ISCED courses of education was
Euro 12.7 billion (Federation Euro 7.6 billion, Länder Euro 3.8 billion, local authorities
Euro 1.3 billion).
Of the additional German expenditure related to education, in-company continuing
education, accounted for Euro 11.2 billion (Federation Euro 0.3 billion, Länder Euro 0.5
billion, local authorities Euro 0.3 billion, the private sector Euro 10.1 billion),
expenditure on other education offers Euro 7.4 billion (Federation Euro 2.5 billion,
Länder Euro 2.7 billion, local authorities Euro 1.3 billion, the private sector
Euro 1.0 billion) and the promotion of participants in continuing education by the
Federation Euro 1.6 billion.
In 2017 the total budget for education, research and science amounted to Euro 295.1
billion. This corresponds to 9.0 per cent of gross domestic product.
In-company training within the duales System, which is maintained by industry and by
other training companies and institutions, is mainly financed by the companies.
The Berufsschulen (vocational schools) which are, together with the training companies,
jointly responsible for education and training within the dual system receive public
financing.
3. Five Fountain heads of Japanese Philosophy
3.1 Shintō
Three major philosophical sources have fed into Japanese thought since ancient times up
through the present, two additional ones being added in modern times (that is, post-1868).
First has been Shintō. In its archaic form, especially before its contact with the literary
philosophical heritage of continental Asia, it is better termed proto-Shintō because it only
loosely resembles what we now know as Shintō. Institutional Shintō thought did not
significantly begin until the medieval period and today’s Shintō philosophy mostly originates
in the Native Studies tradition beginning in the eighteenth century. That trajectory of Shintō
doctrinal development continued with the rise of nationalism and ethnocentrism under the
rubric of Shrine Shintō, the institutional arm of State Shintō ideology, which cast a pall on
creative philosophical thinking from the early twentieth century until 1945. Postwar Japan
has witnessed a range of renewed Shintō philosophies, some in the direction of a return to
right-wing ideology, others toward a more liberalized version inspired by Western models of
liberal Christian theology and comparative religious scholarship.
Proto-Shintō Animism and Naturalism
Proto-Shintō lacked philosophical reflection and even self-conscious articulation but is so
named because today’s Shintō has often claimed (sometimes disingenuously) a resonance
with its main values, ritual forms, and world view. Dating back to preliterate times, proto-
Shintō was more an amalgam of beliefs and practices lending cohesion to early Japanese
communities. As such it largely resembled religions in ancient animistic and shamanistic
cultures found elsewhere in the world. Specifically, the material and spiritual were internally
related so as to form a continuous field wherein the human and the natural, both animate and
inanimate, were in an interactional, even communicative relation. Kami (often too
restrictively translated into English as “gods”) manifested the power (tama) to inspire awe
and could refer to anything ranging from a celestial deity to a ghost to a possessed human
being to a spirit within a natural object to a wondrous natural object itself (such as Mt Fuji)
to even a special manufactured object such as a sword. Although human interactions
with kami might be either beneficial or harmful, there was no duality or conflict between
good and evil forces. Even within human affairs wrongdoing was generally a violation or
transgression of a taboo, regardless of whether the acts were accidental or intentional. Since
criminality or sin was not a major consideration, the proper response was not so much guilt,
repentance, or rehabilitation, but instead ritual purification. Spiritual and political leadership
shared a common charisma allowing the political leader to serve sacerdotal roles in rituals
that brought the community benefits and warded off danger. The rituals, often shamanistic in
character, mediated the fluid boundaries between the heavens, this world, and the underworld
as well as the realms of the animate, inanimate, human, and natural.
Although, as far as we know, there was no self-reflective philosophizing per se in the
preliterate world of proto-Shintō, philosophical ideas introduced from abroad often took root
most deeply when they drew support from some of its basic ideas and values. For example,
proto-Shintō animism generally assumed we live in a world of internal relations where
various forces and things can be distinguished, but in the end, they are never discrete but
inherently interrelated in some way. Indeed because of that reciprocity, one might say the
world is not simply what we engage, but also something that engages us. As we define it, it
also defines us. Nothing is ever simply material without somehow also having some
spirituality; nothing is ever simply spiritual without somehow also having some materiality.
The ancient proto-Shintō creation myths recount how many parts of the physical world came
into being through involuntary divine parthenogenesis. For example, the sun and the moon—
both the physical objects and the celestial kami associated with each—came into being as the
effluent of Izanagi kami’s eyes when he purified himself in a river after being polluted by a
journey to the realm of the dead. This type of genesis narrative also supports an
understanding that every part of the physical world holographically reflects the pattern of
spiritual creativity on a cosmic level.
For proto-Shintō the intersection of the dualities—humanity/nature, spirit/matter, good/bad,
alive/dead, above/below, natural/cosmic—is almost always a preexistent intrinsic relation
that is not made but discovered, not fixed but evolving, not given but nurtured. In the final
analysis, reality is not a world of discrete things connected to each other, but more a field of
which we are part (a field often expressed by the indigenous word kokoro). This form of
relation applies to the word-reality relation as well. From what we know of proto-Shintō
ritual forms, it seems incantations played a central role in purification rites. In those
incantations the sounds of the words were, as in magical cultures elsewhere in the world,
thought to have special efficacy beyond the simple semantic meaning. Koto was a term for
both word and thing suggesting that words had the spiritual power (tama) to evoke, and not
simply refer to, a preexisting reality. Thus, the term kotodama (koto + tama) suggested an
onto-phonetic resonance reflecting internal relations among language, sound, and reality.
Although many such characteristics of proto-Shintō are found in other archaic animistic
cultures throughout the world, unlike many of those other locations, in Japan those ancient
sensitivities were not suppressed by the imposition of rationalistic philosophies from outside.
For example, the expansion of Christianity with its Greco-Roman philosophical analyses
drove underground many older animistic cultures (such as the Druids in the British Isles).
When the major philosophical traditions from continental Asia entered Japan, by contrast,
they did not take an oppositional stance toward the world view already in place within the
archipelago. Therefore, much of proto-Shintō’s organicism, vitalism, and the sensitivity to
the field of inter-responsive, internal, and holographic relations could survive within the
mainstream of Japanese thinking.

3.2 Confucianism
The impulse to philosophize in an organized fashion came to Japan in waves from
continental Asia: China, Korea, and indirectly India. Previously illiterate, in the fifth century
or so the Japanese started developing a writing system, using at first the Chinese language
for its base. Because Japanese and Chinese are linguistically unrelated and differ both
syntactically and phonetically, it took centuries for a Japanese writing system to evolve out
of the Chinese sinographs, in the meantime making Chinese the de facto written language.
As such, Chinese philosophical works served as textbooks for Japan’s study centers,
eventually transforming the culture beyond the parameters envisioned by the proto-Shintō
world view and forms of life.
Of the three classical “Ways” of traditional Chinese philosophy, namely, Daoism,
Confucianism, and Buddhism, only the latter two achieved independent prominence in
Japan. Daoism contributed to the proto-Shintō base a more sophisticated understanding of
the processes of natural change and a conceptual vocabulary for creative, responsive
engagement with reality through agenda-less activity (what the Chinese Daoists
called wuwei). For the most part, however, its influence was most obvious in the alchemical
arts, prognostication, and as a resource for occasional literary references. Admittedly, in the
medieval period some Daoist philosophical references appear in the language of the arts,
especially in theories of creativity, but they occur mainly within a Zen Buddhist context.
That is likely because before coming to Japan, Chinese Zen (Chan) had already assimilated
many Daoist ideas. In contrast with Daoism, however, Confucianism and Buddhism
maintained a presence throughout Japanese history as independent philosophical currents of
philosophy. Of the two, we consider Confucianism first. (See also the entry on Japanese
Confucian Philosophy.)
As the second fountainhead of Japanese philosophy, Confucianism entered the country as a
literary tradition from China and Korea beginning around the sixth and seventh centuries. By
then it already enjoyed a sophisticated continental philosophical heritage well over a
millennium old. Confucian philosophy in Japan underwent only minor changes until its
second wave in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries after which it experienced major
transformations as it became Japan’s dominant philosophical movement until the radical
changes brought by the modern period. With the Meiji Restoration of 1868, that is, with the
overthrow of the shogunate and the return of imperial rule, Confucianism receded somewhat
in its philosophical dominance, yielding to the rise of Western academic philosophy, State
Shintō ideology, and the secularized version of bushidō (Way of the warrior) as promulgated
in the educational program of National Morality. That is not to say, however, that
Confucianism did not continue to remain influential in its emphasis on scholarship, the
definition of hierarchical social roles, and general models of virtue.
The Confucian Social and Moral Order
From the time of their introduction into Japan, Confucian political, social, and ethical ideals
quickly transformed the structure of Japanese society. From the seventh century, texts
traditionally associated with Confucianism served as the core curriculum in the imperial
academy for the education of courtiers and bureaucratic officials. Politically, Confucian
ideology gave a sophisticated justification for an imperial state. Like proto-Shintō, it
recognized the charisma of the political ruler as both a chief ritual priest and mediator with
the celestial realm as well as the pinnacle of political authority. But Confucianism added to
the Japanese context a rich description of political and social roles that organized the society
into a harmonious network of interdependent offices and groups. Confucianism defined a
place for each person and a set of shifting roles and contexts to be performed with ritual
decorum.
So the proto-Shintō taboo structure was enhanced with a Confucian set of socially
appropriate behaviors. Once again, it was not a matter of moral mandates about good vs. evil,
however, but a description of role-based behaviors describing rightness as contrasted with
inappropriateness or impropriety. Those dimensions of Confucianism could be assimilated
into the proto-Shintō world view as useful elaborations and improvements, especially ones
that would enable the growth of a Japanese state that expanded beyond family and regional
clan regimes to become a central imperial state spanning the archipelago. Furthermore, as it
became aware of the high cultural achievements of its Korean and Chinese neighbors, Japan
could use Confucianism to participate in the East Asian cultural sphere defined by China and
the prestige accompanying that membership.
One striking exception to the adoption of the standard Confucian political philosophy was
that the Japanese ignored the principle of the mandate of heaven (tianming in Chinese) that
was central to the Chinese Confucian ideology of the state. In China the authority of the
emperor flowed from a celestial entitlement or command, a mandate that could be withdrawn
if the emperor no longer acted in accord with the Way (dao) or cosmic pattern (tianli). By
contrast, following their proto-Shintō sensitivities, the Japanese understood imperial
authority to derive primarily from the field that included the internal relations among heaven
and earth or the deities and the people, with the emperor’s being considered a direct
descendant of the celestial sun kami, Amaterasu. Indeed, proto-Shintō considered the relation
between the celestial kami, the emperor, and the people to be familial and in no way either
contractual or transcendent. Like a blood connection, all Japanese and the kami were,
through the emperor, internally related with each other such that the connections among
them could not be nullified.
Not having a philosophical tradition of its own, proto-Shintō did not so much argue against
or refute the Chinese idea of the mandate of heaven; it simply ignored it, however
fundamental it was to Confucian political theory. It is significant that no major Confucian
thinker, not even in the most ascendant period of Confucian philosophy under the Tokugawa
shogunate, vigorously argued that the mandate of heaven should supersede the Shintō
justification for imperial rule based in the function of the emperor as holographically
reflecting the ontological, inherent connection among the kami, the Japanese people, and the
physical land of Japan.
For the most part, Confucianism brought to proto-Shintō a new set of detailed ideas about
how to organize a harmonious hierarchical society in which roles of respect directed to those
above were reciprocated by roles of caring directed to those below. The analysis was that
society can be construed as constructed out of five binary relations: ruler-subject, parent-
child, husband-wife, senior-junior, and friend-friend. If those five relations are lived with
ritualized propriety and an attention to being appropriate to the roles they name (a praxis
called in Japanese seimei “trueing up the terms” or “the rectification of names”), harmony
will prevail not only in those relations but in the whole society constructed out of those
relations. An implication of the Confucian view of role-based ideals is that the sharp
separation between the descriptive and the prescriptive collapses. There is theoretically no
gap between knowing what a parent (or a ruler, or a husband …) is and the role that
person should perform. Thus, Confucianism can be understood as a type of ethico-political
utopianism, but it is emphatically insistent that it is based neither in speculation nor
rationalistic theory, but in historical paradigm. The prototype is found in the harmonious
society depicted in the ancient Chinese classics: the histories, the odes, and the rites that
inspired Confucius’s insights. It follows that the Way to become ethically and politically
accomplished is to study the classics and to model oneself after the ancient paradigms of the
roles exemplified by the sages of the past.

3.3 Buddhism
The third major fountainhead feeding into Japanese philosophy from ancient to
contemporary times has been Buddhism. With origins in India going back to the fifth
century BCE, Buddhist philosophy like Confucianism entered Japan via Korea and China in
the sixth and seventh centuries. In contrast with Confucianism, however, by the end of the
eighth century Buddhism emerged as the major focus of Japanese creative philosophical
development as imported Chinese Buddhist schools of thought were modified and new
Japanese schools developed. Buddhism continued its intellectual dominance until the
seventeenth century, then making way for the second wave of Confucian ideas that better
suited the newly risen urbanized, secular society under the control of the Tokugawa shoguns.
With notable exceptions, in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries Buddhist
intellectuals retreated from philosophical innovation to focus on institutional development,
textual studies, and sectarian histories. When Western philosophy surged into modern Japan
and its newly established secular universities, some influential Japanese philosophers saw
Buddhist ideas as the best premodern resource for synthesis with Western thought. In some
cases that entailed reformulating traditional Buddhist ideas in light of Western philosophical
categories. In other cases, philosophers used allocation, relegation, or hybridization to create
new systems that tried to assimilate Western ideas while maintaining aspects of traditional
Japanese values. That said, in the modern era under the ideology of State Shintō, Buddhism
as both a religion and a philosophy often suffered persecution and it was not until 1945 that it
was once again completely free to develop its theories openly without government
surveillance and censorship.
Buddhism and the Self-World Interrelation
Buddhism, with a millennium of philosophical roots going back to India and further
cultivated in China and Korea, brought to Proto-Shintō’s vague intuitions and inchoate belief
systems sophisticated analyses, multiple theoretical formulations and counterarguments
represented by a multitude of different schools of thought, and a rich new vocabulary
redolent with allusions to ideas and terms from Sanskrit, Pali, and Chinese. There were,
however, a few nearly universally accepted Buddhist themes that resonated well with the
Japanese preliterate context and have continued to influence major lines of Japanese thinking
throughout its history
First is the Buddhist claim that reality consists of a flow of interdependent, conditioned
events rather than independent, substantially existent things. Nothing exists in and of itself
and there is no unchanging reality behind the world of flux. The Buddha’s view was
formulated originally in opposition to an increasingly orthodox emphasis in Indian
philosophy at the time (roughly the 5th c. BCE) that favored the idea of a permanent reality
(Sanskrit: brahman) or Self (ātman) behind a world of apparent change. Thus, more than a
millennium later Buddhism came to Japan with fully developed, sophisticated analyses
supporting a world view that was essentially consistent with proto-Shintō’s unreflective
emphasis on internal relations, fluid boundaries, and a field of shifting events rather than
fixed things. Moreover, within the variety of Buddhist schools introduced into Japan by the
eighth century, there were further resources that could philosophically justify and elaborate
what had been rather inchoate assumptions of pre-Buddhist Japan. For example, the Japanese
Kegon (Chinese: Huayan) school had a rich philosophy of interdependence based in
holographic relations, which had probably been more a magical modality than philosophical
idea in the proto-Shintō consciousness. Kegon gave it a philosophical articulation and
justification.
A second Buddhist premise is that reality presents itself without illusion in its so-called as-
ness or thusness (nyoze; Sanskrit: tathatā). That premise contrasts with a widespread
orthodox Indian view (found in the Upaniśads and later Vedas, for example) that reality
continuously hides its true nature through illusion (Sanskrit: māyā). Still, according to
Buddhism, despite the lack of ontological illusions, we ordinarily almost never access reality
as it is because we project on it psychological delusions fueled by habituated stimulus-
response systems based in ignorance, repulsion, and desire. As a result, a major theme in
Buddhist philosophy is to understand the bodymind mechanisms of the inner self or
consciousness, to recognize how our emotions, ideas, mental states, and even philosophical
assumptions color our perceptions of reality. The problem is not illusions within reality, but
the self-delusions we mistake for reality. Buddhism brought to Japan not only an awareness
of the inner dynamics of experience, but also a collection of epistemological, psychological,
ethical, hermeneutic, and metaphysical bodymind theories and practices aimed at
understanding and eradicating those delusions. Without those delusions our bodymind would
be in accord with the way things are and we could live without the anguish created by trying
to live in a concocted reality we desire instead of reality as it is.
A third general Buddhist contribution to Japanese thought since ancient times is its theory of
volitional action or karma (gō). Every volitional thought, word, or deed has an impact on the
bodymind system such that present actions lead to propensities for future actions within that
system. Furthermore, karma is Janus-headed in its causality such that those present actions
are also in part conditioned by previous volitional actions as well. The result is that I affect
my surrounding conditions even as those surrounding conditions are affecting me. Thus, the
Buddhist theory of karmic action implies a field of interresponsive agency that is
paradoxically both individuated and systemic, both volitional and conditioned. That
paradigm has raised a number of issues and generated multiple theories by Japanese
Buddhist ethical and social philosophers through the centuries.

3.4 Western Academic Philosophy

The fourth major source of Japanese philosophy, the first of the two additional ones to enter
modern Japan, has been the aforementioned influx of Western philosophy into the
universities. As tetsugaku, Western philosophy became a standard discipline in the newly
established Japanese universities designed on Western models. The philosophy courses, like
most other subjects of Western origin, were initially taught by Westerners, mainly professors
from Germany and the United States who came to Japan to teach the discipline in their native
languages. To prepare students to benefit from that instruction, the government established a
comprehensive system of preparatory academies (“higher schools”) scattered throughout the
land in which the highly qualified were trained not only in the basic academic disciplines of
arts and sciences (both Western and East Asian) but also in the Western languages required
for university instruction. Then after completing training in philosophy at the Imperial
University (Tokyo Imperial University was the first, then several others were added in other
major cities around Japan), the most promising students were sometimes sent abroad to the
West for further study, after which time they could assume professorships back home. Thus,
as in other academic fields, philosophers in Japan were groomed in Western studies from
their early teenage years until their mid- or late twenties. As a result, their philosophical
education was truly global in scope.
Western Academic Philosophy and Modernization
Although Roman Catholic Christian thought was introduced by missionaries in the fifteenth
century, it had a short-lived influence of about a century before it was banned as part of the
closure of Japan to almost all foreign contact. Hence, the first strong and lasting impact of
Western philosophy came in the late nineteenth century. Although its impact has been broad
and difficult to summarize, a few key points are especially noteworthy.
First, in the two or three centuries preceding the modern period, Confucianism and its secular
academies dominated the philosophical scene. Since Confucian philosophy placed a
premium on the mastery of classic historical texts and given the etymology of the
neologism tetsugaku, it is probably not surprising that the study of the history of Western
thought was one pillar of the Japanese philosophy curriculum. Many young philosophers
could read the original texts in English, German, or French and sometimes also in Greek or
Latin. For a wider audience, there was a major publication effort to translate major Western
philosophical works into Japanese. With Japan’s new openness to Western ideas,
modernization, and the democracy promised in the Meiji Constitution of 1889, there was
initially an attraction to the liberal political ideas of Rousseau and J. S. Mill, for example.
Second, the stress on urgent technological and scientific development as well as the chance
to break free from the canonicity of Confucianism (and to a lesser extent Buddhism) led to
an almost immediate interest in Comte’s positivism and Mill’s utilitarianism. With the new
emphasis on mathematics and science, there was also an interest in the new (still
“philosophical”) field of experimental psychology represented by Wilhelm Wundt and
William James.
In the long run, however, German philosophy, especially German idealism had the most
lasting and deep influence. This was partly a fortuitous connection brought about by the
close association formed in the late nineteenth century between Tokyo Imperial University
and Germany. Not only were some key early foreign professors at Tokyo from Germany, but
also Germany became the favored location for sending Japanese philosophy students for
foreign study. Another factor was the modernization strategy of Japanese government and
intellectual leadership. To modernize as quickly as possible, a Western country was
identified as the model to emulate for each academic field. For example, for medicine and
physics, Germany was the target; for government bureaucracy, France; for agricultural
science and public education for school children, the United States. Once the decision was
made, urgency made it difficult to change direction. And Germany was chosen for
philosophy. In that context even more than Plato or Descartes, Kant was considered the key
figure for the founding of tetsugaku. He had settled the challenge of Hume’s skeptical stance
toward science, saved us from scholastic theological metaphysics by establishing critical
philosophy and the antinomies, as well as given direction––either positive or negative—to
the development of Fichte’s philosophical anthropology, Hegel’s dialectical thinking,
Schopenhauer’s and Nietzsche’s Will, Kierkegaard’s subjectivism, and the later school of
neo-Kantianism. At least that became the mainstream view among the majority of Japan’s
early twentieth-century philosophers.

3.5 Bushidō (The Way of the Warrior)

The fifth fountainhead of Japanese philosophy did not originate from abroad but bubbled up
from within Japan itself in the modern period: bushidō, the Way of the warrior. Although
there had been edifying handbooks and martial codes in Japan for centuries preceding the
modern period, bushidō was formalized only in the modern period as a school of thought
with a political, ethical, and ethnic ideology in service of the state. Loyalty was originally a
generalized lower-order Confucian virtue but bushidō gave it a special meaning by linking it
directly to the emperor and the holographic paradigm supporting the imperial system in State
Shintō. The emphasis on dying as the fullest expression of loyalty seems to have been most
foregrounded in 1701 with the famous Akō Incident of the Forty-seven Masterless Samurai,
later valorized in popular literature and dramatic performances. A contributing factor in that
cult of death may have been the emphasis on the death of the ego-self in Zen Buddhism, a
locution used by Rinzai Zen masters in training unemployed samurai who joined the
monastery during the centuries of the Tokugawa peace. In addition bushidō emphasized the
value of makoto, genuineness or trustworthiness, a term with originally Shintō connotations.
Added to those native influences was the imported nineteenth-century European ideologies
of ethnic virtue, the purity of a given race of people as constituting the basis for a nation
state.
Bushidō  and National Morality
Bushidō philosophy is, therefore, a true hybrid of Confucian, Buddhist, Shintō, and European
parentage. Ideologically it claimed to have been a philosophy of the Japanese people harking
back to ancient times but its parentage is clearly nineteenth century. Because of its hybridity,
however, its history was occluded and its tenets were couched in terms deemed traditional
but often given nuances they had not had previously. Hence, bushidō was almost impervious
to philosophical critique, especially when it was protected by government censorship and
institutionalized in the mandatory national educational curriculum for school children called
National Morality. In an important sense it is not at all a philosophical stream comparable to
the others, but its impact should not be overlooked because it did affect the flow (and the
 stagnation) of the other streams for the first half of the twentieth century. That brings us to an
overview of the eddies and cross-currents of the five streams in Japanese history.
https://www.academia.edu/41051287/Philosophy_of_Education_in_Germany

Secondary Schools

Here is where the system gets more complex and confusing. Before going to
grade 5, parents have to choose the type of school their child will attend.

Basically there are three types and are based, in theory, on the education track
that is the best match for the student.

Gymnasium – A college preparatory educational track for “bright” students.

Realschule – An educational path designed for average students and those

that seem likely to pursue middle or upper level white-collar jobs.

Hauptschule – Designed to provide the skills and knowledge or trade and

blue-collar jobs.

While it is possible to change educational paths, it does not happen often.

Many consider the system far from perfect and have introduced programs and
legislation to do away with the system that many view as being grossly
unequal and one that creates a class-based society, and have started schools
which are open to all students. However, these schools still tend to segregate
the students using the same criteria which does little to solve the inherent
problems.

General facts about the German Education System

 School is compulsory for children from age 6 to 15 years old.

 Home schooling is illegal.
 Germans feel that public education is a vital element for society to work
well. Due to this widely held belief, there are less than 3,000 private schools in
the entire country.