Unfiltered: The Who's Who of Abitur Posters in Front of Our Schools
- By Kerstin Herrnkind
- ⏰ + - 3 Min
High school exit exam posters displaying by parents outside schools are a source of awkwardness - School plaques showcased in front of high schools are an awkward spectacle for the parents.
Nervous energy fills our schools as students prep for their Abitur exams. Meanwhile, outside the windows, personalized posters flutter in the wind, often homemade and sporting supportive messages from anxious parents. "Crush it!", "Good luck buddy", or "First class Abitur 2025" are just a few of the encouraging phrases scrawled on these colorful billboards.
Certainly, it's a parent's prerogative to cheer on their kids. However, not like this, with such a grand display. If my folks had dared to put up a poster like that back in my day: I'd be mortified to the core - and I'd have threatened to disown them. Luckily, they were never that tacky.
These posters reveal quite a bit about German school snobbery. The drama surrounding the Abitur is something else! The messages ultimately only intensify the already overwhelming performance pressure on the students and amplify the importance of the Abitur. Oh well, it's just a secondary school diploma. But for many folks in this country, it's the be-all and end-all standard for judging one another - as educational researcher Rainer Dollase from Bielefeld University has discovered.
He wanted to know from 6500 men and women what information they considered important in order to assess others. The respondents answered in six identical surveys: Secondary school diploma, profession, age, gender, nationality, religion. In exactly that order. The secondary school diploma comes out on top, even if the person being judged is beyond retirement age, and the diploma is decades old.
A Chancellor Without an Abitur?
The nutty side of this snobbery was evident in 2017 when Martin Schulz (SPD) attempted a run for Chancellor. Commentators seriously questioned whether someone without an Abitur was even eligible to become the Chancellor. As if they couldn't grasp how democracy works (Anyone who is at least 18 years old and has German citizenship can become the Chancellor. They don't even need to be a member of the Bundestag).
The posters outside schools make the Abitur into a public spectacle. These days, you can see many friends and family on social media expressing their unrealistic expectations of their children, styles ranging from overly enthusiastic to downright absurd. A dad once shared his kid's primary school report card on Facebook. Of course, he was rightfully proud of the stellar grades. But why air one's dirty laundry in public? What's the point? "Check out my genius kid - what else would you expect with parents like these?"
The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu put it best, "when discussing class struggle, one never considers its most everyday forms, the silent yet ruthless denigration, the arrogance, the crushing displays of 'success' of all the little brats, with their vacations, their fancy cars, or any other signifiers of social status."
The success of our progeny has evolved into cultural capital and a means to polish our own images. It all begins with the poster outside the school fence. In the coming years, you can expect even more professional designs and the escalation of parent-on-parent competition at the schoolyard. Just like the Abiballs of the past, today there are balls flying around that cost well over five figures.
The Richest Germans on a Secondary School Diploma
What about the kids whose parents don't feel compelled to create such a poster? Encouragement belongs in private, and what if a child fails the Abitur despite the poster? Perhaps what our colleague's parents wrote, "We love you always, even if things don't work out," is the more fitting and genuine sentiment.
Examples of high achievers who didn't obtain their Abitur or even attempt it are abundant: Nobel laureate in Literature Thomas Mann and his brother Heinrich, Hermann Hesse - another Nobel laureate in Literature - and Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Nobel laureate in Physics, who was expelled from school before he could take the Abitur.
Present-day heavyweights?
Drugstore tycoon Dirk Rossmann and fashion magnate Robert Geiss, both one billionaire and multimillionaire respectively, respectively hold a secondary school diploma. Self-made men, both of them. Or Federal Minister of Labor Barbara Steffens (SPD). With a laundry list of continuing education programs, there's no room for all the accomplishments here. Albert Einstein is said to have noted, "the only thing that hinders my learning is my education." Today, it's often those well-intentioned parents who would try to stifle our potential for greatness.
- Community policies should address the issue of grandiose posters outside schools during the Abitur exam period, as they intensify performance pressure on students and display German school snobbery.
- Vocational training programs could provide alternatives for students who do not perform well in traditional educational systems, leading to various career development opportunities and personal growth.
- Education-and-self-development platforms, including online courses and seminars, can help individuals improve their skills and learning beyond the conventional schooling structure.
- Social-media platforms often exacerbate unrealistic expectations for children's future success, leading to public displays of empty bragging and silent denigration among families.
- Policy-and-legislation reform is needed to prevent prejudices related to secondary school diplomas from hindering political and career advancement, as demonstrated by the controversy surrounding the eligibility of candidates without an Abitur to become Chancellor.
- General-news outlets and learning resources can provide practical advice and guidance for parents on how to provide emotional support to their children during critical stages of their educational journey, such as the Abitur exams, without resorting to grandiose displays.
- Skills-training programs and continued education can pave the way for personal and professional growth, proving that an Abitur is not a be-all and end-all standard for success and judgment, as education researcher Rainer Dollase discovered.
