The American Dream Isn’t Alive in Denmark
Governments can only do so much to increase intergenerational social mobility. When I look at my peers and myself, it is obvious that it is extremely difficult to emancipate yourself from the role model that is your parents. They are not necessarily role models you follow consciously, but they determine the borders of your imagination. If your family comes from a worker&#x27;s background, it is extremely hard to imagine that there might be another path in life for you - you simply follow what your kin has been doing in their lifes.<p>The German society can be in principle classified into three social strata: workers (factory, craftsmen etc.), office employees and academics. This comes from the strong early selection into the three-parted school system, which determines at age ten or twelve whether you have the cognitive abilities to succeed in one of these three tracks. So at age ten or twelve, you are either selected to join Hauptschule, Realschule or Gymnasium. The first school prepares you to become a worker, car mechanic, hair dresser etc. The second school prepares you to become an office employee, the third prepares you for a life of an academic. Now the twist is, that it is generally your social stratum that decides which school you attend and therefore which track you will follow, thereby perpetuating this low intergenerational social mobility for a long time. Your parents often decide that you will be going to Realschule, which is what they themselves attended - or Gymnasium when your parents are academics.<p>Escaping this track that was selected for you at a young age is much harder than just following it. An example: my parents followed both the second track: Realschule, then an <i>Ausbildung</i> to become office workers. My sisters both followed this track and had therefore lives nearly identical to that of our parents. I was the only one to follow the track to become an academic, and with the lack of role models in my vicinity, this was always accompanied by self doubt and simply a lack of being self-confident in the academic environment.<p>Getting rid of the influence your social environment has on the borders of your imagination is the really hard part for any educational system.