ABSTRACT
In Germany, educational issues are under the purview of the federal states, and many of them have decided to combine Hauptschule and Realschule into comprehensive schools that offer several types of school-leaving certificates. For decades, school policy in Germany has involved debate over the merits and disadvantages of its three-tiered educational system. Germany has a welfare system which prefers supporting those who already have a position in society, such as adults in the work force. What is left by the wayside, in comparison to other countries, is a strategy to strengthen and support society at large by means of greater investments in the education system and youth – those who have yet to achieve something. A “status fatalist” is someone who believes that they are unable to improve their economic situation through their own efforts. These young people cannot avoid the feeling that they are marginalized.
