>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,

>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 problem I have with this is: one of these is not like the others. The mental ability needed to be a good mechanic is much greater, I think, than what you need to be a factory worker or a hairdresser. This is especially true with modern cars, which are really technological marvels and highly complex systems. There's a reason they're calling these people "automotive technicians" now instead of just "mechanics". Here in the US, you generally need to go to a rather expensive trade school to learn to be a certified mechanic, and then you have to get the certification (from ASE usually). Most regular office workers would not be able to handle it, I think. Even a lot of scientists and engineers seem to have trouble understanding details of how cars work. It's certainly a more hands-on and dirtier job than the office worker and academic roles, but it's not something you can do if you're a complete idiot, whereas any moron can be trained for a simple factory job, or to wash peoples' hair, or flip burgers.