High school is where a select few get to be popular just before they spend the rest of their lives pumping gas and waiting tablets for a living. Germany, as on

High school is where a select few get to be popular just before they spend the rest of their lives pumping gas and waiting tablets for a living. Germany, as one example, actually separates out their high school system is split. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Germany > German secondary education includes four types of school. The Gymnasium is designed to prepare pupils for university education and finishes with the final examination Abitur, > after grade 12 or 13. The Realschule has a broader range of emphasis for intermediate pupils and finishes with the final examination Mittlere Reife, after grade 10; the Hauptschule > prepares pupils for vocational education and finishes with the final examination Hauptschulabschluss, after grade 9 or 10 and the Realschulabschluss after grade 10. There are two types > of grade 10: one is the higher level called type 10b and the lower level is called type 10a; only the higher level type 10b can lead to the Realschule and this finishes with the final > examination Mittlere Reife after grade 10b. This new path of achieving the Realschulabschluss at a vocationally-oriented secondary school was changed by the statutory school > regulations in 1981 - with a one-year qualifying period. During the one-year qualifying period of the change to the new regulations, pupils could continue with class 10 to fulfil the > statutory period of education. After 1982, the new path was compulsory, as explained above. Other than this, there is the Gesamtschule, which combines the approaches. There are also > Förderschulen/Sonderschulen. One in 21 pupils attends a Förderschule.[2][3] Nevertheless the Förderschulen/Sonderschulen can also lead, in special > circumstances, to a Hauptschulabschluss of both type 10a or type 10b, the latter of which is the Realschulabschluss. Perhaps the reason that high school is so disconnected to the rest of life is that everyone goes through the same system. After that, you go to college (or not). Whether or not you go, to what school you go and what you study is largely merit-based. The private education system is better in some ways but isn't merit-based. It's largely a function of the economic circumstances of the students' parents.