Social issues

„Schools are saturated with ideology“

The new Syllabus for high schools wants to improve the world. Critics warn of indoctrination, and some cantons have already expressed opposition

by Nadja Pastega, Journalist at the SonntagsZeitung

(5 April 2024) Reading, writing and arithmetic are no longer enough. Schools are getting more and more tasks. The draft for a new framework Syllabus is now available for the Swiss A-level schools. It is 136 pages long. In an earlier version there were even 400 pages.

Germany

Taurus threatens us all

No delivery, no further war escalation!

Craftsmen for Peace,* Dessau-Rosslau

(5 April 2024) With French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement not to rule out the use of NATO troops and plans by some hardliners to use Taurus cruise missiles against Russia, war in Donbass looms to expand in Europe. Whatever the opinion on this war, facts remain the same for both supporters and opponents of Taurus missiles’ delivery:

Good morning in the “Brave New World”

The media are failing as a guarantor of democracy

by Thomas Scherr*

(29 March 2024)We live in a bubble. A medial bubble. In a media bubble of the “Western values”. We now know almost nothing about the world around us. Maybe the weather report is still correct. But even there we can expect “extreme weather”, “heat waves” and “…the hottest winter/spring/summer/autumn since 1970/1950/1900 or since measurements began …”. Temperature information, pollen reports and information about wind direction are approximately correct. That's it. This situation is all the more bitter because we have to be well informed in the face of a worsening world situation.

Abolition of cash = abolition of sovereignty

by Marita Brune-Koch

(22 March 2024) It is so convenient to pay with your card, to carry out all your banking transactions from home, to pay on the train or bus with an application. As part of the anti-Covid measures, we were taught that we should make even small payments without cash, since this was more hygienic. Why still use cash? In fact, we are facing strong attempts at the national and international level to eliminate cash. When looking at it more closely, we see that these efforts are not really aimed at the comfort and security of citizens.

PISA-Results

Critisism is getting louder

Everyone wants to do well in PISA, as if that were good education policy

by Michael Felten,* Germany

(16 March 2024) In Germany, more and more voices are criticising the global school performance study PISA and its consequences. In February 2024, for example, the German Philologists’ Association suggested withdrawing from this process altogether. Among the well-known critics is Rainer Kaenders,** the top maths teacher trainer at the University of Bonn.

Warmongers unwanted!

Speech by Jürgen Rose,* Germany

Dear participants,
dear friends of peace!

(9 March 2024) It is a great honour that so many of you have come here today to set an example for peace in the world, even though it takes a lot of energy and courage to stand up in these times of omnipresent and all-encompassing war and claims of victory and raise your voices against the mass murder on the “killing fields” of this world. Especially as people like us are often bluntly defamed as “shoddy pacifists” by numerous political and journalistic claqueurs of war, who conversely would probably be most aptly dubbed “rogue militants”.