According to news reports, one out of every three elementary age school children in Bavaria are unable to speak German well enough to attend classes. It is worst in in the city of Augsburg, where two-thirds
of first-graders lack competence in German language skills even to understand the teacher to understand
what is being taught and they cannot read German. Children who lack appropriate competence in German language skills must take remedial classes. In the case of Germany, the problem is laid at immigration and the lack of integration of immigrants into German language and culture.
The blame cannot be laid upon the children but upon the adults. On the one hand, there is the false ideal of a nation in which people speak their own language and have their own culture side by side with the language and culture of the nation itself. On the other hand is the problem of immigration which is necessary for nations with low birth rates and the need for younger workers but if this is at the cost of parallel cultures and languages which keeps them separate but equal, it is in the end the worst form of discrimination.
This also illustrates the universal problem of requiring schools to do other things than the educational agenda which is their primary purpose. How can a school succeed in its primary purpose if it is saddled with the impossible task of respecting those who have another primary language and the language of the classroom is but secondary? For years German schools were lauded as examples of success in both teaching and requiring higher educational accomplishment from their student population than American but now it appears that their success has become the price they must pay to preserve the ideal of immigrants who can live on the fringes of the language and culture of their new home country.
It is not only America which has required a common commitment to morals, ideals, language, culture, and work and family values of their past for those new to their borders. No matter how much it is derided by the left, a commonality of culture and life is part of the fabric of every fruitful nation. Soon, the Germans will awaken to this as Americans have. The problem is that the homeschooling movement is not an option there nor is there in place a strong option in the religious schools -- as these options exist here.
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Herein is a fictional scenario: The setting is Rome during the latter decades of the Empire: One Roman citizen complains to his friend as they sit on the steps of a piazza, sipping wine. There is a fountain in view, and a statue of Caesar nearby. People are walking by. “You know, Atticus, things have really changed around here. Anybody can be a Roman now, even those wild eyed Goths and those Germanic barbarians from the north. Nobody speaks Latin much either. All those foreigners. The children don’t know anything either. Nobody remembers the history of our city. Ask someone about the Etruscans! All you get is a blank stare. I think the Empire is falling apart!” Does this fictional conversation remind us of where we are today? I think it is a trend which happens when demographics change and political and social thinking are rewired by human cultures. Prosperity breeds laziness too. Selfishness feeds social malaise. Pluralism may not bring unity, but often causes tribalism. Different groups can form a coalition under a unifying set of rules, but this too can unravel. The only unifying hope is the Gospel. Civilizations rise, crash, and burn, but the society which attaches itself to the wisdom from above, with reverence towards God, with belief in His Son, can prevail. Soli Deo Gloria
The minimum child replacement rate to sustain a stable population is 2.1 children per woman. Here are some average child replacement rates in the U.S., Germany and in other parts of the world:
U.S.: 1.7
Germany: 1.4
India: 1.9
Brazil: 1.65
Japan: 1.15
Russia: 1.4
Taiwan: 1.0
Australia: 1.5
Pakistan: 3.6
Africa: 4.5
Third- and fourth-world countries typically have higher average number of children per woman because they also have higher infant mortality rates.
This may be why, in the past decade, some first- and second-world countries have allowed with (nearly) no restrictions illegal aliens to come in across their borders. The (typically U.S.) notion is that the melting pot effect will assimilate these people from the different alien cultures. With increased crime rates and, as you noted, the sharp decline in educational abilities, this "melting pot" notion is now seen as totally delusional and is resulting in a country's moral decline.
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