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Maybe you’re familiar with the “harmoS” proposal to harmonize the Swiss school system? The idea is about having the same goals, rules, education time and all-day care for primary schools in Switzerland from Kindergarten to the last obligatory grade. I’m asking myself why this doesn’t apply since Pestalozzi founded the modern school system. However, there are many fears and arguments against harmonization. Some amusing detail from the opposition:

Scary, isn’t it. Let’s see what will happen to Nina and Ben (on the above picture) in a few years (it’s so funny to play the same dirty tricks):

The main opponents are members from SVP who claim that parents best know what’s good for their children. Sure, there are many parents who do know, and I bet those are voting pro “harmoS”.

Here is my point of view on “what’s best for our children”, as simple as possible.
The future of Switzerland, Europe, the world and outer space is defined by all living and at least one dead generation. Most influence comes from the working part of the population because they actively create and maintain the economical system. Nina and Ben are so called Millennials, a generation growing up with computers, respecting the nature, etc. Hence, the really basic skills are already there. What skills will they need to be successful in this world to finally pay daddy’s rent?
Economy is basically Darwinism. Be faster, smarter, more attractive, more convincing, risk-taking, louder (in a constructive way), self conscious, etc. This hasn’t changed for the time mankind exists. However, some competences are becoming more important in the near future. They have to do with globalization (which happens anyway, dear opponent of harmoS) and most importantly these are good foreign language skills, openness to other people and systems, diplomatic skills, etc.
And now comes the bad part about Darwinism (not for all of us): Children of people who were successful in the past will be successful in the future with a higher chance than others - due to heredity, conditioning, education. This implies unequal preconditions: Kids growing up in socially poor families have smaller success rate than others. Maybe the opponents of harmoS even like this fact, because their privileged kids have less competition (or will take over daddy’s farm anyway). And somebody has to clean our dirty roads, anyway, right?

I really hope that some day we will have equal opportunities for everybody, independently of social origin.

Last week, Westside opened up in the western part (hence the name) of Bern. As an early adopter of (almost everything, but especially) shopping malls, I went there on Saturday and on Sunday and I love the place already. Especially the Trophy Shop (by Intersport) has a great and unusual selection of sports wear. With a total of over 50 shops it’s my new favorite place to spend bad-weather-Saturdays. To complete the picture of a perfect mall there’s a spa, some movie theaters, some food courts and last but not least: A Lindt & Spruengli Store full of Luxemburgerlis.

Of course, you also have to know, where NOT to go. It’s best to completely avoid the cosmetic sections of Globus and Douglas, where you hear the same question over and over again: “Can I show you our new-season make-up? This winter we wear natural colors and set some highlights with lipgloss..”. Anyway, who is “we”? I look like I look on purpose, not because I have forgotten to put some make-up. What I wear this winter is the same as always: Softshell, Goretex, long underpants and either a snowboard, skis or snow shoes.

The new job is great: No 35 phone calls while absent, no 120 new mails on Monday morning, no internal politics and best of all - no endless powerpoints and excel sheets.

Commuting is fun with the right tools: iPod for music, iPod touch for gaming, Mac World for reading and most importantly: acer aspire one running kubuntu - well, not always running but that’s my fault.