In order to succeed in school, any student has to learn both the official curriculum and the hidden (social) curriculum. The hidden curriculum is often an outgrowth of the structure within which the student is asked to learn. The school is a “miniature society” and many individuals fail in school because they are either unable or unwilling to learn or use the values, attitudes, and skills contained in the hidden curriculum. Schools do a great disservice to students when they make them feel that they have failed in education when they have only failed to conform to the school’s socialization standards.
In Europe, many school systems soon branch apart into parallel but unequal tracks. – Academic and social levels – typically followed by the children in different social classes. In Switzerland, after attending for grades of Primarschule, children are separated in three groups based on academic achievement. The lowest performers finish out their compulsory education in primarschule and then usually take up apprenticeships for entry in the manual trades. The middle groups’ advances into sekundarschule and from there usually into private schools for advance training in business and management. The most academic gifted students attend progymnasium fo five years, then usually advance gymnasium for four more years.
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