Observations placeholder
Einstein, Albert - On schooling
Identifier
027669
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. What I hated most was the competitive system there, and especially sports. Because of this, I wasn't worth anything, and several times they suggested I leave. This was a Catholic School in Munich. I felt that my thirst for knowledge was being strangled by my teachers; grades were their only measurement. How can a teacher understand youth with such a system?"
— In a conversation with William Hermanns, later published in Einstein and the Poet: In Search of the Cosmic Man, 1983