Frankly ... visual
Competition of the agave syrup squad

The Federal Youth Games are an integral part of German schooling - and are now to be reformed. Critics see this as a decline in the performance mindset. Susi Bumms is a fan of the so-called “softly softly approach to education” and gives everyone a certificate of honour.

Every year, on a weekday in Germany, teachers pull whistles, stopwatches and measuring tapes out of their pockets and put sun hats on their heads. It’s “ready, steady, go” for the Federal Youth Games!

Whistle and stopwatch day | © Susi Bumms For those of you who have not had the pleasure of participating in this event, the Federal Youth Games is a compulsory sports competition in which German school children from years 1 to 10 are “measured” in various athletic disciplines – high jump, long jump, shot-put, sprint. After lots of hanging around and little physical activity, the children leave the sports field at the end of the day with a certificate of participation, certificate of achievement or a “certificate of honour” – and quite often sunburn.

Don’t-get-sunburnt competition | © Susi Bumms In 2023, a reform was announced for years 1 to 4 to make the games more of a challenge than a competition. This is because there is increasingly strong criticism that this form of competition does not promote children’s enjoyment of physical fitness, but leaves them feeling demotivated.

The planned changes to the Federal Youth Games have become the subject of political debate and vociferous newspaper reports. They speak of the triumph of “the softly softly approach to education”, of mediocrity and the “German demise”.
But will little Matze from Class 4b miss his chance to become an Olympic shot-putter just because he didn’t get his certificate of honour? Probably not. So what is this really all about?

Triumph of the “softly softly” approach to education – at least there are winners here | © Susi Bumms Opponents of the reform see in it a decline in the performance mindset and, as a consequence, a decline in performance generally. They provide an analysis that currently seems to be enjoying great popularity. Whether we’re discussing the four-day week or whether German track and field athletes’ fail to bring home a medal from the World Championships, entire generations are labelled unwilling to perform, and collective terms are being creatively coined to describe them. My undisputed favourite: the agave syrup squad (Excerpt from: Mitarbeiter gesucht! Warum fehlt überall Personal? | Am Puls; ZDF).

Agave syrup squad doing the high jump | © Susi Bumms In my opinion, these popular analyses of the decline in performance expectations say more about the people doing the analyses than about the people they are trying to analyse. Some have an unabashed need to associate a person’s worth with their achievements, with others it’s less obvious. In this article, however, the winner is … the “softly softly approach to education”. Do you want to receive the highest award, a certificate of honour, too? Here you are! You can print it out and fill it in yourself: