10-29-03
FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR BRINGS STUDENTS A NEW VIEW
Students in Dr. Greg Fowler's American literature and American studies classes at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, are getting a more global view of America from their professor, a Fulbright Scholar who recently returned from a year of teaching at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University in Berlin.
"Living in Berlin for a year gave me a real appreciation for the generational differences the German people are facing," said Fowler. "The generation coming of age after the fall of the Berlin Wall does not remember a separated Germany, but for the rest, it is very hard to integrate a society that has been separated for fifty years. After the Civil War Americans probably felt the same about the Mason-Dixon Line." Fowler's research while in Germany focused on these generational differences as well as the cultural differences between Germans from the east and west.
In addition to teaching for two semesters, Fowler gave lectures, training seminars, and conference presentations throughout Germany on behalf of the American Embassy and the German-American Institutes. During Thanksgiving week 2002 he visited Lutherstadt-Wittenberg and gave a series of five lectures over a three-day period at Martin Luther University.
"Germany is a nation undergoing tremendous change," Fowler said. "Many of those who lived in East Germany and East Berlin, especially the younger people, have moved to the western part of the nation, expecting to improve their standard of living. The resulting population shift is dramatic."
German higher education is much different than American colleges and universities, Fowler reports. In Germany university courses are free, and students are not required to register. They attend classes, take the exams, and receive a Schein, or certificate, indicating successful completion of the course. After presenting the appropriate number of Schein to the university, students receive a degree. Many of Fowler's German colleagues own a binder filled with Schein as evidence of their academic achievements.
"Because the government pays for tuition, there is no strong push for students to complete their degrees in the traditional four years," said Fowler. "Because unemployment is at 18 percent and jobs are scarce, many are making a career of school." This is slowly beginning to change, he says, and some universities are considering charging a small tuition.
Poverty is a problem in Germany, according to Fowler, but it's a different kind of poverty from that which we experience in the United States. Under the German form of government, workers pay taxes greater than 50 percent of their incomes, but their education, medical care, and many other needs are met by the government. In spite of the high level of taxation, the German government is struggling to keep up.
"Germany is a good place to be if you are very rich, and you can afford the high taxes, or very poor and need help," Fowler said. "But it's bad for the middle class."
In addition to teaching, Fowler served as a member of the Fulbright commission's selection board which selects German student-scholars to travel to the United States. He also persuaded faculty at Penn State's University Park Campus to take part in the Fulbright commission's Teacher Exchange Linkage Program, which invited German teachers here to learn more about American language and culture. In addition to all this, Fowler published three scholarly articles during his year abroad.
Contact:
Loretta Brandon
814-898-6063 (O)
E-mail: lzb6@psu.edu