Something like the current strikes by the Education and Science Union for higher recognition and pay in teaching and education would have been wished for 250 years ago. The potential was already there, but a representation of educators was not. Private tutors in noble families were often treated particularly shabbily. In Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz's “Hofmeister”, there is hardly anything left of the three hundred ducats required for poor Magister Läuffer. In the first round, the annual salary is reduced to 150, no 140, which means 400 in three years, because that makes a smooth sum. Major von Berg negotiates but cannot do the math, condescendingly calls the Hofmeister “he” and rounds off his salary every year. His brother, Berg's Secret Council, thinks little of all of this.He prefers to send his son to public school, which parodies the "advantages of private education" announced in the comedy 's subtitle once and for all.
Fortunately, even back then, some had the insight that investments in education pay off directly in prosperity and happiness. No other evidence is shown today by all OECD statistics in a comparison of its 38 member states. This seems to have long been known in Christian Fürchtegott Gellert's fable “The Informator”. In contrast to the noble major at Lenz, a farmer is literally smart enough to pay his tutor more than three times as much as required. Because he wants to "like to see his two sons clever and honest", they seem to the informator even more talented than most Junkers. The father likes to listen to the lessons and holds the teacher "immensely in honor".
In response to the modest wage demand, he replies that such services are firstly “sour”, secondly, they earn significantly more than the work of his servants, thirdly, they should be increased from year to year because the education “benefits the children throughout their lives”.
Should we really not understand this clear and simple teaching, which Daniel Chodowiecki impressively illustrated for a pocket calendar in 1792, in our country?
Even the authoritarian ruled China shows us how to do it with a lot of money: In the Ocean University Qingdao, Francis Bacon welcomes you to the library with the message “Knowledge is Power” in huge golden characters.