414 EMMANUEL DROIT AND WILFRIED RUDLOFF
computers for an entire class, most of which had been installed in special
computer rooms; usually, however, two to three children had to share
one computer during lessons.^91 But just because schools had computers
does not mean that they were regularly used in classroom teaching.^92 An
expert report written for the Special Committee on the Future of Educa-
tion Policy of the German Bundestag came to the conclusion at the end
of the 1980s that West Germany had achieved a standard comparable to
that of other advanced industrial societies in Western Europe in terms of
computer science education, although the same could not be said for the
use of modern media and transmission systems.^93
Civic and Political Education
From the very beginning, both German school systems placed a high
priority on civic and political education. In the 1970s, hefty public de-
bates erupted over this subject in West Germany. With the move of some
protagonists to adopt a defi nition of civic education highly informed by
confl ict theories that focused on emancipation, self-determination, and
critical thinking abilities, the tone of the debate took on an unprece-
dented edginess. Especially the “General Guidelines for Social Studies
Instruction” for the lower secondary school level^94 in Hessen had created
quite a political stir since 1972. It established a new subject that was
supposed to integrate what used to be the separate subjects of civics,
history, and geography. Critics such as Hermann Lübbe and Thomas Nip-
perdey accused the authors of these guidelines of pursing a one-sided
agenda that was interested only in revealing particular aspects of power,
class, and domination in order to expose social inequality and situations
of confl ict while ignoring the necessary basic consensus about the politi-
cal order as well as the general commitment to freedom, rule of law, and
tolerance that underpinned society.^95 In particular, they objected to the
comparatively uncritical presentation of the GDR as a neutral alternative
system. The fi ght over these guidelines in countless newspaper articles,
discussion events, letters to the editor, parliamentary debates, and pam-
phlets contributed to the sore losses suff ered by the SPD in the election
in Hesse in 1974, as well as to the replacement of the state’s minister of
education, Ludwig von Friedeburg. In the end, a distinctly milder version
of these guidelines actually took eff ect.^96
As in Hesse, the guidelines proposed for political science instruction
in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1973/74 were also pulled into the whirl-
wind of political debate. Here again, critics charged that the understand-
ing of politics adopted in this proposal was too narrowly focused on a