​A day in the life of....


1. how does this life compare that that of yours when you were 12?

Its a pretty big difference. I normally woke up at the same time and ate breakfast. I did have a uniform to wear to school every day. My school started at the same time, but ended much later, at 3:00. While hanging out with friends was an option after school, I normally went home, completed my homework(which is a small amount in comparison to a German child's), then hung out with my friends. Lunch, eaten in school, was small. Dinner was usually my largest meal of the day. 

2. What was most surprising about your findings?

The shortness of the school day. It is only 4-4.5 hours each day. Its a total alien idea to me, and sounds insufficient, until you factor in the hours of homework they have as well. 

3. What parts were expected?

Waking up, eating breakfast, going to school, ect. Basically everything but the shortness of their school day.



4. What do you think that 12yo's life will be like when they are 40?
 
That depends on what school they went to. If it was a Gymnasium, then They would probably be university educated, and working a well paying job. They would likely be in the Upper class, have a family, and have their own kids going to a Gymnasium.

If they went to a Hauptschule, then they would be working a low paying, low-skilled job, like a toll booth operator. They would be lower class, and still have a family, with their children going to a Hauptshule themselves.

If they went to a Realschule, they would be working a skilled job, like carpenter or salesperson. They would be considered middle-class, and have a family. Their children are likely to be going to a Realschule themselves.

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Humans are still evolving. It has been argued that the way that society is set up means that virtually everyone will reproduce, ruling out the selection pressures which were once driving us to evolve. Though in truth, we're evolving faster then ever, Or as Dr. John Hawks said, "The widespread assumption that human evolution has slowed down because it's easier to live and we've conquered nature is absolutely not true. We didn't conquer nature, we changed it in ways that created new selection pressures on us."

A study, led by Dr. John Hawks, has found that humans are evolving up to 100 times faster in the last 5000 years then they have been since we split with the ancestors of Chimps. The study has also found that humans are becoming more genetically diverse, depend on what part of the world they live in. such as the gene for lighter skin in northern Europe, or the African population becoming resistant to Malaria. Or how a majority of the Chinese and African population cannot digest lactose in milk, but a majority of Europeans have a lactose-tolerance gene. One reason could be that in northern Europe there is less sunlight and its lower in intensity, so people make less vitamin D in their skin. Vitamin D is critical for absorbing calcium, so people in Europe needed to be able to digest lactose to increase the amount of Vitamin D they have.