On Education
www.th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~jr/phys.einstein
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany in 1879 to Jewish parents. In the year 1880 the Einsteins moved to Munich so that Albert could attend the school there. Albert's father started a factory there in Munich.
The most charming story was told about the young Albert Einstein when he was 5. He was late to dinner because he was sitting out in the garden thinking under a tree, when he was brought to his father he noticed a small compass on Hermman Einstein's pocket watch. He was fascinated with the little compass and why it always pointed north.
School for Einstein was a trying experience. For young Einstein "school is just like a barrack...and the teachers are like the officers who tell the soldiers what to do. If you don't learn your lessons by heart they scold or beat you. Even if you don't understand what the books say! They are angry when you ask questions-and I like to ask question."(2)
Albert Einstein stayed at the school in Munich until he was about 15, then he left Munich to join his family in Milan. There he while hiking and listening to music he decided to be a theoretical physicist. After this decision was made he left Milan to go the the Zurich Polytechnic school in Switzerland. After a year of study he was admitted to the Zurich Polytechnic and completed a degree in physics.