The Wilmington morning star., 1944-11-06
Aiding urope;s Schools
BY MARY HORNADAY

BY MARY HORNADAY
In liberated Europe school bells have be-
gun to ring again, calling pupils back to class
rooms after years of Nazi oppression.
The problems of repairing school buildings,
Of finding balanced teachers and inspiring
morals into children who have lived in a law.
less reign of terror will be difficult. Already,
educational authorities abroad have begun to
look to the United States and Great Britain for
helping hand in lifting them out of their in
tellectual confusion
Last April in London, at a session presided
over by Representative j. William Fulbright,
former president of the University of Arkan-
sas, tentative draft constitution for a united
national organization for educational and Gull
tll~al reconstruction was accepted by a group
OF Allied Ministers of Education.
Like UNRRA and the new United Nations
security organization, it would have an as
sembly, an executive board and an inter
national secretariat These would have at
their disposal emergency rehabilitatio
fund to be used in helping war-devastated
Allied countries to re-establish their eduea-
tional systems.
The United Nations would not do the whole
job for any nation, neither would they dictate
educational policies, but they would collect
information, provide for exchange of teachers
and students, stock depleted libraries and
Intellectual isolation imposed by the Nazis
and the Fascists.
The proposed constitution was submitted to
the United Nations for approval and sugges-
tons, but here in the United States it has not
been presented to Congress because of the
election and pressure of other State Depart
ment projects. Now the Allied Ministers of
Education are leaving London and going back
to their homelands to re-establish their school
W. fN f;x, &LN... iN{Nr
tonal backing is ripe.
The United States State Department has
had DR.. Grayson NJ Kefauver, former Dean
of Education at Stanford University over in
London ever since the conference last spring,
to keep in touch with Allied ministers. Before
returning to this country few days ago, DR..
Kefauvre went to Normandy, to Paris, and
to Brussels, visiting schools where they had
reopened and preparing frsthand information
on European education.
Until they were able to get back into Europe,
educators were uncertain just what the inn
pact of Naziism had been on the schools.
They have found out that though spotty, it
was considerable. Teachers that were anti
Nazi were not allowed to remain There was
no general destruction Of textbooks, but books
unfavorable to Naziism were put out of cir
culation. Libraries were not allowed to make
use of certain books, though they were usually
them.
In Italy where schools opened couple of
weeks ago with new de-fascistized course
of instruction devised by Italian educators, it
was found necessary to dismiss only per cent
Of the total number of classroom teachers for
being active Fascists, though Fascism had
been injected into every textbook under Mus
solini.
In the past, European educational systems
have been largely modelled on the German.
Educators from the Continent usually went to
that country for advanced study. Now there
is evidence that they are turning to Britain
and the United States.
Even more important than the structure OF
their school systems will be Anglo-Amercan
assistance in encouraging the re-estabHsh-
ment of morals in the oncoming generations
Of Europe.
1.-THE Belgians, said one Of their eduea-
tional officials recently, "arent as badly lam
ished physically as morally
Opening the schools of Paris Rene Capt.
tant French Minister of National Eduea-
ton, told teachers: 'Teach the children init,
alive, teach them to oppose all that is opposeu
to liberty. Children and adolescents brought
up under the regime of terror and prlvatlon
will need to be taught perseverance ana con-
centration for work. =,
Children who were taught that it was all
right to steal from the Nazs will need to be
given a new concept Of right for rights sake.
The task before the teachers of Europe
il tremendous. They will be better able to
stand up to it if they are given early tangible
enco1ra cement from men in their field in non
and respected.-Christian Science Monitor.