Evening star., 1947-12-07

money. IhoSe concerned WIN car
rying out the task say the program
is good as far as it goes, but that it
should 60 further.
Re-education or reorientation
as it is called-is only part Of the job
there. The whole job means
Strengthening out a country which
had no government, which had in
adequate food. clothing and shell
ter, country In which the indus
trial structure to a large extent was
shattered, and where many build
ings, school buildings and others
were damaged by our bombs.
'Sidesteppine the Issue
The first problem has been the
actual survival Of the people fol
whom we are responsible. 1t was
from this point of view that one
official in Washington asked. "Why
try to educate person If he is going
to starve before he can use that edu-
cation"
To the credit of those charged
with the Job of re-education of the
people along democratic lines il
should be stated that they send ex-
perts to Germany to examine, criti-
cize and make suggestions and in
vite others to visit there.
One of those experts is Lawrence
w. Prakken. editor of the Education
Digest of Ann Arbor, Mich. He con-
cedes that the military government
has made much progress in .democ-
rstization despite the tremendous
handicaps of a German economy
that was all but destroyed. He wrote
however:
THE emphasis is on economic re-
habilitation which is important, OF
course, but for our own security it is
essential that democratic educa-
tional practices be instituted as
quickly as possible, and I am def
nitely of the opinion that our tor
policy makers are sidestepping the
issue"
Here are some other Of Mr.
Prakken's criticisms contained ir
what he has written in his mag
szine, in a letter to this writer and
in other statements:
Budget Termed Inadequate
The budget for the educational
program in the American zone has
been cut and is Inadequate.
Relatively greater emphasis is
placed on re-education in the
French, Russian and British zones
than in the United States zone. Fol
instance, in June there were only
SIS professional American educators
working with the Germans while
the British had more than 200
The Russians are allotting large
amounts of paper for textbooks
much more than in the United
States zone.
In our military government in
Germany education is a branch OF
the Internal Affairs and Com
munications Division, rather than
a division in itself, with the result
its needs are lost sight of in the
problems of general administration
"As far as I could ascertain nc
German school children this last
spring were being taught anything
about the period from 1888 to l947,
There are criticisms from other
directions also. Last summer the
War Department appointed a COM
mission of IA clergymen to 60 to
Germany and Austria and survey
conditions. Reports of some OF this
group have been issued.
DR.. Harold j. Ockenga, pastor OF
the Park Street Church, Presby-
terian, OF Boston, had this to say:
"In the Soviet zone the usual
positive indoctrination in COM
munism is carried on. II reports
from the Germans themselves are
to be believed, the Russians are
making real progress.
Wants Red Indoctrination
Our authorities take the view
that we would be ramming some
thing down the Germans throats
to give positive democratic indoc-
trination. Hence the pious hope is
nourished that by teaching baseball
and American sports, by having dis
cussion groups in which Germans
participate and by making libraries
accessible in various information
centers the Germans will discover
for themselves the meaning Of de-
mocracy. This I hold to be a naive
outlook"
DR.. Ockenga wants program OF
positive indoctrination. He recon-
mended that at least 500 trained
workers be sent from the United
States to teach real democracy te
the rising generation Of German
youth.
Another of the group was DR.
George Pitt Beers, executive secre.
tary of the American Baptist Home
Missionary Society and chairman oi
the Council on World Evangeliza-
ton. He reported:
Frankly, do not believe the pro-
gram for re-education In German!
is at all adequate. 1t appears to be
built on the assumption that the
only alternative in policies is either
to demonstrate democracy and let
1t take effect as it may, without
being pointed out, or else q policy
of forcible education, commonly re-
ferred to as 'ramnaing it down their
throats.'
Clergymen's Views
arr is q ba sic error tn assume that