Show sounder education needed to I 1 M maintain A af n fain free world LAU economics and geography among studies y required to ground students in the 1 1 problems at home and abroad by analyst and commentator rt service 1610 eyo eye street NW cwi f washington D I 1 0 j this Is the first of two articles on oil the he subject of the new recon vcr mon jn n tho the last two months the public lias has learned a lot about tho the imbor 4 tane tance of industrial re conversions for g i many more months business men with the help of the best technical advice they could obtain have been preparing to shift from wartime to peacetime production government has shared the knowledge of its ex i v perta and proffered its ita operation cooperation co labor has contributed its suggestions all three know what they wont together they hops hope to obtain a successful synthesis but what many people do not real ilzo la ii that the notion nation the whole i world for that matter Is facing another problem equally as dini cult to solve equally as important to a achieve ch leve it Is the recon version of our whole educational system and upon its success depends the political future of democracy ana and its economic future as well I 1 as embodied in tho the theory and out working of freo free enterprise it la Is no exaggeration to say that our current educational system which along with ith our wartime industrial du system made allied victory possible is no more adapted to meet the new and startling problems of the postwar world than the japanese defense could meet the atomic bomb enlightened educators everywhere realize this fills in a short time experts will meet in london to work out a program outlined in san francisco by the tbt men and women who planned the educational and cultural council of the united nations here at home and in other democratic coun tries domestic policies are being reshaped to meet tho the new conditions education for world freedom Is an i important objective education for or freedom in the land ot of ibe free Is equally important for it la in the foun dation tone of world democracy we have have the task of reconverting our own oft antiquated machinery so that it will be geared to brodu produce ce and maintain freedom the united nations task is to build new machinery which will evolve a product which must displace the nazi teachings which still havo have their hold holdon on it a large segment of the population our own product must be both a wea weapon pon of offenses offense and of defense we wa have a powerful example in the need for this inthe in the demonstrated strength of the nazi the weakness of what we have so far produced to comb combat atit it nazi propaganda remains strong A report made public only a week or two ago reveals how low sm at its blackest as tho the report describes it Is being kept alive in a series of 1 resistance clubs in germany scattered from tha the north sea to the bavarian mountains allied in tors have pieced together an appalling picture of a widespread activity based upon race raca hatred and other nazi principles with which the german youth has been so thoroughly indoctrinated in a manner pointed out in these columns some time ago and which I 1 then said must be dealt with eventually the offense is powerful and th weakness of our defense Is illustrated in recent dispatches telling us how nazi propaganda is s viewpoint of the american army of occupation A major is reported as aa doubting the truth ortho of the atrocity stories in the concentration camp of dachau cachau located only a few faw from where he was stationed american soldiers are heard parroting the fali familiar lillar goebbels fabrication that germany was forced In into the war that hitler had hs his faults but was really great in many respects or tit it hillers Hit lers glory is found to be too strong a goat he is used as a scope goat to excuse german war guilt I 1 have lust just come from a long talk with one of americas ame great edoga tors john studebaker united states state s commissioner of education atlon it was wag he who introduced me to the phrase the now new our oui democratic system is threat i ened 1 from within winn and without ho he r cald to me earnestly the amer loan lean school gave our polyglot nation tho the solidarity to 0 o carry on the war 6 successfully gut but he added we WB have severe tests ahead we must educate for freedom and educate for existence in a newly integrated world of which we are an integral part wo we must understand our own problem and tho the problems of others I 1 help applying this theory to tho the stories from germany A thorough understanding of democracy Is proof against nazi propaganda an understanding of other peoples and events beyond our borders which affect us as the rise of ditl hitler L r and mussolini affected us would make us deaf to german eions and excuses in order to meet the threats against democracy from within and from without mr studebaker believes alieves with most of his tol colleagues league s that our present educational system will have to bo be thoroughly reno renovated vot doth both the plant plan tand and tho the product must bo be remodeled he says lie ile chose two subjects geography and economics as examples of how the product must be ba altered knowledge of conditions vital geography Is important because it Is a study of the tha world in which we live it is a study of the peoples who live ln in the worldon world worl dof of our very near thanks to jet propulsion and atomic energy if not always very dear neighbors geography is also the th 0 study of the pursuits the indus tries of the people of the world its grasp Is essential if wo we are to bring intelligent thought to judgment of events and the conditions at home and abroad and their effect upon each other arid upon us and yet geography was never taught to io our people mr studebaker says we ye stop to teaching aching it at tho the eighth grade the younger children from three to eight aro are taught by thac teachers hers who themselves never had more than eighth grae grade instruction in n the subject and ills his second example of ono one of our educational products which must be strengthened economics belongs still less to the people only 5 per cent of the high school pupils ever studied economics he informed me and only 8 5 per pen cent of these ever learned anything about international trade how can we possibly meet tho the problems problem si arising now it if we do not understand this subject how can wo we possibly maintain free enterprise it if wo we cannot pass a considered judgment on tho the questions that the papers pers are full of every day how can a pel person son say whether a wage wade increase Is fair it if ho he has never studied the simplest theories of supply and demand or the more complicated relations of wages costs profits and in the international field lie h continued how could a person who had never learned tho the fundamentals of international trade know whether rl a tariff wis WAS justified whether her a cartel was dangerous whether certain foreign business activities bene fItted the people a as a whole whether freo free competition or government subsidy was a bettor better policy how coula could they advise their congressman to vote on tho the bretton woods agreement or the policy of foreign loans just as geography suffers because its teaching ends before matur itys reached maturity in this sense is the 1510 15 10 year group roughly high school age economics Is begun too late it Is offered as a one year high school course and boiled down clown pinto into such a concentrated potion that not only are vital elements omitted such ai as international trade but it becomes a dry and highly abstruse subject furthermore since it is often an elective a subject ill touch on in a later article it may be omitted entirely because it is hard these two subjects are arc only two examples example sj of those which should in mr opinion make up a solid core of education available to all this core he says Is essential if we are to build solidarity in 1 democratic society A certain group of vital basic subjects which will help us understand the problems that threaten democracy the down to earth facts necessary to give us the basis for a sound faith in our way of life |