| Show WAW U sounder education needed beede to maintain free world economics and geography among studies required to ground students in the problems at home and abroad by news A analyst and commentator service 1618 1616 eye street NW washington D C T this b Is Is 19 the first of two articles on the subject of the new loa in the last two months the public has learned a lot about the importance of industrial for 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 experts and proffered its operation cooperation co labor has contributed its suggestions all A 11 three know what they want together they hope to obtain a successful synthesis but what many people do not realize Is that the nation the whole world for that matter is facing another problem equally as difficult to solve equally as important p to achieve it Is the of 0 our u r whole educational system and upon pon u its success depends the political future of democracy and its economic future as well as embodied in the theory and out working of free enterprise it Is no exaggeration to say that our current educational system which along with 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 in a short time experts will meet in london to work out a program outlined in san francisco by the men and women who planned the educational and cultural council of the united nations here at home and in other democratic countries domestic educational policies are being reshaped to meet the new conditions education for world freedom Is an imbor important tant objective education tor for freed freedom om in the land of the free is equally important for it is the foundation stone of world democracy we ve have bave the task of reconverting our own antiquated machinery so that it will be geared to produce and maintain freedom the united nations task is to build new machinery which will evolve e a product which must displace the nazi fascist teachings which still s till have their hold on a large segment ot of the population our own product must be both a weapon of offense and of defense we have a powerful example in the need for this in the demonstrated strength of the nazi ideology and the weakness of what we have so far produced to combat it nazi propaganda remains strong A report made public only a week or two ago reveals how at its blackest as the report describes it is being kept alive in a series of resistance clubs in germany scattered from the north sea to it 0 the ba varlan mountains allied investigators have pieced together an appalling picture of a widespread activity based upon race hatred and other nazi principles with which the german youth has been so thoroughly indoctrinated in a 1112 manner pointed out in these columns some time ago and which I 1 then said must be dealt with evenou eventually ally the th wense mense Is powerful and the weakness of our defense Is illustrated in recent dispatches telling us how nazi propaganda is affecting the viewpoint of cf the american array army of occupation A major Is reported as doubting the truth of cf the atrocity stories in the concentration camp of dachau cachau located only a few miles from where he be was stationed american soldiers are heard parroting the familiar goebbels fabrication that germany was forced into the war that hitler had bad his faults but was really great in many respects or if hillers Hit lers glory is found to be too strong a goat he Is used as a scapegoat to excuse german war guilt t I 1 have just come from a long talk with one of americas great educators john studebaker united states commissioner of education it was he who introduced me to the phrase the new our democratic system Is threatened from within and without he said to me earnestly tra T amer lean ican school gave our polyglot nation the solidarity to carry on the war wai successfully but he added we w have severe tests ahead we must mus educate tor for freedom and educate loi for existence in a newly integrated world of which we are in an integral part we must understand our owr own problem and the problems of oth ers 11 I 1 help applying this the ory to the stories from rom germany A thorough understanding of democracy is proof against nazi propaganda an understanding of other peoples and events beyond our b orders borders which affect us as the rise of hitler and mussolini affected us would make its deaf to german eions and excuses in order to meet the threats against democracy from within and from without mr studebaker believes with most of his colleagues that our present educational system will have to be thoroughly renovated both the plant and the product must be remodeled he says he chose two subjects geography and economies economics as examples of how the product must be altered knowledge of conditions condition vital geography Is important because it Is a study of the world in which we live ills a study of the peoples who live in the world of our very near thanks to jet propulsion and atomic energy if not always very dear neighbors geography is also the study of the pursuits the industries of the people of the world its grasp Is essential if we are to bring intelligent thought to judgment of events and the conditions at home and abroad and their effect upon each other and upon us and yet geography was never taught to our people mr studebaker says we stop teaching it at the eighth grade the younger children from rom three to eight are taught b by y teachers who themselves never had more than eighth g grade rade instruction in the subject and his second example of 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 5 per cent of these ever learned anything about international trade how can we possibly meet the problems arising now if we do not understand this subject how can we possibly maintain tree free enterprise if 11 we cannot pass a considered judgment on the questions that the papers are full of every day how can a person say whether a wage increase is fair air if he has never studied the simplest theories of supply and demand or the more complicated relations of wages costs profits and ta in the international field he continued how could a person who had never learned the fundamentals of international trade know whether i a tariff was justified whether a cartel was dangerous whether certain foreign business activities bene fitted the people as a whole whether tree free competition or government subsidy was a better policy how could they advise their congressman to vote on the bretton woods agreement or the policy of foreign loans just as geography suffers because its teaching ends before maturity Is reached maturity in this sense Is the 1516 15 16 year group roughly high school age economics economic a Is begun too late it Is offered as a one year high school course and boiled down into such a concentrated potion that not only are vital elements omitted such 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 only two examples of those which should in mr Stude bakers opinion make up a solid core of education eve available 11 to all this core he says is essential if we are to build solidarity in a democratic society A certain group ot 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 BARBS by baukhage just made a film about teachers for the childrens sake lets hope they dont get a film about pupils it might result in more spankings span kings than a bad report ird gard A new process of canning in alu lor for highly sensitive machines and parts saves warehousing and we hope it will make more new jobs J than will be lost by displaced warehousemen there wont be enough oysters this year to supply the demand probably the war took too many shells an eye bank is being established the purpose of which Is to make available healthy corneal tissue to restore sight to those who are blind through an affliction ot of the cornea the system Is similar to the blood banks and no less valuable I 1 wish they would establish a hair bank |
