The Pittsburgh Press (March 30, 1946)
Educating German youth in democracy is tough job
Americans in Berlin must contend with lack of teachers, books, heat and food
By Judy Barden, North American Newspaper Alliance
BERLIN – Three Americans manfully are staggering under the weight of teaching democracy to German children in 166 schools in the American sector of Berlin.
The whole educational outlook is very discouraging, as the average age of the teachers is 59 and absenteeism is heavy – between 20 and 30 percent.
There are two types of teachers, professionals and helpers. For those entering the service there is a three-year course, and they listen to lectures about the fallacies of the Nazi ideology.
A grand job has been done by these three Americans, who have managed to get 200,000 textbooks which were published before 1933. These have been distributed to schools in the American sector. They also managed to keep all the schools heated during the winter, and had one hot meal served each day.
The big headache was the repair of damaged buildings. But everybody got to work, including children, parents, teachers and neighbors, and soon schools were operating more or less normally. There are religious teachers chosen by the churches for those who wish to attend, and there are teachers for the blind and crippled. Two private Catholic schools are functioning.
The Americans are doing everything in their power to start youth movements based on sports and not along military or political lines. Over these movements there is some dissension with the Russians, who want only one group while the Americans and British prefer several.
The Russians also are against private schools, and at one time they disliked the American sports programs, which they said tended to be military. The British already have had their “Youth Week,” but the Americans did not get around to this, partly because several slogans still smelled of the Hitler regime.
Until the whole thing is ironed out, the Americans prefer to wait and get off on the right foot.