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Cook, Alice Hanson / Workers' education in the U.S. Zone of Germany
(1947)
Labor education, pp. 5-15
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:'T'-'The child of a German' w6rkeA- in 19947 still goe6 to"'schbo only unt'ti h& its fourteen years old, anh is, b'heri'apprenticed at a fe' marks a month 'usually for three 'years, '"du''ring whoh, h3 receives one day's schobling 'a w;bk in oubjects'closely roldtel to his trad;> eaucation.' The chief Qdacatiorn ;1 influenc..:.s which play upon him are thkosa inhderent in an apprentica relationship to a skilleda wolkzan -- at best a paternalism, at worst threc years of onslvovment and exploitation. The positive val- ues which inhere in this relationship are a pride in craftsmanship and a :A3eply in ained work-discipline. The trade union 'and'the labor party historically'bfiamo the cducationa: ';rAgonciis which influenc d the further deTelopment of the 'wor'&e'r as a ration and cultural being. W'lhen labor had. something to say .about the raorganization of the state under the Weimar constitution, it is inteiresting that the fundamental organization of the. schools wals not chan.gedi but that ithe'. pattern bf elementary school-apprenticeship-vocat~o lal sohool-uniloi eduoation program remained essentially what it was. To be sure, the eleentary school', was strengthened, and a somewhat bIroader educational program through the 8th school year ias'set iipAt the vocational school curriculum'iDncluded 4 .. 1L- 44U jLp Una tne 'trade union schools .sore gr;atly extended 'and in many cases got direct and indird~t 'state support. JiPd the iwhole position of 'the unions and of organized, workers in the statWe vwas set. down axd greatly s8I/Onlh.On'ed by :ta'w, p .hapg sP.81 the surest 'uarantee' against the anti-labor laws which had previously ecieted.' ' So far as youth 'as 'concerned, t he labor movement aimed 'to set up as 'extecsiv& a welfara and protecti've program as posIible and much of this was even extended and strengthened under the, Nazis beoause they too saew in youtl the strength and bulwark of the future state9 The Nazis however completely Ywreked the unmiDLs. and With them their educational program which had been the, one free, non-s'tate controlled element in th.e education development of e young woiker. * . in F - ;- .. The problems of workersI education today begin in thQ public.school are felt in every kind of educational undertaking vihich ie available to workers or which they organize. but VOCicTIONIIJ EDUCG"TIOCN One serious charge of whioh the Nis We gui'lty wag a persiWtent breaking down of. th:. educational opportuaities for youth. Military services air raid service, I"voluntary oer "'emeirgencyl-waork, the year 's labor servico, eto. all represented interruptions or-complete breaking off of school and apprenticeship. Today the general experiience is tilat young people are not able to meet the former standards for the journeyments examinations either in theoretical or praccal subjects.
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