POLITICS AND SCHOOLS

By PETER F. WIENER

ONE of my senior pupils asked me the other day what, in my opinion, was the best book which explained the real reasons for the collapse of France. It was a difficult question to answer. A host of books and writings have appeared during the last two years (perhaps too many) designed to explain " Why France Fell." And yet, none of these books appealed to me so much, impressed me so much, as the 15-page preface which Professor D. W. Brogan wrote to Alexander Werth's latest book, The Twilight of France. Perhaps this was chiefly due to the fact that Brogan gave one explanation for the temporary end of France which none of the other commen- tators and authors had mentioned. He was the first to stress the serious share of responsibility which the teaching profession had to bear for the physical and psychological break-down of the great French nation. " It was both natural and disastrous," writes Brogan, " that the school-teachers, all over rural France the moulders of the political mind of the country, should have been uncritical and opti- mistic pacifists. From this well-meaning, but as far as the outside world is concerned, ill-equipped body, came some of the most effective pacifist propaganda. . . . Not until it was too late did the profession that regarded itself as, in a special sense, the guardians of the Republic realise that it had helped to destroy its own work."

Those of us who have not only been educated in France, but have also had practical teaching experience in French schools, know, alas! how right Brogan is in his admirable, though depressing, analysis. But—and this is, :ndeed, a very hackneyed statement—to explain the real reasons vhy our Allies were militarily and intellectually unable to resist their traditional enemies in that fatal spring of 1940, serves no purpose unless we try to learn from their tragic experience the bitter t ut necessary lesson.

It is not only right, but essential, to ask the pertinent question: Are we avoiding now the faults which the educational profession in France committed, and for which the whole French nation is suffering so terribly? A great deal has been said and written in recent years on education. Yet I cannot help feeling that most of the suggested plans z nd schemes miss the point completely. They all deal with the rather distant problem of " The Future of Our Education," and ignore completely the present-day needs. More than ever it is imperative today to give youth in its education some kind of " political consciousness." The youth of today will be confronted at the end of the war with a Fascist youth which has received for many years a poisonous education. We cannot afford any longer in schools to ignore the problems of the day, for only if the generation which is growing up at the moment is inspired with the same ardent devotion and love for democracy and freedom as their German contemporaries are for their evil doctrines—only then will it have a chance in its manhood to win the battle for peace.

Nobody will deny that what Brogan said about France was equally true about this country—as far as the pre-war period is concerned. What is so disturbing is to see how very little has been done during the last three years to improve things. Generally speaking, politics (and I am using the word not in the party-sense, but in the broadest

sense of the word) are never mentioned in school, and"no concrete instruction is given in civics or current affairs. The syllabus has remained more or less the same. The examinations :how little, if any change. (The General Knowledge Paper of the Civil Service Commission Examination held this month makes an admirable exception.) School Certificate and Higher Certificate examinations —the most important school-examinations in the country—are in 1942 almost identical with those of 1932 or 1922. The educational world seems wilfully to ignore the last twenty years of world affairs.

Of course, there are a number of prow essive teachers who have fully understood that " something " was lacking in the pre-war syllabus. Thus a number of books have recently been introduced into schools which deal with subjects hitherto avoided in form- rooms. Much as this move is to be welcomed, the chosen books very often defeat their own purpose by instilling some kind of political propaganda, instead of facts, into the minds of the pupils. And it is difficult to say what is the greater evil: to give youth no " political consciousness " whatsoever, or to feed it with biased political propaganda. To give merely one example, a great many schools have lately introduced J. F. Horrabin's Outline of Political Geography. It seems almost the ideal book—cheap, brief, topical, referring to all recent events up to 1942, and admirably illustrated. On closer inspection, however, the book turns out to be pure and straightforward political propaganda. It has a definitely pro-German flavour, blames the " financiers and capitalists " for the outbreak of the war, defines Britain as " the island on which we and our fellows are exploited," explains that " America only actually entered the war when the moneyed class saw their chances of ex- ploiting Asiatic development threatened by the direct aggression of Japan," demands the abolition of the British Empire because " the Empire is pre-eminently a creation of British Capitalism," and comes to the conclusion that " the only solution of the problems of a new order is the socialist solution." Far be it from me to enter into a discussion on socialism, but even the author of the book will probably agree with me that his book is chiefly intended for propa- ganda purposes, and in schools, of all places, propaganda should be rigorously barred.

But criticism is of no use unless something constructive can be suggested. What can be done now to give to youth a " political consciousness " which will enable it to see with un- biased vision the world in which it lives? There are two things which could be done at once. First of all, youth can be taught in schools to detect political propaganda for itself. Any kind of propaganda is profoundly harmful to a realistic appreciation of basic issues in world relations. The dangers contained in twentieth century political propaganda cannot be overstressed. The first task, therefore, before introducing any regular " political lessons," is to make the pupils aware of the various disguises under which political propaganda appears.

It is in this sphere that some admirable pioneer work has been done in the United States—pioneer work which unfortunately has never reached this island. Exactly five years ago, in October, 5937, there was organised in the United States "The Institute for Propa- ganda Analysis," a non-profit-making, educational enterprise, directed by a most Impressive Advisory Board. Co-operating with the Institute are about 30o American schools and universities, and

about 2,50o university or schoOl-teachers are affiliated to it. The Institute issues monthly letters and special bulletins. I have seen,

and used, a good many of these publications ; while some refer to typical American affairs, the great majority are ideally suited for immediate use in English schools. One of the special publications,

Propaganda : How to Recognise It and to Deal With It, is a master- piece, which should be read by every young person between the ages of 16 and 20.

With the close alliance which now links Britain with the U.S.A., it should certainly be possible either to start a British branch of the Institute, which would have all the experience of the American

Council at its disposal, or at least to arrange for the American pub- lications .to be made available to the English teaching profession.

This is no utopian scheme. On the contrary, there should be little difficulty in putting it into practice. Moreover, it should also be possible to introduce to all senior forms of all kinds of schools one or two regular weekly lessons on " current affairs." It is relatively easy to avoid the danger of bias and propaganda in these lessons if such classes are based on official documents. I am thinking of documents such as the " Atlantic Charter," " The Anglo-Russian Treaty," " The Uthwatt Report," and so forth. If these texts could be studied thoroughly, together with all shades of comments on them, the danger of biasing the pupils would be avoided. It would, moreover, bring them in touch with present-day reality and give a recognised interest to their school-activities which so far has, on the whole, been lacking.

Realising what happened in France owing to the lack of a realistic political education in schools, I am more than ever con- vinced that it is of much greater importance for us teachers to devote our time and energy to trying to remedy some of the faults which, without any doubt, exist in the present-day syllabus, than to entering into long discusSions on plans which are chiefly concerned with a rather distant and uncertain future.