Hitler on Education Reform
Quotes from Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler, translated by Ralph Manheim,
ISBN 0-395-07801-6. Original copyright was in 1927.
MEETING CONTROL
(p. 467) "No one (committee in charge) begged the audience graciously to permit our speech, nor was everyone guaranteed unlimited time for discussion; it was simply stated that we were the master of the meeting, that in consequence we had the privilege of the house, and that anyone who should dare to utter so much as a single cry of interruption would be mercilessly thrown out where he came from. ...If there was time left and it suited us, we would permit a discussion to take place, if not, there would be none..."
ACADEMICS / OBE:
(p. 237) "German education before the War was afflicted with an extraordinary number of weaknesses. It was extremely one-sided and adapted to breeding pure 'knowledge,' with less attention to 'ability.'"
(p. 431) For invention, drilled knowledge does not suffice, but only knowledge animated by talent. But in our country today no store is set on this; it is only good marks that matter."
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
(p. 432) "The state has the obligation to exercise extreme care and precision in picking from the total number of national comrades the human material visibly most gifted by Nature and to use it in the service of the community (as statesmen)."
(p. 431) "Here, too, the folkish state will some day have to intervene by education. Its task is not to preserve the decisive influence of an existing social class, but to pick the most capable kinds from the sum of all the national comrades and bring them to office and dignity. It has not only the obligation of giving the average child a certain education in public school, but also the duty of putting talent on the track where it belongs."
SCHOOL-TO-WORK:
(p. 418)"Particularly, the curriculum of the elementary and intermediate schools is today a mongrel; in many cases, the material to be learned in the various subjects is so swollen that only a fraction of it remains in the head of the individual pupil, ...while on the other hand it is not adequate for the man working and earning his living in a definite field."
p. 422) "The folkish state will have to put general, scientific instruction into an abbreviated form, embracing the essentials. In addition to this, the possibility of a thorough, specialized training must be offered. It suffices for the individual man to obtain a general knowledge in broad outlines as a foundation, and only in the field which will be that of his later life, to enjoy the most thorough specialized and detailed training. And where...a specialized knowledge is really necessary it can naturally not be obtained within the curriculums of our present high schools."
(p. 434) "Since the concern of a sensible state must be to allot to the individual the activity which is in keeping with his ability or, otherwise expressed, to train the capable minds for the work that is suited to them.... The evaluation of the man must be based on the manner in which he fulfills the task entrusted him by the community."
COMMUNITY (Socialism):
(p. 423) "...we must incessantly inculcate the principle that industry, technology, and commerce can thrive only as long as an idealistic national community offers the necessary pre-conditions. And these do not lie in material egoism, but in a spirit of sacrifice and joyful renunciation."
CHARACTER ED.:
(p. 416) "Today the conscious development of good, noble traits of character in school is practically nil. In the future far greater emphasis must be laid on this. ....And so the folkish state, in its educational work, must side by side with physical culture set the highest value precisely on the training of character. Numerous moral weaknesses in our present national body, if they cannot be entirely eliminated by this kind of education, can at least be very much attenuated."
EARLY CHILDCARE:
(p 407)"If as the first task of the state in the service and for the welfare of its nationality we recognize the preservation, care, and development of the best racial elements, it is natural that this care must not only extend to the birth of every little national and racial comrade, but that it must educate the young offspring to become a valuable link in the chain of future reproduction."
(p. 409) "The work of care and education must begin with the young mother .... it must and will be possible, by a thorough training of nurses and mothers themselves, to achieve a treatment of the child in his first years that will serve as an excellent basis for future development."
YEAR-ROUND SCHOOL:
(p. 413) "It is an absurdity to believe that with the end of the school period the state's right to supervise its young citizens suddenly ceases...."
MILITARY SERVICE
(p. 428) "For the rest this education, too, from the racial viewpoint, must find its ultimate completion in military service. And in general, the period of military service must be regarded as the conclusion of the average German's normal education."