GERMAN SCHOOLS

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 554, 4 January 1916, Page 2

GERMAN SCHOOLS

CHILDREN RUN RIOT. 'Vorwarts,' the leading Socialist newspaper m Germany, notes, that the war hits, effected some changes m the German ehii--dren, but the changes cannot be regarded as blessings. "The education of children is being seriously affected by. the war," it states. " The Association of Roman Catholic Elementary School Teachers m Breslau [ announces that among the deplorable con-' sequences of the war. must -be registered the facts that the scholars play truant m 'a shameless manner,- that their. school work is done • most slovenly, that they are insubordinate m school and impertinent m the street, and that" assaults on school ■ children are becoming alarmingly fre- ! quent. • '

" This serious state of affairs is ascribed by the association to the absence of the father, to the difficulties experienced by the mother m keeping a roof over her head, and m providing food for her family, to the circumstance that, owing to the school building being required by the military authorities, the instruction' is limited to one to two hours daily, and is given m .-the public rooms, attached to restaurants,;,, m sheds, "and m empty houses, .and, finally, to the fact that threefourths of the teachers are serving m the army. ' ■;■ ■ ".-.•■ k. - ' ;;■'.

" The association also finds a contributing cause m the unscrupulous sale.of 'penny dreadfuls ' arid other disgraceful stories, as Ave.ll as of .cheap cigarettes .to ; the children. .' The 'Vorwarts'- considers that " the Roman Catholic teachers might have known that m the provincial towns the wives of men at the. front receive such a trivial grant that they are compelled to leave their homes to find employment m order that they and their children may live.}' They cannot therefore look after their children. .

' Vorwarts ' also attacks the patriotic literature with which. Germany has been flooded since the outbreak of the war. It declares that, .the shelves of second-rate book shops are filled witji thousands of hurtful books, dumped on .the market by greedy and unscrupulous 'publishers, who desire to take advantage of the war enthusiasm created among the people. Many of these books, which are\ intended to appeal to the young and inexperienced, are brutal m. conception, and teach doctrines of hfe and conduct that are opposed to every dictate of higher humanity. The enemies of ..Germany call the Germa"s barbarians, concludes ' Vorwa-rts,' and if they want evidence m proof of their contention they will find, plenty m this class of war literature.