CARL FURTMUELLER:
Progressive Education in the Austrian Republic
For only one year after the foundation of the Austrian Republic were the Socialists in control in the Department of Education. Intellectually and politically, however, they were the leaders in all questions of education through the whole course of the Austrian Republic. Even when, toward the end of the 'twenties, the reactionary party gained power, it could fight only defensive battles from its headquarters in the Department of Education; the Board of Education for the City of Vienna, pedagogical key position held by the Social-Democrats, put the problems on the agenda, and held the initiative.
It is Otto Gloeckel's claim on history that he knew how to make the schools not a routine affair for administrators and teachers, but the passionate concern of great masses of the people. Even among his political opponents his enthusiasm won thousands of partisans to his ideas of progress in education. Much the more easily he could arouse the working class, because ever since the Austrian proletariat had fought for political rights it had also fought for better schools. Once when the Department of Education attempted by a political trick to block an experiment in new methods and curricula, a hundred thousand workers filed before Parliamentt in a solemn demonstration for school reform — probably the mightiest pressure-group for education the world has seen.
Questions of progressive education had been widely discussed among teachers in Germany and Austria before and even during the first World War. There had been many small-scale experiments. It was natural that different suggestions should lead in different directions, and that small, specific groups of teachers, working with specific groups of students who were certainly not representative of the average, could try out many new things, to copy which in a changed situation would not have been advisable.
The Austrian movement brought order into this chaos from two directions. First, it never forgot that the work was not to be done merely in some outposts on the pedagogical frontier but for and in all the schools together; and therefore, daring had to be combined with caution. Second, the Austrian movement related all peculiarly pedagogical questions to two great guiding ideas — one political, the other social. From the political viewpoint, the young Austrian Republic, succeeding a nearly absolute monarchy, had to provide for her children the kind of education which would fit them in their adult life for the exercise of their new rights and duties. Socially the new education had to take account of the mounting consciousness of the masses. Impossible as it is in the frame of a capitalist society to abolish entirely
the educational privileges of the propertied classes, the task was to pare down those privileges and to make it easier for every child to find the way of education best fitted to his aptitudes and interests.
The new school demanded a new kind of teacher-training. A plan was made by which the education of teachers for all grades would be transferred to pedagogical institutes to be connected with the universities, thus assuring to the elementary school teachers a more solid literary and scientific foundation, to the subject teachers a better pedagogical discipline. This plan was frustrated by the Clerical Party which did not want to relinquish the powerful position it held through the numerous Catholic schools for teachers, and by the Universities, who contemplated the whole work of educational reform with fanatic hatred, and denied "Education for critical thinking" not only to the masses of pupils, but also, expressly, to the teachers of the elementary schools. So, the City of Vienna acted. In its Pedagogical Institute it established two-year training courses for graduates from normal schools and also from preparatory schools. Unfortunately, the economic crisis soon made the appointment of new teachers impossible.
Other branches of the Pedagogical Institute, study groups, and professional journals gave older teachers a variety of opportunities to become familiar with the new methods of teaching. The Pedagogical Library of Vienna became famous as a reference library in German-speaking countries. In the elementary and junior high schools the teachers generally supported the reforms with real devotion, often with enthusiasm. In the preparatory schools the partisans of progress in education had to fight for the floor inch by inch.
In their work for the young generation the schools did not stand alone. The City of Vienna built up a widely branching system of youth assistance and protection. The people on their own initiative worked in the parents associations established at every school, and in the powerful organization "Freie Schule-Kinderfreunde". Youth itself created its own associations in democratic freedom. A powerful faith in a future which they would help build lived in this young generation. Youth and school life in Vienna soon aroused the friendly interest of foreign countries. More and more educators came from all European countries and even from abroad for a quick survey or for more intensive study of the educational work in Vienna. They spoke many an appreciative and encouraging word. Most deeply were we moved when summarizing what was done and attempted in Vienna in the interest of youth, they called Vienna the "Capital of the Child".
An honor came even from the side of the enemy, in the way fascists do honor. When the criminals of Februar, 1934, set about their destruction of all that was precious to the workers, the schools could not think to be left out. One of the first acts of the Dollfuss regime after they had overthrown the Republic was a reorganization of the "Hauptschulen" which made it impossible for pupils to transfer to preparatory schools. In order to satisfy to the full their hatred of the working class they had to block the gate to higher education against the workers' children.
When the working class rises anew, then the schools of Austria will win back their character of democracy and take up their fight for equal opportunity for every child.
Fuente: transcripción a partir del facsímil de Austrian Labor Information (Nueva York, Austrian Labor Committee), n.º 20-21 (número doble), noviembre-diciembre de 1943, sección inglesa «Austrian Labor News», págs. 11-12, en ANNO, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (aid=ali, 1943; imágenes 35-36 de la descarga), hecha desde la imagen con el OCR de la ÖNB como apoyo. Firmado «Carl Furtmueller» en el encabezamiento. Escrito en inglés. Se respetan la grafía y las erratas del impreso («Parliamentt», «Februar, 1934»); se restituye el orden de unas líneas traspuestas en la composición de la pág. 11 (véase el comentario). Se omiten el final del artículo anterior (pág. 11) y el recuadro «Contributors to this Issue» (pág. 12), salvo la nota sobre el autor, citada en comentario. Los comentarios p. n marcan el comienzo de cada página impresa.