Education in Europe Today

T HERE can be no question that the recent war introduced a new era in which the old views of life have become seriously modified. Everywhere throughout Western civilization the mass of the people are demanding that they take over and administer affairs. Old political parties have often disappeared or been relegated to the rear. The commingling of young men from all classes of the population in the various resistance movements against the Germans resulted in all countries in the spread of views that before the war would have been regarded as revolutionary. Nowhere has this been more pronounced than in international affairs. In every country there is a determination that the small group of men who controlled its foreign relations in the past and failed to prevent the recent horrible war shall no longer be without curb in their control. This urge has resulted in an unofficial movement of adult education that is of great importance but has met with little public attention. In France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden there have been formed groups, similar to the Council on Foreign Relations in our country and to the Royal Institute of International Affairs in Britain, for the scientific study of the problems of international affairs. But the movements in those countries are far more democratic than the activities of these two organizations. Their intention is to foster in their countries the splendid kind of organized democratic education in foreign affairs carried on in our country by the Foreign Policy Association, especially in its excellent publications. This movement for popular education in international affairs has become widespread and vigorous. It is only in a transition state but already is bearing fruit. In England it has led to two significant innovations in the Foreign Office, traditionally the citadel of

Higher education · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Global Education Systems and Policies · Law · Psychology · Religious Education and Schools