JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

education
of the kindergarten, the well-known feminist Lina *Morgenstern-Bauer
was an ardent propagandist of the movement
through her writings on childhood development, as well as a
founder of kindergartens and seminaries for training kindergarten
teachers. In still another branch of education there was
a Jewish pioneer in the 19th century. Otto Salomon (1849–1901)
promoted the teaching of manual skills in Swedish schools. In
1875 he established the Sloyd Seminarium at Nääs, where he
trained teachers of manual crafts from all over the world. His
impact on education was extensive not only in Sweden, but
in other countries as well. A notable educator in the specialized
field of teaching deaf-mutes was the Frenchman Jacob
Rodrigues *Péreire. The first teacher of deaf-mutes in France,
Péreire was to influence Maria Montessori a century later in
her teaching of handicapped children. The international authority
Edouard Séguin has also testified to the significance
of Péreire’s work. Perhaps the most long-lasting contribution
to general education was the opening in 1805 of a school in
Seesen, Germany, by Israel *Jacobson, an initiator of the Jewish
Reform movement and an ardent advocate of closer Christian-Jewish
relations. Among German historians this type of
school is known as a “Simultanschule,” an institution where religious
instruction is given to different religious groups within
the same school building. For 30 years, between 1838 and 1867,
there was an equal number of Jewish and Christian pupils
in the school, but because of the shortage of Jewish teachers
of secular subjects, especially the sciences, as a result of the
earlier limitations on higher education for Jews, there was a
much larger proportion of Christians on the staff. Jacobson’s
school remained in existence until the advent of the Nazis in
1933. Few other Jews in the 19th century made any recognizable
mark on general education. Félix Hément (1827–1891)
rose from elementary teaching in France to become inspector
of primary schools in the department of the Seine and, upon
his retirement, honorary inspector-general of public instruction.
Naphtali Herz *Imber, author of Ha-Tikvah, contributed
bulletins on ancient Jewish education to a series published by
the U.S. Bureau of Education.
In the 20th century, the liberalization of the position of
Jews in the Western world made it possible for more of them to
participate in the educational thought and work of the world
at large. Ferenc Kemény (1860–1944), a Hungarian convert to
Christianity who served as teacher, principal, school inspector,
and professor at the University of Budapest, was active in promoting
plans for international education toward world peace.
Emile *Durkheim, professor of sociology and education at the
universities of Bordeaux and Paris, won an international reputation
not only as a sociologist, but also as author of a number
of influential and scholarly works on education. International
figures in education included William *Stern, an émigré from
Hamburg to Duke University in the U.S., whose Psychologie
der fruehen Kindheit (1914; Psychology of Early Childhood,
1924) and interpretation of the nature of intelligence were
most helpful to teachers on both sides of the Atlantic. Also
of international interest was Kurt Hahn (1886–1974), another
refugee from Nazi Germany, who moved his Salem progressive
school to Gordonstoun, Scotland, where Prince Philip and
his son Prince Charles received their education.
To obtain a balanced view of the Jewish contribution
to education the subject should also be considered from the
standpoint of particular nations.
In Germany, Clara Stern, the wife of William Stern, wrote
on and put into practice principles of child development in
relation to education. Erich *Stern, a doctor of medicine and
philosophy, was a professor at the universities of Giessen and
Frankfurt before leaving for the University of Paris after 1933.
His educational work was concerned with intelligence tests
and with the application of child psychiatry. Curt *Bondy,
who returned to Germany after World War II to become
professor of social and educational psychology at the University
of Hamburg, planned a system of education for juvenile
prisoners. In the theoretical aspects of education, Jonas
*Cohn, the neo-Kantian philosopher, wrote several works
on educational philosophy, among them Geist der Erziehung
(1919). Like Cohn, Richard *Hoenigswald approached pedagogy
by way of his philosophical specialty, and wrote books
on the theoretical foundations of education. He left Germany
for the U.S. in 1933 after having been professor of philosophy
at the universities of Breslau and Munich. There were many
German Jewish educators who were concerned with the education
of girls and women. Susanne *Engelmann wrote on
the psychological foundations of girls’ education, as well as a
study of the teaching of German literary history. Ulrike Henschke
(1830–1897) and her daughter Margarete (1859–?) were
active in the promotion of secondary and vocational education
for girls. Higher education for women was the special interest
of Henriette Goldschmidt (1825–1920), who also made
significant contributions, as a follower of Froebel, to the development
of the kindergarten movement. This movement
benefited immensely from the activities and writings of Clara
Morgenstern and Johanna Goldschmidt. Eugen Pappenheim
(1831–1901) opened kindergartens and seminaries, edited Der
Kindergarten, and founded the Deutscher Froebelverband
(1873). Among the other prominent German Jewish educators
were Kurt Levinstein, author of research on the history of
education and the teaching of literature; Leo *Kestenberg,
author and editor of books on musical education; and Fritz
*Karsen, head of the Karl-Marx-Schule in Berlin, a specialist
in experimental schools and later professor of education at
Brooklyn College, New York. August Homburger (1873–1930),
a psychiatrist, founded in Heidelberg in 1917 the first German
counseling center for the education of the mentally handicapped.
In Austria, Theodor *Heller pioneered in the teaching
of the blind and the mentally handicapped, wrote and edited
works in these fields, and organized societies. Alfred *Adler
founded kindergartens and experimental schools, and edited
and published works on education from the standpoint of
160 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6