Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

But let us ask this question: What did the German educational system do in pre-War times
to teach the Germans to be discreet? Did it not very often happen in schooldays that the little
tell-tale was preferred to his companions who kept their mouths shut? Is it not true that
then, as well as now, complaining about others was considered praiseworthy 'candour', while
silent discretion was taken as obstinacy? Has any attempt ever been made to teach that
discretion is a precious and manly virtue? No, for such matters are trifles in the eyes of our
educators. But these trifles cost our State innumerable millions in legal expenses; for 90 per
cent of all the processes for defamation and such like charges arise only from a lack of
discretion. Remarks that are made without any sense of responsibility are thoughtlessly
repeated from mouth to mouth; and our economic welfare is continually damaged because
important methods of production are thus disclosed. Secret preparations for our national
defence are rendered illusory because our people have never learned the duty of silence. They
repeat everything they happen to hear. In times of war such talkative habits may even cause
the loss of battles and therefore may contribute essentially to the unsuccessful outcome of a
campaign. Here, as in other matters, we may rest assured that adults cannot do what they
have not learnt to do in youth. A teacher must not try to discover the wild tricks of the boys
by encouraging the evil practice of tale-bearing. Young people form a sort of State among
themselves and face adults with a certain solidarity. That is quite natural. The ties which
unite the ten-year boys to one another are stronger and more natural than their relationship
to adults. A boy who tells on his comrades commits an act of treason and shows a bent of
character which is, to speak bluntly, similar to that of a man who commits high treason.
Such a boy must not be classed as 'good', 'reliable', and so on, but rather as one with
undesirable traits of character. It may be rather convenient for the teacher to make use of
such unworthy tendencies in order to help his own work, but by such an attitude the germ of
a moral habit is sown in young hearts and may one day show fatal consequences. It has
happened more often than once that a young informer developed into a big scoundrel.
This is only one example among many. The deliberate training of fine and noble traits of
character in our schools today is almost negative. In the future much more emphasis will
have to be laid on this side of our educational work. Loyalty, self-sacrifice and discretion are
virtues which a great nation must possess. And the teaching and development of these in the
school is a more important matter than many others things now included in the curriculum.
To make the children give up habits of complaining and whining and howling when they are
hurt, etc., also belongs to this part of their training. If the educational system fails to teach
the child at an early age to endure pain and injury without complaining we cannot be
surprised if at a later age, when the boy has grown to be the man and is, for example, in the
trenches, the postal service is used for nothing else than to send home letters of weeping and
complaint. If our youths, during their years in the primary schools, had had their minds
crammed with a little less knowledge, and if instead they had been better taught how to be
masters of themselves, it would have served us well during the years 1914–1918.
In its educational system the People's State will have to attach the highest importance to the
development of character, hand-in-hand with physical training. Many more defects which
our national organism shows at present could be at least ameliorated, if not completely
eliminated, by education of the right kind.
Extreme importance should be attached to the training of will-power and the habit of making
firm decisions, also the habit of being always ready to accept responsibilities.
In the training of our old army the principle was in vogue that any order is always better
than no order. Applied to our youth this principle ought to take the form that any answer is
better than no answer. The fear of replying, because one fears to be wrong, ought to be
considered more humiliating than giving the wrong reply. On this simple and primitive basis
our youth should be trained to have the courage to act.
It has been often lamented that in November and December 1918 all the authorities lost their
heads and that, from the monarch down to the last divisional commander, nobody had