Speaking before the annual convention of the Department of Superintendents of the National Education Association, Dr. Harold Rugg, Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, declared that the theory of Nordic racial superiority endangers the peace of the World.
“Since the World War this trend has suspiciously sharpened,” Dr Rugg said, “and today lies at the base of serious injustice, limitation of opportunity and vast nationalistic conflicts.” Citing the rising tide of dictatorships as precipitating serious challenges of emocracy, Dr. Rugg declared that “since narrow nationalism-eco-nomic imperialism and racial as-cendancy-is an increasing menace to the peace of the world, education must develop in schools” along lines leading to international understanding and cooperation.
Comparison with educational systems in countries such as Nazi Germany shows how much better are American public shools, declared Dean William F. Russel of Teachers College, who also spoke at the convention, “There is a remote chace that some Hitler in some future time might be elected to high office in the United States,” Dean Rusself said, “but he would have a difficult time, indeed, to win control of our schools and colleges.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
