Fifty years of Heritage (edition 12) Published April 21, 2011 By Eric M. White 910 AW/PA YOUNGSTOWN AIR RESERVE STATION, Ohio -- Each week in 2011, the 910th AW/PA office will republish a historic article or highlight from the archive along with a brief commentary. In the case of articles, we will publish exact copies of the originals, so any grammatical or typographical errors are intentional reproductions. Article11: Language in the war of words (part two) Note: For the full scope of this series, read Fifty Years of Heritage Article 10. Additional portions of this series will be published in subsequent weeks. From the November, 1960 Buckstone Carrier (Editor's note; This is the third in a series of articles on Communism Vs. Christian faith, writen by Chaplain Robert A Boettger, 459th TCW Chaplain. Very little is to be gained by merely pointing out the faults of others while ignoring our own. But ignorance of the basic beliefs of communism, an alien creed, can weaken our own faith and make us easy marks for the enemies of Western civilization. On successive months, Lt Col Boettger will discuss these topics: Religion, Man, Education, Morality, Government, Economics, Peace, the Future, as these things are understood by communists and by us.) III Education From almost the beginning of the Soviet power in Russia, the importance of education has been stressed. It is the goal of the Communists to bring their people to a degree of literacy so that they may read the controlled press of the state. Russian scholars are divided into three sections. A four year primary school; a three year junior secondary, and a three year senior secondary school, and a three year senior secondary school make up the ten grades. It is claimed that over 30 million pupils are enrolled, with an additional 2 million in technical schools and 2 million more in universities. From 1917 to 1955 the Russians raised their literacy rate from below 50% to 95%. It is the use to which this achievement is put which disturbs the people of the democracies. Communist education is a weapon to control the minds of the people. Little children are told wretched tales of the pitiful lot of working children in America. Hatred of democratic nations is stressed. Textbooks are often hastily recalled and revised after a major shift in Soviet party lines. "Slavery" and "starvation" in the United States are described, while the Soviet worker is pictured as having more freedom and a higher standard of living than any others in the world. As a matter of fact, schools outside the big cities of Russia are not very good. There is a growing system of private boarding schools for the party elite. Children are taught to spy on their parents. Gifted children are placed in special schools and later enter the Komsomol, Communist Youth league. To the Russians, our ideas of universal education for the development of the whole man and above all, religious education to produce lives able to glorify God, are abhorrent. Their goal is trained brains and muscles , obedient to the Soviet ambitions. A whole generation of young Russians has grown up under this theory. They have shown startling advances in science. But before we re-scale our whole system of education to out-produce them in scientists, let's reflect that our goals of education are fundamentally different. We are trying to educate for wholeness, while they narrow down to make man tools of the government. In the long run we shall be grateful that we have, and will continue to have, educated men who know the what and why and where, as well as the know-how. Once more we are faced with a head-on collision of faith. Theirs is a faith in man as part of a mechanical universe. Ours is a faith in man as a child of God. They educate for the fullest development of body, mind and soul. When American education is awake to its real goals, it will help produce the citizens of a free society, able to keep it free. And we will have all the dedicated scientists, educators, business leaders, statesmen an artists we need as each person realizes his best self.