Thirty-five years ago (January 25, 1990), the New York Times published an article by Susan Chira entitled “Americans’ Challenge: Teaching Democracy.” The article noted how the American Federation of Teachers was working with educators in Eastern Europe to revise the curriculum and eliminate authoritarian methods of teaching.
The Americans were planning to offer seminars in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia on teaching methods that would encourage democracy.
Poland, after a rough patch, seems to be on the right track again. Whatever the Americans did in Hungary, it failed. As for Czechoslovakia, it split and is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
It might have been better if the teachers had stayed home. That’s where their biggest failure is located.
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