The Third Reich's Elite Schools

Drawing on material from eighty archives in six different countries worldwide, as well as eyewitness testimonies from over one hundred former pupils, this book presents the first comprehensive history of the Third Reich’s most prominent elite schools, the National Political Education Institutes (Napolas/NPEA). The Napolas provided an all-encompassing National Socialist ‘total education’, featuring ideological indoctrination, pre-military training, and a packed programme of extracurricular activities, including school trips and exchanges throughout Europe and beyond. Combining all the most seductive elements of reform-pedagogy, youth-movement traditions, and the militaristic ethos of the Prussian cadet schools, the schools took pupils from the age of 10, aiming to train them for leadership roles in all walks of life. Those who successfully passed the gruelling entrance examination, which tested applicants’ physical prowess, courage, and alleged ‘racial purity’ along with their academic abilities, had to learn to live in a highly militarized and enclosed boarding-school community. Through an in-depth depiction of everyday life at the Napolas, as well as systematic analysis of the ways in which different schools within the NPEA system were shaped by their previous traditions, this study sheds light on the qualities which the Nazi regime desired to instil in its future citizens, whilst also contributing to key debates on the political, social, and cultural history of the Third Reich, demonstrating that the history of education and youth can illuminate the broader history of this era in novel ways. Ultimately, the NPEA can be seen as the Nazi dictatorship’s most effective educational experiment.

Conclusion

The conclusion succinctly summarizes the primary aims of the book as a whole, before considering how ‘effective’ the education provided by the Napolas was in comparison with the Third Reich’s other educational institutions. The NPEA appear to have been in the vanguard of many educational developments which the Reich Education Ministry subsequently intended to apply more broadly throughout the German school system. They also formed a prototype for the non-elite system of state boarding schools founded by August Heißmeyer at Hitler’s behest in 1941—the Deutsche Heimschulen. The programme of the Adolf-Hitler-Schools, rival elite schools founded in 1937 by Reich Organization Leader Robert Ley and Reich Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach, was also to a great extent deliberately copied from that of the Napolas; however, these Party elite schools were never able to realize their full potential and compete with the NPEA on equal terms. The Napolas were also more effective in their provision of a National Socialist ‘total education’ than ‘civilian’ schools and the Hitler Youth, as well as institutions such as the Reich Labour Service (RAD), the ‘Year on the Land’ (Landjahr), or the Order Castles (Ordensburgen). Taken on their own terms, then, the National Political Education Institutes can ultimately be seen as the Nazi dictatorship’s most effective educational experiment.

Meritocracy in Singaporean Educational System: Inequality in Admission to Secondary Schools

This paper explores the fairness of meritocracy concerning admission to secondary schools based on the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) in Singapore. The Ministry of Education has consistently adopted the ideology of meritocracy as so to select talented students, stimulate effort, and optimize the allocation of rewards. The PSLE results can largely determine students’ educational tracks and even career orientation in Singapore. The paper shows how the principle of meritocracy works and how the government uses meritocratic belief in the education system. The paper argues that meritocracy has posed a threat to equality in admission to secondary schools in Singapore. The findings indicate that the meritocratic policy does not recognize both the importance of family SES and the gap between elite schools and neighbourhood schools in the Singapore education system. Students with wealthy and well-educated parents and students in elite schools are more likely to acquire better educational attainment, since they tend to gain more cultural capital from family and social capital from school. The principle of meritocracy fails to allocate opportunities fairly to students and can lead to inequality in education and exacerbate educational stratification.

Education Has Been "Dumbed Down" in Tax Reform

With promises of “Make America Great Again” and tax reform for “middle-class” Americans, the current federal government administration has implied that the average American would become more prosperous under this tax system. It is no surprise that most middle-class Americans view a college education as a requirement for achieving a better life. However, under the TCJA, education has not fared well, and in reality, students from many low-and moderate-income families will face reduced scholarships from elite schools, thereby reducing diversity on these campuses. Other proposed changes to education in the original tax bill, which were later removed, are also addressed as future legislative changes may revisit them.

La legitimación del privilegio en colegios de elite chilenos: De la responsabilidad social al discurso del mérito

Chilean elite schools have historically been spaces to ensure the homogeneity and intergenerational reproduction of privileged groups. This article presents a part of the results of an ethnographic research in two elite schools, aimed to answer how each one understands and legitimizes their privileged position. The results show how both institutions deal with privilege in different ways. In the first case, through its educational project, the school seeks that students understand themselves as privileged, and its legitimation is through involving them with the country's social problems as a “hallmark” of the school’s identity. The second school understands and legitimizes the privilege through processes of resignification, conceiving it as merit. The article then suggests a broader way of thinking about the transmission of privilege, where it is necessary to contemplate the dynamics of differentiation of the establishments in market contexts and also the socio-educational correspondence between the types of projects, the strategies and the internal divisions in the elites.

European, national or global? Elite schools in postcommunist Poland

Competing socio-historical forces are now impacting on school education in Poland in ways that were not possible under the communist system, but have emerged since 1989 under the influence of different elite groups. The result is the emergence of different types of schooling for different groups of elites and of categories of elite schools representing varying degrees of convergence of European and national identity. This article focuses on these changes to the education system between 1989 and 2018, highlighting the influences of socio-political factors that facilitated the emergence of elite schools with diverse missions and outlooks.