Teaching humanity

On the first day of the new school year, all the teachers in one private school received the following note from their principal.

Dear Teacher:

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness:

--Gas chambers built by *learned* engineers.
--Children poisoned by *educated* physicians.
--Infants killed by *trained* nurses.
--Women and babies shot and burned by *high school* and *college* graduates.

So, I am suspicious of education.

My request is: Help your students to become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.

Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane.

-From Haim Ginott’s Teacher & Child

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