Kurt Hahn
Encyclopedia
Kurt Martin Hahn was a German educator whose philosophies are considered internationally influential.
, Berlin, Heidelberg
, Freiburg
and Göttingen
. During World War I
, Hahn worked in the German Department for Foreign Affairs, analyzing English newspapers and advising the Foreign Office. He had been private secretary to Prince Max von Baden, the last Imperial Chancellor of Germany. From 1920 to 1933 Hahn was the first headmaster of Schule Schloss Salem
, a private boarding school in Germany, founded by Hahn in cooperation with Prince Max. In 1933 Hahn was forced out of Germany and moved to Scotland, where he founded Gordonstoun
and served as its headmaster until 1953. Hahn was also involved in the foundation of the Outward Bound
Organisation, Atlantic College
in Wales and the wider United World College
movement, and the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Hahn was raised as a Jew and served as the Salem School's headmaster during Hitler
's rise to power. Hahn began his fierce criticism of the Nazi regime after a young communist was killed in the presence of his mother by Hitler's storm troopers. When he spoke out against the storm troopers, who had received no punishment, Hahn spoke against Hitler publicly. He asked the students, faculty, and alumni of the Salem school to choose between Salem and Hitler. As a result he was imprisoned for five days (from 11 to 16 March 1933). After an appeal by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
, Hahn was released and in July 1933 he was able to emigrate to Britain, where he settled in Scotland and founded Gordonstoun
on similar principles to the school in Salem. Later, Hahn converted to Christianity
and preached in the Church of Scotland
. He also started an international organisation of schools, now called the Round Square
.
in his philosophy. Hahn's educational thinking was crystallized by World War I
, which he viewed as proof of the corruption of society and a promise of later doom if people (Europeans particularly) could not be taught differently. At the Schule Schloss Salem
, in addition to acting as headmaster, he taught history, politics, ancient Greek, Shakespeare and Schiller. He was deeply influenced by Plato's thought.
Gordonstoun is based less on Eton than on Salem. Hahn's prefects are called Colour Bearers, and traditionally they are promoted accoding to Hahn's values: concern and compassion for others, the willingness to accept responsibility, and concern and tenacity in pursuit of the truth. Punishment of any kind is viewed as a last resort.
, Hahn met the educationalist T. C. Worsley
and persuaded him to spend a summer term at the newly-founded Gordonstoun in the capacity of consultant
. In his memoir Flannelled Fool: A Slice of a Life in the Thirties
, Worsley records his impressions of Hahn's penetrating character analysis, and his energy and commitment in the cause of human development, but as time went on he became critical of Hahn's "despotic, overpowering personality":
Hahn's behaviour came to seem to Worsley "so ineffably, so Germanically silly" that he was unable to share the clear adulation of the teaching staff:
Hahn's views on Shakespeare
led to an open disagreement:
And worst of all:
Hahn not only pointed out the decline of modern youth, he also came up with four antidotes to fix the problem.
1. The primacy of self-discovery
2. The having of wonderful ideas
3. The responsibility for learning
4. Empathy and caring
5. Success and failure
6. Collaboration and competition
7. Diversity and inclusion
8. The natural world
9. Solitude and reflection
10. Service and compassion
opened in Brooklyn
, New York. The school's mission is prepare informed, skilled, courageous civic leaders and is named after Kurt Hahn because he embodied those values.
Biography
Born in Berlin of Jewish parents, Hahn studied in OxfordOxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, Berlin, Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
and Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Hahn worked in the German Department for Foreign Affairs, analyzing English newspapers and advising the Foreign Office. He had been private secretary to Prince Max von Baden, the last Imperial Chancellor of Germany. From 1920 to 1933 Hahn was the first headmaster of Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem is a boarding school with campuses in Hohenfels, Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. It is considered one of the most elite schools in Europe.It offers the German Abitur, as well as the International Baccalaureate...
, a private boarding school in Germany, founded by Hahn in cooperation with Prince Max. In 1933 Hahn was forced out of Germany and moved to Scotland, where he founded Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray in North East Scotland. Named after the estate originally owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 1600s, the school now uses this estate as its campus...
and served as its headmaster until 1953. Hahn was also involved in the foundation of the Outward Bound
Outward Bound
Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...
Organisation, Atlantic College
Atlantic College
The United World College of the Atlantic, also known as Atlantic College, is an international IB Diploma Programme boarding school in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1962, the school was the first of the United World Colleges and was among the first schools in the world to follow an international...
in Wales and the wider United World College
United World Colleges
UWC is an education movement comprising thirteen international schools and colleges, national committees in over 130 countries and a series of short educational programmes. The UWC movement aims to make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future...
movement, and the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Hahn was raised as a Jew and served as the Salem School's headmaster during Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's rise to power. Hahn began his fierce criticism of the Nazi regime after a young communist was killed in the presence of his mother by Hitler's storm troopers. When he spoke out against the storm troopers, who had received no punishment, Hahn spoke against Hitler publicly. He asked the students, faculty, and alumni of the Salem school to choose between Salem and Hitler. As a result he was imprisoned for five days (from 11 to 16 March 1933). After an appeal by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
, Hahn was released and in July 1933 he was able to emigrate to Britain, where he settled in Scotland and founded Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray in North East Scotland. Named after the estate originally owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 1600s, the school now uses this estate as its campus...
on similar principles to the school in Salem. Later, Hahn converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and preached in the Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
. He also started an international organisation of schools, now called the Round Square
Round Square
The Round Square Conference of Schools is a worldwide association of more than 80 schools that allows students to travel between schools,tour foreign countries, involve themselves in community service and discover cultures along the way.-History:...
.
Philosophy
Hahn's educational philosophy was based on respect for adolescents, whom he believed to possess an innate decency and moral sense, but who were, he believed, corrupted by society as they aged. He believed that education could prevent this corruption, if students were given opportunities for personal leadership and to see the results of their own actions. This is one reason for the focus on outdoor adventureOutdoor education
Outdoor education usually refers to organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges in the form of outdoor activities such as hiking,...
in his philosophy. Hahn's educational thinking was crystallized by World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, which he viewed as proof of the corruption of society and a promise of later doom if people (Europeans particularly) could not be taught differently. At the Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem is a boarding school with campuses in Hohenfels, Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. It is considered one of the most elite schools in Europe.It offers the German Abitur, as well as the International Baccalaureate...
, in addition to acting as headmaster, he taught history, politics, ancient Greek, Shakespeare and Schiller. He was deeply influenced by Plato's thought.
Gordonstoun is based less on Eton than on Salem. Hahn's prefects are called Colour Bearers, and traditionally they are promoted accoding to Hahn's values: concern and compassion for others, the willingness to accept responsibility, and concern and tenacity in pursuit of the truth. Punishment of any kind is viewed as a last resort.
Personality
In 1934, through his lectures in London to the New Education FellowshipBeatrice Ensor
Beatrice Ensor was a theosophical educationist, pedagogue, co-founder of the New Education Fellowship and editor of the journal Education for the New Era....
, Hahn met the educationalist T. C. Worsley
T. C. Worsley
Thomas Cuthbert Worsley , who wrote as T. C. Worsley, was a British teacher, writer, editor, and theatre and television critic. He is best-remembered for his autobiographical Flannelled Fool: A Slice of a Life in the Thirties.-Biography:...
and persuaded him to spend a summer term at the newly-founded Gordonstoun in the capacity of consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
. In his memoir Flannelled Fool: A Slice of a Life in the Thirties
Flannelled Fool
Flannelled Fool is an autobiography by T. C. Worsley, published in 1967. It takes its title from a phrase in "The Islanders", a poem by Rudyard Kipling....
, Worsley records his impressions of Hahn's penetrating character analysis, and his energy and commitment in the cause of human development, but as time went on he became critical of Hahn's "despotic, overpowering personality":
He revealed himself as having a fierce temper, a strong hand with the cane, and a temperament which hated being crossed. Especially damaging to my very English view, was his dislike of being defeated at any game. Hahn was an avid tennis player. But was it an easily forgiveable weakness that his opponents had to be chosen for being his inferiors or else, if their form was unknown, instructed not to let themselves win?
Hahn's behaviour came to seem to Worsley "so ineffably, so Germanically silly" that he was unable to share the clear adulation of the teaching staff:
We were going through the classrooms when, in one, he suddenly stopped, gripped my arm, raised his nostrils in the air, and then, in his marked German accent, he solemnly pronounced:'Somevon has been talking dirt in this room. I can smell it.'
Hahn's views on Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
led to an open disagreement:
He had what I have since learned to be a common German belief that Shakespeare was better in German than in English. I refused to allow this. I argued that the German translation might indeed be very good, but that the English original must be better. No, he assured me, the German was better; and as I didn't know German and he did know English, he must be right. We grew absurdly heated.
Six Declines of Modern Youth
- Decline of Fitness due to modern methods of locomotion [moving about];
- Decline of Initiative and Enterprise due to the widespread disease of spectatoritis;
- Decline of Memory and Imagination due to the confused restlessness of modern life;
- Decline of Skill and Care due to the weakened tradition of craftsmanship;
- Decline of Self-discipline due to the ever-present availability of stimulants and tranquilizers;
And worst of all:
- Decline of Compassion due to the unseemly haste with which modern life is conducted or as William Temple called “spiritual death”.
Hahn not only pointed out the decline of modern youth, he also came up with four antidotes to fix the problem.
- Fitness Training (e.g., to compete with one's self in physical fitness; in so doing, train the discipline and determination of the mind through the body)
- Expeditions (e.g., via sea or land, to engage in long, challenging endurance tasks)
- Projects (e.g., involving crafts and manual skills)
- Rescue Service (e.g., surf lifesaving, fire fighting, first aid)
Ten Expeditionary Learning Principles
These 10 principles, which seek to describe a caring, adventurous school culture and approach to learning, were drawn from the ideas of Kurt Hahn and other education leaders for use in Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound (ELOB) schools.1. The primacy of self-discovery
- Learning happens best with emotion, challenge and the requisite support. People discover their abilities, values, passions, and responsibilities in situations that offer adventure and the unexpected. In Expeditionary Learning schools, students undertake tasks that require perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline, and significant achievement. A teacher’s primary task is to help students overcome their fears and discover they can do more than they think they can.
2. The having of wonderful ideas
- Teaching in Expeditionary Learning schools fosters curiosity about the world by creating learning situations that provide something important to think about, time to experiment, and time to make sense of what is observed.
3. The responsibility for learning
- Learning is both a personal process of discovery and a social activity. Everyone learns both individually and as part of a group. Every aspect of an Expeditionary Learning school encourages both children and adults to become increasingly responsible for directing their own personal and collective learning.
4. Empathy and caring
- Learning is fostered best in communities where students’ and teachers’ ideas are respected and where there is mutual trust. Learning groups are small in Expeditionary Learning schools, with a caring adult looking after the progress and acting as an advocate for each child. Older students mentor younger ones, and students feel physically and emotionally safe.
5. Success and failure
- All students need to be successful if they are to build the confidence and capacity to take risks and meet increasingly difficult challenges. But it is also important for students to learn from their failures, to persevere when things are hard, and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities.
6. Collaboration and competition
- Individual development and group development are integrated so that the value of friendship, trust, and group action is clear. Students are encouraged to compete not against each other but with their own personal best and with rigorous standards of excellence.
7. Diversity and inclusion
- Both diversity inclusion increase the richness of ideas, creative power, problem-solving ability, respect for others. In Expeditionary Learning schools, students investigate value their different histories talents as well as those of other communities cultures. Schools learning groups heterogeneous.
8. The natural world
- direct respectful relationship with the natural world refreshes the human spirit teaches the important ideas of recurring cycles and cause and effect. Students learn to become stewards of the earth and of future generations.
9. Solitude and reflection
- Students and teachers need time alone to explore their own thoughts, make their own connections, and create their own ideas. They also need time to exchange their reflections with others.
10. Service and compassion
- We are crew, not passengers. Students and teachers are strengthened by acts of consequential service to others, and one of an Expeditionary Learning school’s primary functions is to prepare students with the attitudes and skills to learn from and be of service to others.
The Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School
In the fall of 2007, the Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning SchoolThe Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School
The Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School is a New York City public school school working in partnership with New York City Outward Bound and Expeditionary Learning. It's objective is to arm students with the knowledge, skills and character necessary to serve as informed, thoughtful and...
opened in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York. The school's mission is prepare informed, skilled, courageous civic leaders and is named after Kurt Hahn because he embodied those values.
Further reading
- Knoll, Michael (2011). School Reform Through „Experiential Therapy“: Kurt Hahn - An Effiacious Educator. Eric-online document 515256
- Knoll, Michael, ed. (1998). Kurt Hahn: Reform mit Augenmaß. Ausgewählte Schriften eines Politikers und Pädagogen. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.