Student drinking in the Third Reich: Academic tradition and the Nazi revolution†

Heavy consumption of alcohol pervaded the student world in Germany to an even greater extent than elsewhere. Many of the fraternities, to which a substantial proportion of the student body belonged, required their members to undergo regular, formal and compulsory drinking bouts. The temperance movement had little effect on students until a general mood of austerity dawned after the First World War. The National Socialists identified themselves with the new sobriety in many policies aside from drink. After Hitler's seizure of power in 1933, one can identify a certain ambivalence in alcohol policies. On the one hand, the puritanical conscience of the Nazis wanted to purge Germany of all decadence, but there was an equally strong impulse for a prolonged victory celebration in traditionally alcoholic terms. This unresolved dilemma can be neatly illustrated through an examination of the universities at the time.

Nazi student leaders indulged in rowdy celebrations after 1933, while denouncing the fraternity world for its alcoholic excesses. This double standard persisted throughout the Third Reich. The Nazis persecuted fraternity members for harmless, drunken horseplay which looked like expressions of political discontent, while plying freshmen with beer and wine themselves, in order to persuade them to join the rather dull, Nazi student organizations. Where alcoholic misdemeanours did occur within the Nazi students’ own ranks, they were treated in various ways, according to political convenience. There was little chance of a strong stand against excessive student drinking with an outright alcoholic as Education Minister during this whole period. In more general terms, the production of beer and wine formed an important part of the German economy, which the government was trying to stimulate, not depress. Drinking remained, then, as a central part of student life despite a promised revolution in all aspects of the academic world. The old traditions persisted, and were sometimes even taken up by the Nazis themselves in their concern for historic roots and legitimacy.

     

Student ability in identifying reasons for different points of view: A learning activity conducted with a group of Japanese High School Students

Problem solving as a skill is emphasized within the revised Japanese Course of Study for schools. This experimental study, conducted among Japanese high school students, evaluates an effort to develop student ability to identify reasons fordifferent points of view, not just personally favored views. First, the ability of all students was tested using a reading literacy question from the 2000 PISA test, which measures the reading skills of evaluation and reflection. The experimental group then participated in a developmental learning activity. After the activity, all students were retested using the same PISA question. Nothing conclusive was found regarding the general effectiveness of the lesson activity, but two insights were gained. It was found that student self-awareness of the importance of the learning task and interactive learning are important to consider.     

Whatever it takes! Using a component theory approach with public secondary school principals ‘doing schooling differently’

Purpose: The research seeks to capture the ‘special character’ of schools as seen through the eyes of the Principal and to introduce alternative understandings of ideological praxis’ to challenge and unsettle the dominant ideology and logics of secondary schooling with consequent school design implications in South Australia.

Design/methodology/approach: Using an ideological framework based, the research focussed on the common shared understandings across each school pertaining to each ideology. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and analysed through interpretive and hermeneutic processes.

Findings: The findings show the tensions, subtleties and nuances of two dominant and competing ideologies: a dominant discourse of individual schooling purpose for student mobility and economic productivity and an emerging public purposes ideology of education for good citizenship, sustainable futures and the public good. The dominant neoliberal public policy ideology and the associated historical design logics of conventional schooling is challenged and reconstituted by the experience, expertise, courage, determination and moral purpose of the principals in this research.

Originality/value: This article opens specific ideological understandings held by the Principals that have moved all of the schools towards pedagogical excellence and a repurposing of their organisations for the students’ sake.     

Growing up with parental alcohol abuse: exposure to childhood abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction

OBJECTIVE: This study is a detailed examination of the association between parental alcohol abuse (mother only, father only, or both parents) and multiple forms of childhood abuse, neglect, and other household dysfunction, known as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). METHOD: A questionnaire about ACEs including child abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, and exposure to parental alcohol abuse was completed by 8629 adult HMO members to retrospectively assess the relationship of growing up with parental alcohol abuse to 10 ACEs and multiple ACEs (ACE score). RESULTS: Compared to persons who grew up with no parental alcohol abuse, the adjusted odds ratio for each category of ACE was approximately 2 to 13 times higher if either the mother, father, or both parents abused alcohol (p < 0.05). For example, the likelihood of having a battered mother was increased 13-fold for men who grew up with both parents who abused alcohol (OR, 12.7; 95% CI: 8.4-19.1). For almost every ACE, those who grew up with both an alcohol-abusing mother and father had the highest likelihood of ACEs. The mean number of ACEs for persons with no parental alcohol abuse, father only, mother only, or both parents was 1.4, 2.6, 3.2, and 3.8, respectively (p < .001). CONCLUSION: Although the retrospective reporting of these experiences cannot establish a causal association with certainty, exposure to parental alcohol abuse is highly associated with experiencing adverse childhood experiences. Improved coordination of adult and pediatric health care along with related social and substance abuse services may lead to earlier recognition, treatment, and prevention of both adult alcohol abuse and adverse childhood experiences, reducing the negative sequelae of ACEs in adolescents and adults.     

Young children's beliefs about the relationship between gender and aggressive behavior

Young children's beliefs about the relationship between gender and aggression were examined across 3 studies (N=121). In Study 1, preschoolers (ages 3 to 5) described relational aggression as the most common form of aggression among girls and physical aggression as the most common form among boys. In Study 2, preschoolers and a comparison group of 7- to 8-year-olds were likely to infer that relationally aggressive characters are female and physically aggressive characters are male. Study 3 revealed that preschoolers show systematic memory distortions when recalling stories that conflict with these gender schemas. These findings suggest that even before children reach school age, they have organized patterns of beliefs about gender that affect the way they process social information.