ABSTRACT
Broad changes in the economy and society brought by WW2 called for a reform also in the educational systems. The situation, only partly described for western countries, was considerably different in the countries under the Soviet influence. The ideological basis on the one hand and the promotion of hard subjects and technology on the other hand formed important ingrediencies of the soviet influenced school systems during the Cold War.
In this paper we study the situation in Czechoslovakia, for which its President Edvard Beneš proposed the role of the “bridge between the East and the West”. The school reform was an important component of the ideological and political campaign. As documented in his Four speeches on school reform from 1947, President Beneš himself acted as a mediator in the discussions.
The reformist Left under strong control of the Communist Party kept many leading positions and presented their opponents in the public as reactionary and repeatedly accused of counterrevolution and a collaboration with fascism. The struggles manifested themselves in the debate on the so-called Unified School Act introducing unified secondary education (Grades 6–9) for all healthy kids. The opposition only delayed the introduction of the Act up to May 1948. On the other hand, even the Communists were unable to sustain the idea during their rule. They introduced, e.g., specialized classes for mathematically gifted kids. It is remarkable that both sets of arguments remain in fact unchanged up to this day in the debate on cancelling the selection process for elite grammar schools at the age of 11, their dispute persists in many ways as a dispute between collective and individual approaches to mathematics education.
The leading personalities of the mathematical community were involved in the struggles, however some of them only covertly. Bohumil Bydžovský and Eduard Čech held the reformist side and Václav Hlavatý advocated the conservative side. We show which school system was preferred by Bydžovský and Hlavatý, exemplified on the possibilities of individual and group work in the classroom. It became apparent what their hierarchy of values were, or which audience they spoke to. We show what media slogans they used in line with their views.
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