At the Frankfurt Workshop 6 psychologists from the United States and 14 . psychologists from eight countries of Western Europe met at the Institute for a three-week briefing period. During this time German specialists in education and psychology reviewed with them the structure and functioning of the German educational system from the elementary school (Volkschule) through the university. Following this briefing period 35 psychologists and educators from Western Germany joined the Workshop. For four more weeks the Workshop met in daily plenary sessions and small discussion groups. Four weeks of close association in these groups permitted the discussion of problems in detail. This is not the place to make a report of the Workshop. 1 Of immediate concern here is the enthusiastic interest of the German psychologists and educators in social psychology and in social development of children. In the area of human relations the discussion was very stimulating. There are, however, undefined and unsuspected limitations to a discussion of such topics as democracy, child development, dynamics of human interaction, or social development of the child.At the Frankfurt Workshop discussion of a number of topics seemed to support one premise: that German children are psychologically very dependent on adults. This dependence takes a form of intellectual and emotional subordination to adults. It was very difficult for the participants to document or to make explicit the nature, the extent or the intensity of this de-*Presented at the 1953 Annual Meeting. 1 A mimeographed report of the Workshop has been prepared for distribution by the Hochschule fuer Internationale Paedagogische Forschung, 29 Schloss Strasse, Frankfurt am Main. Germany. H. H. AND G. L. ANDERSON 247 pendent relationship. There was practically no psychological research during the Hitler regime. Germany has a scarcity of young trained scientists. Libraries destroyed during the war have not been replaced. Financial support and time requisite for research are difficult to obtain. A number of excellent stud- ies (6, 10, 11, 14) since the war bear on this problem of dependency. But these studies report again mainly case studies made by insightful persons or judgments or impressions based on unsystematic observations. Such documentation as was provided at the Workshop took the form of observations and judgments such as the following:1. School children must choose their careers by the age of ten. This means that the decision as to the child's career is in fact made by the parents. In the school system as it has for long been organized it is very difficult to alter this decision once made. Although educators are concerned, the children's parents and the public at large do not see this as an educational or psychological problem. What it means in adult-child relations must be conjectured mainly from casual impressions and personal reports.2. It was reported that discipline problems are practically nonexistent in school. In their overt behavior children obey their teachers.3. I...
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