Teachers' Paradise

In Berlin this week a school opened that was something to write home about. And a good many of its U.S. teachers did. Running from nursery to college age, the school was housed in a spic-&-span 35-room building in suburban Dahlem; it had fully equipped laboratories for physics, chemistry and biology; its textbooks were so new that many of them are not yet in use in U.S. schools; its teachers all had places to live. But it was not for Germans.

The dream school was one of 40-odd schools now being opened in the U.S. zone of Germany for the children of occupation troops. The Berlin school started with about 175 U.S. children (40% of them below fourth grade), and a smattering from the Danish, French and Belgian military missions. In 26 years of school experience, Superintendent Edwin M. Boyne of Michigan had never seen such equipment and such first class personnel. Cost to parents: up to the rank of sergeant, nothing; for all others, $4 per month per child.

To round up teaching talent, Military Government officers had gone on a two-month raid of the U.S. To many a teacher-starved U.S. board of education, the Government's campaign looked like poaching. For the 120 jobs in Germany, there were over 1,000 applications. Chief lure: an average salary of $4,500 (the same teachers would average $3,000 apiece in U.S. schools). In Germany, room & board will cost about $37.50 a month, and the Army does the teachers' apartment hunting. Other attractions: the trip abroad; the chance to get away from the routine of small-town U.S. teaching; and perhaps (for several of the dozen women teachers who went over), Germany's surplus of U.S. males.

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