Volksschule (a state supported school) Fischlham, Germany, October 1896.
A group of kids ranging from five years to about seven years old sit on some personal desks arranged neatly in rows, listening to their class teacher, Miss Anna.
Miss Anna: You will one day grow big and be able to choose what you want to be.
Class: (Some raise their hands up wildly in excitement.) Yeeeeey!
Miss Anna: So let's play 'What I will be when I grow up!'
Class: Yeeeey! (They all scream in excitement again.)
Miss Anna: So when I call you, you stand up and tell the class what you want to be. Is that alright kids?
Class: (In drolling unison, the whole class responds) Yes Miss Anna.
Miss Anna: Good. Reinhardt, you first.
(Little Reinhardt stands.) Tell us what you'll be when you grow up.
Reinhardt: When I grow up, I will be an engineer.
Miss Anna: Clap for him. (All claps in unison.) Ok. Ivan, your turn.
A chubby boy with scanty hair on his head stands up. The last two buttons on his shirt are undone, exposing his belly in part.
Ivan: When I grow up, I'm going to be the government!
Miss Anna: Wow, the government? That's big-- yes, I know you're big but the government is not one person, its bigger. Ok? But why would you want to be the government?
Ivan: (Still standing) Daddy says the government takes everybody's money, I want to do that when I grow.
Miss Anna: Phew! Okay, goodluck with that Ivan. Thank you and sit down please. Olivia? Your turn. Tell us what you want to be when you grow up.
(Olivia is the youngest in the class at four years. She has her hair packed neatly in two ponytails. Olivia stands with her small teddy held securely under her left arm.)
Olivia: When I grow up, I wanna be...I wanna be a mummy...(whole class of kids bursts out laughing. Little Olivia tears up and sits down, bowing her head in embarrassment.)
Miss Anna: (walks to Olivia's seat and strokes her hair comfortingly.) Awww Olivia, that was lovely; we all love our mummies. (Then turning to the class, she adds.) Now class, remember rule number 4....(she leaves off completing the statement, giving the class a cue.)
Class: (In unison and with loud voices) Never laugh at an answer because no answer is stupid.
Miss Anna: Very good! Now keep that in mind. (She walks back and sits at her desk at the front of the class. She looks to the next pupil in line.) Adolf? it's your turn. What will you like to be and do when you grow up?
(Awkward silence pervades the class as nobody gets up. All the students look in one direction, at a little boy with mildly brown hair and dark fierce eyes.)
Miss Anna: Adolf, Why? Awww, don't be shy...get up and tell us, I'm sure you have something nice to say. (Miss Anna gently encourages the boy. Adolf stands. A pint sized cute kid with surprisingly calm mien and piercing eyes. He looks straight at the teacher, with an uncanny confidence.)
Adolf: Do you really wanna hear it Miss Anna?
Miss Anna: Of course Adolf, go ahead.
(The boy is impeccably dressed in his school uniform and his hair neatly arranged.)
Adolf: When I grow...(he pauses and a sinister smile flashes across his face and disappears as suddenly as it comes.)
Miss Anna: Uhu...continue, don't be shy.
(Miss Anna thought she observed something strange as she looked at little Adolf, it seemed his eye colour varied as he made to speak; from bluish, dark brown to deep blue colour. Maybe it was her head playing pranks on her. She shoke it off.)
Adolf: I'm going to be a politician...
Miss Anna: (Cuts in assuming he was done.) Wooow! Isn't that nice, class let's all cla...
Adolf: (Still calm but raising his voice higher) I'm not done Miss Anna!
Miss Anna: (Taken aback by the calm yet firm rebuke, turns with a confused look on her face.) Oh? Sorry Adolf. Now you go ahead and finish up.
Adolf: I will not be just any politician, I will push Germany forward and bring her to her rightful place as world power!
(The children listen calmly, not knowing what to make of the ongoing speech while Miss Anna stares at Adolf, stunned by his seriousness and grasp of purpose and concepts that's beyond his age).
Adolf: I shall create a German Utopia of a perfect German race: to purge our society of the filth of human scum: the disfigured, mentally unstable and people with disabilities, will be eliminated. And yes, people may not understand me enough to support me in a Democratic setting so I shall stick to Nazism to...
(Miss Anna snaps out enough, from her shocked state to interrupt the boy.)
Miss Anna: Nazism. What's that?
Adolf: It will be my political machine, the one party system with I will use to spread terror unopposed to those who stand in the way of my vision for a German world power...
(By this time Miss Anna is visibly shaken and scared at the words of hatred that are coming from her pupil's mouth and tries to calm him and end his ranting.)
Miss Anna: (Calls gently) Adolf...?
Adolf: (Lost in fervor and the reverie of his passioned speech.) And the Jews...I shall kill every last one of them, even if they number in millions...
Miss Anna: (Getting up from her seat. Now, very concerned.) Ad... Adolf, now calm dow...Adolf? (Boy continues raving absent mindedly.)
Adolf: Germany shall invade Poland, the land of the British Queen, Moscow we shall lay to waste...
Miss Anna: (now fully exasperated, screams.) ADOLF HITLER shut up immediately or I shall take you to the Principal's office this minute!
(Adolf stops and heaves a sigh, as though detaching from his oral utopia of world domination. He stares her calmly in the eye. She can't believe her six year old pupil is scaring her.)
Miss Anna: Sit down this minute! (She manages some command in her shaky voice.) I shall see your mother after school. That's all for today, no more "What will you be when you grow up" for today.
******
Okay. You probably know that that never happened. No kid could be so mean that early except Judas Iscariot, the greedy, hardened betrayer of Jesus of Nazareth! No. Not even him. I'm just messing with some loose historic fact about German Fuhrer of the third Reich, and arguably one of the most cruel dictator the world has ever had.
My wandering is: would history have been different, if Hitler tolled another path in life. The whole catastrophe of senseless deaths and anarchy emanating from World War II is linked to this man, Adolf Hitler. If he never joined the army or politics, the six million Jews killed might have been spared, the tortures of the Nazi concentration camps and horror tales, the abominable experiments carried out on twins and other humans might have been avoided. Just maybe.
Did you know he could have ended up as a painter? Adolf Hitler loved painting and was good at it. He wanted to study arts but his father Alois Hitler never allowed him. In fact for some years into his political career he kept on painting. Imagine if his father let the boy paint. Maybe, history would have been less scarred.
Let's help the children find their inner 'callings' and excel in it, rather than push them into societal stereotypes or cravings. It might prove disastrous much later in life.
Just a thought: if the boy loves to paint, let him paint.
A group of kids ranging from five years to about seven years old sit on some personal desks arranged neatly in rows, listening to their class teacher, Miss Anna.
Miss Anna: You will one day grow big and be able to choose what you want to be.
Class: (Some raise their hands up wildly in excitement.) Yeeeeey!
Miss Anna: So let's play 'What I will be when I grow up!'
Class: Yeeeey! (They all scream in excitement again.)
Miss Anna: So when I call you, you stand up and tell the class what you want to be. Is that alright kids?
Class: (In drolling unison, the whole class responds) Yes Miss Anna.
Miss Anna: Good. Reinhardt, you first.
(Little Reinhardt stands.) Tell us what you'll be when you grow up.
Reinhardt: When I grow up, I will be an engineer.
Miss Anna: Clap for him. (All claps in unison.) Ok. Ivan, your turn.
A chubby boy with scanty hair on his head stands up. The last two buttons on his shirt are undone, exposing his belly in part.
Ivan: When I grow up, I'm going to be the government!
Miss Anna: Wow, the government? That's big-- yes, I know you're big but the government is not one person, its bigger. Ok? But why would you want to be the government?
Ivan: (Still standing) Daddy says the government takes everybody's money, I want to do that when I grow.
Miss Anna: Phew! Okay, goodluck with that Ivan. Thank you and sit down please. Olivia? Your turn. Tell us what you want to be when you grow up.
(Olivia is the youngest in the class at four years. She has her hair packed neatly in two ponytails. Olivia stands with her small teddy held securely under her left arm.)
Olivia: When I grow up, I wanna be...I wanna be a mummy...(whole class of kids bursts out laughing. Little Olivia tears up and sits down, bowing her head in embarrassment.)
Miss Anna: (walks to Olivia's seat and strokes her hair comfortingly.) Awww Olivia, that was lovely; we all love our mummies. (Then turning to the class, she adds.) Now class, remember rule number 4....(she leaves off completing the statement, giving the class a cue.)
Class: (In unison and with loud voices) Never laugh at an answer because no answer is stupid.
Miss Anna: Very good! Now keep that in mind. (She walks back and sits at her desk at the front of the class. She looks to the next pupil in line.) Adolf? it's your turn. What will you like to be and do when you grow up?
(Awkward silence pervades the class as nobody gets up. All the students look in one direction, at a little boy with mildly brown hair and dark fierce eyes.)
Miss Anna: Adolf, Why? Awww, don't be shy...get up and tell us, I'm sure you have something nice to say. (Miss Anna gently encourages the boy. Adolf stands. A pint sized cute kid with surprisingly calm mien and piercing eyes. He looks straight at the teacher, with an uncanny confidence.)
Adolf: Do you really wanna hear it Miss Anna?
Miss Anna: Of course Adolf, go ahead.
(The boy is impeccably dressed in his school uniform and his hair neatly arranged.)
Adolf: When I grow...(he pauses and a sinister smile flashes across his face and disappears as suddenly as it comes.)
Miss Anna: Uhu...continue, don't be shy.
(Miss Anna thought she observed something strange as she looked at little Adolf, it seemed his eye colour varied as he made to speak; from bluish, dark brown to deep blue colour. Maybe it was her head playing pranks on her. She shoke it off.)
Adolf: I'm going to be a politician...
Miss Anna: (Cuts in assuming he was done.) Wooow! Isn't that nice, class let's all cla...
Adolf: (Still calm but raising his voice higher) I'm not done Miss Anna!
Miss Anna: (Taken aback by the calm yet firm rebuke, turns with a confused look on her face.) Oh? Sorry Adolf. Now you go ahead and finish up.
Adolf: I will not be just any politician, I will push Germany forward and bring her to her rightful place as world power!
(The children listen calmly, not knowing what to make of the ongoing speech while Miss Anna stares at Adolf, stunned by his seriousness and grasp of purpose and concepts that's beyond his age).
Adolf: I shall create a German Utopia of a perfect German race: to purge our society of the filth of human scum: the disfigured, mentally unstable and people with disabilities, will be eliminated. And yes, people may not understand me enough to support me in a Democratic setting so I shall stick to Nazism to...
(Miss Anna snaps out enough, from her shocked state to interrupt the boy.)
Miss Anna: Nazism. What's that?
Adolf: It will be my political machine, the one party system with I will use to spread terror unopposed to those who stand in the way of my vision for a German world power...
(By this time Miss Anna is visibly shaken and scared at the words of hatred that are coming from her pupil's mouth and tries to calm him and end his ranting.)
Miss Anna: (Calls gently) Adolf...?
Adolf: (Lost in fervor and the reverie of his passioned speech.) And the Jews...I shall kill every last one of them, even if they number in millions...
Miss Anna: (Getting up from her seat. Now, very concerned.) Ad... Adolf, now calm dow...Adolf? (Boy continues raving absent mindedly.)
Adolf: Germany shall invade Poland, the land of the British Queen, Moscow we shall lay to waste...
Miss Anna: (now fully exasperated, screams.) ADOLF HITLER shut up immediately or I shall take you to the Principal's office this minute!
(Adolf stops and heaves a sigh, as though detaching from his oral utopia of world domination. He stares her calmly in the eye. She can't believe her six year old pupil is scaring her.)
Miss Anna: Sit down this minute! (She manages some command in her shaky voice.) I shall see your mother after school. That's all for today, no more "What will you be when you grow up" for today.
******
Okay. You probably know that that never happened. No kid could be so mean that early except Judas Iscariot, the greedy, hardened betrayer of Jesus of Nazareth! No. Not even him. I'm just messing with some loose historic fact about German Fuhrer of the third Reich, and arguably one of the most cruel dictator the world has ever had.
My wandering is: would history have been different, if Hitler tolled another path in life. The whole catastrophe of senseless deaths and anarchy emanating from World War II is linked to this man, Adolf Hitler. If he never joined the army or politics, the six million Jews killed might have been spared, the tortures of the Nazi concentration camps and horror tales, the abominable experiments carried out on twins and other humans might have been avoided. Just maybe.
Did you know he could have ended up as a painter? Adolf Hitler loved painting and was good at it. He wanted to study arts but his father Alois Hitler never allowed him. In fact for some years into his political career he kept on painting. Imagine if his father let the boy paint. Maybe, history would have been less scarred.
Let's help the children find their inner 'callings' and excel in it, rather than push them into societal stereotypes or cravings. It might prove disastrous much later in life.
Just a thought: if the boy loves to paint, let him paint.
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