In ‘Gesinnungsdiktatur oder Gedankenfreiheit ? Gedanken über eine liberale Gestaltung des Gesinnungsunterrichts’ Jahr involves himself quite bravely into a growing debate about modes and models of character formation and education. The old models of paternalistic
indoctrination of the Imperial times were already used by fascist right-wing and left-wing groups for indoctrination in the Weimar Republik. He supports an interactive pedagogical partnership model of information and discourse in the classroom, respect for individual values and a nondirective interactive moral discourse [Arbeitsunterricht]. The journal ‘Die neue Erziehung. Monatsschrift für entschiedene Schulreform und freiheitliche Schulpolitik’ had to stop publication in 1934, when Nazi politics and ideology became more dominating. Jahr’s ten points of advice in liberal value-based interactive teaching still are valid today. Recognizing cultural and individual differences in thought, conviction and attitudes, an interactive discourse and teaching approach is even more warranted today in the wider international and intercultural dimensions of bioethics and ethics.
[Abstract by Hans Martin Sass]