Education for independence

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In today's pedagogical and social discourse, the term education for independence encompasses those educational concepts whose goal is a child who becomes largely independent of support, especially from his parents, at an early age. Education for independence does not only take place as an aid to self-help, but also aims in individualistically oriented western societies to promote the autonomy of young people.

Theoretical reflection on an educational goal of “independence” has been taking place in Western societies since the beginning of modernity . Current theoretical considerations on education for independence are also often based on criticism of perceived or real sociocultural phenomena such as B. Helicopter parents give wings. This is why it is characteristic of this discourse that it is sometimes more marked by idiosyncrasies about certain lifestyles than by positive educational goals.

History of self-employment education

In the pedagogical discourse in German-speaking countries, the educational goal of independence has experienced an upswing since the 1970s. The behavioral biologist and bio-cyberneticist Bernhard Hassenstein demanded in 1973 that the educators "strive for the child's independence as the most important goal (before obedience, cleanliness, etc.)". Elmar Drieschner later reported: “As empirical studies show, the requirement of optimal support is particularly directed towards independence as the primary educational goal. There is unanimous agreement in the literature that there has been a change in educational values, educational styles and educational relationships. In the 1950s, order, diligence, subordination and respect were still important educational goals, so as early as the 1980s, independence and free will ranked as central educational norms across all social classes […] ”.

In 1990 the American psychiatrists Foster W. Cline and Jim Fay coined the term “ helicopter parents ” to describe overprotective behaviors of parents who, in constant worry and with excessive expectations, buzz around them all like a helicopter to save your own problem solving. In the German-speaking world, more terms appeared in the 2010s that describe similar situations in key words, such as "curling parents", " parents' taxi " and "rear seat children ".

Around 2000, a social discourse arose in the German-speaking region about the problem of a dependent upbringing. The social pedagogue Albert Wunsch published his book Die Verwöhnungsfalle that year and another book in 2003, Farewell to Fun Pedagogy . In it, Wunsch took up considerations that Alfred Adler had made about pampering in the early 20th century and brought them into an eclectic context with Catholic criticism of secularization and positions of positive psychology . Wunsch argued that a pampering upbringing would release children into life unprepared and discouraged. The President of the German Teachers' Association (DLV) Josef Kraus and the Swedish psychiatrist David Eberhard later took a similar position .

While thinking about self-employment education in German-speaking countries to this day mainly deals with idiosyncrasies towards lifestyle phenomena such as "helicopter parents" or the "parents' taxi", in 2001 the clinical psychologist Wendy Mogel in the United States also developed a comprehensive theoretical concept for the first time Self-employment education presented. Their educational program, based on the Jewish faith , aims not only at independence, but also at resilience , a good character , moral integrity and an altruistic orientation of the growing person. Her book The Blessings of a Skinned Knee and her 2010 book on teenage education The Blessings of a B Minus provide detailed instructions on how such an education can actually be implemented. Without having received her work, a little later in Germany - in the spirit of Mogel - also the pedagogue Wolfgang Bergmann criticized that self-employment education alone was worthless because parents too often only use it to “make the child fit for competition out in the world, for power and achievement ”.

Individual aspects of child independence

In 2009, blogger Lenore Skenazy called on parents in a book Free-Range Kids in the USA to let their children spend significantly more time unattended and, in particular, to allow them to move freely around their parents' home. Skenazy had her daughter z. B. Already at the age of 9 you are allowed to ride the subway alone in New York City. In many American communities and states, such behavior is punishable as neglect . While Mogel has the entire parenting education in mind in her upbringing philosophy , Free-Range Parenting is mainly about the partial aspect of the design of parental supervision. As the social discourse about the so-called parent taxi shows, the unsupervised stay of children outside of protected areas, especially in traffic, is also perceived as a key issue in self-employment in German-speaking countries.

See also

literature

Overview literature

  • Elmar Drieschner: Educational goal "independence": Basics, theories and problems of a model of education . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15437-4 ( limited preview in Google book search).

Education criticism

  • Jürg Frick: Pampering the drug. Examples, consequences, alternatives. Huber, Bern 2001; 4th, revised and expanded edition 2011, ISBN 978-3-456-84878-5 .
  • Petra Ivanov : Concentrated anger. Appenzeller, Herisau 2014, ISBN 978-3-85882-678-7 (example of the consequences of a pampering upbringing from the perspective of a delinquent youth).
  • Margrit Stamm: Let go of the children. Why a relaxed upbringing makes you fit for life . Piper Paperback, 2017, ISBN 978-3-492-31216-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elmar Drieschner: Educational goal "independence": Basics, theories and problems of a model of education . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15437-4 , p. 19 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ Frank Müller: Books on the topic of "Child & Consumption". In: Literaturkritik.de. February 2004.
  3. ↑ Bernhard Hassenstein: Behavioral Biology of the Child . Piper, Munich / Zurich 1973, ISBN 978-3-492-02031-2 , pp. 359 .
  4. ↑ Elmar Drieschner: Educational goal "independence": Basics, theories and problems of a model of education . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15437-4 , p. 45 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ^ Foster W. Cline, Jim Fay: Parenting with Love and Logic Teaching Children Responsibility . Pinon Press 1990.
  6. ↑ Florian Gärtner: Curling parents. Retrieved December 5, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Albert Wunsch : The pampering trap. For an education for more personal responsibility. Munich 2000; newly edited and significantly expanded new edition, Munich 2013, p. 175ff; Albert Wunsch: drug pampering: a plea for a different education In: Die Zeit . October 1, 1998, accessed June 4, 2017.
  8. ^ Josef Kraus: Helicopter Parents. No more funding mania and pampering. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 2013. David Eberhard: Children in power. The monstrous excesses of liberal upbringing. Translated from the Swedish by Lone Rasmussen-Otten. Kösel, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-466-31040-1 (Original edition: Hur barnen tog makten. Stockholm: Bladh by Bladh 2013, ISBN 978-91-87371-08-0 ).
  9. ↑ Wendy Mogel: The Blessings of a Skinned Knee : Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children. Scribner, 2008, (first edition 2001).
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Bergmann: Upbringing Today - Has Upbringing Become More Difficult? (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 9, 2017 ; accessed on December 8, 2017 .
  11. ↑ www.freerangekids.com. Retrieved December 5, 2017 .