Prussian Education

Prussian Education or Forced Schooling refers to an ideal of education that stands in stark contrast to democratic education. Prussian Education developed out of what is now Germany in the late 18th century and argues that students should be subject to a strict timetable, curriculum and lecture-style classrooms. Students are subjected to constant monitoring and their progress is logged mathematically and 'graded', doling out rewards to students.

The strongest critics of Prussian Education argue that it constitutes indoctrination towards the worship of authority figures and often engages in historical whitewashing (or denialism) to make the state look better. Others acknowledge these criticisms as valid, but recognise the role these schools have in preventing children being forced into harsh working conditions and occasionally helping against poverty.

History

Note: Libertarian Socialist historians tend to develop an understanding of Prussian Education from a critical perspective. This conflicts with mainstream history and is possibly wrong, if sources are incorrect, please edit.

Flaws

Inefficiency

Compared to democratic education, prussian education also has inferior outcomes in terms of student academic achievement, student critical thinking skills and student happiness.

Confusing

Since students lack any kind of control over their learning and classes are not tailored to individual student needs, schools will often be incredibly confusing for students as they are either overwhelmed by what they are learning and

Apathy

Because of their lack of control over their education and frequently being punished for attempting to take control of it (such as by reading things not part of the course), students often do not care about what they are learning and will often forget most of it after graduating.

Emotional Manipulation

Schools frequently instill feelings of guilt into students.

Purposes

Colonialism

Forced Schooling played a strong role in wiping out indigenous cultures in order to eliminate the ability of these cultures to socially reproduce reverse dominance hierarchies in order to aid the military objectives of colonialism. This is done by wiping out language, kinship, family ties, cultural knowledge, history and other traditions. Examples of this include the Stolen Generations in Australia and New Zealand as well as Residential Schools in the USA, Mexico and Canada. In addition to the rampant verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse that occurred in these institutions. Many psychologists believe the forced assimilation of native cultures has contributed to their high suicide rates and poverty.

Statism

According to Peter Gelderloos:

Anticapitalists will often insist that the purpose of public education is to prepare workers. This is balderdash, a perfect example of dogma obviating reality. The vast majority of the lesson plan, once a pupil is literate and knows the most basic maths, is irrelevant to the tasks of the future worker, unless we count the abilities to follow orders, accept confinement, and complete meaningless tasks; however, those skills are required of all citizens, employed or unemployed, prole or petty-bourgeoisie. A typical worker has absolutely no need to know about ancient Egypt, William Shakespeare, or basic chemistry. No, the fundamental purpose of education is to civilize children, and a large part of this means filling their heads with the lies that are necessary to make them always view history and society from the perspective that privileges state power.