Force and Fear Have No Place in Education By Albert Einstein

[Kyles Mom]

Force and Fear Have No Place in Education
By Albert Einstein,

From the essay "On Education" in Out of My Later Years, Philosophical Library, Inc., 1950, New York. (pp. 33-35)

To me the worst thing seems to be for a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and self-confidence of the pupil. It produces the submissive subject. . . It is comparatively simple to keep the school free from this worst of all evils. Give into the power of the teacher the fewest possible coercive measures, so that the only source of the pupil's respect for the teacher is the human and intellectual qualities of the latter. . . .

The most important motive for work in the school and in life is the pleasure in work, pleasure in its result and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community. In the awakening and strengthening of these psychological forces in the young person, I see the most important task given by the school. Such a psychological foundation alone leads to a joyous desire for the highest possessions of humanity: knowledge and artistlike workmanship.

The awakening of these productive psychological powers is certainly less easy than the practice of force or the awakening of personal ambition but is the more valuable for it. The point is to develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition and to guide the child over to important fields for society; it is that education which in the main is founded upon the desire for successful activity and acknowledgement. If the school succeeds in working successfully from such points of view, it will be highly honored by the rising generation and the tasks given by the school will be submitted to as a sort of gift. I have known children who preferred schooltime to vacation.

[jemjem]

Thanks for sharing 

[purplefungi]

I totally agree. It kind of sounds like some of the health promotion models I've been studying!

[Ayesha Nicole]

Dear Kyles Mom,

Beautiful excerpt!     Thank you for sharing!

- Ayesha

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