“Education as liberation”

In his cultural-historical article in this issue, Carl Bossard draws attention to the eye-catching, castle-like architecture of our traditional Swiss school buildings. Using the example of two particularly impressive buildings in Zug, he calls them “palaces for education”. Many such traditional school buildings in Swiss cities are indeed palatial, especially those that housed the primary schools, which has been compulsory since 1874.
  Smaller such democratic “palaces” can often be found in non-urban communities, especially in villages. Sometimes they are enthroned on a hill with a far-reaching view, which makes them comparable to a castle or a palace.
  Such a privileged location provides a better overview, a better view, one could also say: a wider horizon. In Switzerland, however, entry to such a “palace” was not reserved for an “elite”. The Swiss primary schools, which became compulsory towards the end of the 19^th century, was general and free of charge. The fact that it occasionally had noble features in its architecture did not have a “lordly” background, quite the contrary, but a primal democratic one. In the spirit of its courageous founders, the Swiss primary schools were first and foremost a school for the people, and therefore in a very characteristic way also a school of the people. In its political supervisory bodies sat craftsmen, peasants, professional people alongside the “college-men”. The school was “their” school. The people’s representatives elected by the electorate to their supervisory bodies (significantly, they were called “school boards”) brought their knowledge and professional experience with them into their office, in the living knowledge of what this school of theirs should and had to achieve.
  Out of this original democratic spirit, their exterior, their architecture, carried a message: “This is our school, and we are proud of it.” The path is indeed steep, the often mighty staircases inside point to that, and it leads upwards. “To the top”, yes, but this by no means meant that one thing that the modern age promises its youth (not quite honestly): to a lucrative profession. No, Bosshard also states this clearly, every real education is not only education for itself, it is also education for the meaningful whole. Therefore, education must above all lead to freedom, freedom of being, of thinking and of acting, in other words, “education as liberation”.
  That is as boldly stated as it is thought, that is Kant, that is Pestalozzi, Humboldt, Jeremias Gotthelf and Gottfried Keller rolled into one, Goethe and Schiller would also testify to it – the core of the concept of autonomy that has already been ground down today. Freedom, especially for the Swiss, essentially requires knowledge. About himself, about his environment, in his profession and, as our primary schools is designed for, also as a sovereign citizen, because he is ultimately a member (and thus co-responsible!) of its final decision-making authority, which in Switzerland is called to the ballot box several times a year: the electorate.
  In this capacity, Swiss voters are, whether consciously or not, bound back to the common good (not only to their own and their party’s). They can only retain this freedom of choice given to them by the constitution if they also keep their autonomous power of judgement at the necessary level, despite all the massive sources of influence today.
  This is both a gift and a justified demand on each of us. It is all the more important to face up to it today. Measured in this way, it is not difficult to see how far our Swiss primary schools, long admired around the world and rightly so, has already moved away from its fundamental origins in our constitution. The witnesses cited by Bossard remind us. This is worth a few minutes of reflection. 1 August would be a good opportunity to do so, if possible before the firecrackers and rockets go off. Or again afterwards.  •