Hans van Crombrugge: Schleiermacher on family education

Friedrich Daniel Schleiermacher (1767-1834), a German theologian and educator, represented an indivudual and unique tendency, which was different from the majority of education systems of his age. In contrast to Herbart (but similarly to Pestalozzi) he put a great emphasis on the social components of education, on the "communal circles", which are stratified on each other and in which children are brought up. Yet, within these he attached great importance to the family. According to his approach, family serves to prepare children for formal schooling. He points out the distinctive feature of education in this environment; this is an action during human coexistence in which the intentional feature is pushed into the background. Ideal family education springs form parental love and strives toward the realisation of ethical values (for example, "the supreme good"). Simultaneously, Schleiermacher draws a much more realistic picture of contemporary family education than Pestalozzi. He does not intend to identify family with school education, and he acknowledges that the affectionate quality of family life excludes preplanned intentional acts. Schleiermacher uses his special terminology to describe certain phenomena which are defined by present-day educational sociology (for example, socialisation). The influence of his thoughts has not been so fundamental as that of Herbart's, but a number of representatives of Hungarian personality pedagogy (for example, István Schneller) were strong adherents to his pedagogical system.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 100. Number 1. 3-15. (2000)

Address for correspondence: Hans van Crombrugge, Tiensestreat 120, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.

 
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