in Esperanto
Chapter 6: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- EDUCATION
1. Children are raised by society.
1.1. Breaking away from parent-centrism
The German Constitution contains the following impressive article (Article 6, Paragraph 2).
The care and education of children are the natural rights of parents, and above all, the obligations of parents. Its implementation shall be supervised by the state community.
This provision is impressive because it clearly speaks to the state of education in a capitalist state, and at the same time points out the way out of it.
The first part of the provision privatizes child rearing by declaring that "child care and education", that is, child rearing in general, is the "natural" right and duty of parents. In extreme terms, this is equivalent to acknowledging that children are the personal property of their parents—just like "children that belong to me." Here, the notion of capitalist private ownership that extends to children is oozing out.
However, the latter part of the regulation is to check the child rearing, which is the private matter of the parents, in the form of "supervision of the state community." The reason for such restraint is speculated as follows. No matter how much children are the property of their parents, if parents are allowed to do as they please, there is a danger that the function of reproducing the next-generation labor force that capitalism expects of married families will not work. So the "state community" must ensure that the parents raise their children to be industrious labourers--wage serfs.
The above is a somewhat poisonous super-interpretation, and I feel a little sorry for the German people, but my true intention is not to ridicule the German constitution, but rather to refer to the latter part of the above provision as communist education. I would like to take it as a breakthrough.
In conclusion, a communist education assign the rights and responsibilities of the upbringing of all children born into society to the community, neither to the parents nor to the state—having said many times, there is no state in a communist society. In other words, society raises children.
Then what is the role of parents? As the "manufacturers" of individual children, they are responsible for cooperating in the upbringing of their children by the community, and to that extent have custody in the sense of the right to care for the children they created until they reach adulthood.
You may think that this structure is upside down, but it is impossible to impose full responsibility for raising children on parents who inherently vary in their ability to raise children. Child abuse and neglect, like over-interference and over-protection, are nothing but tragic manifestations of such unreasonableness.
There is no special training to become a parent, let alone a license exam. And the important thing is that a child cannot be born by choosing good parents.
In that case, it may be easy to understand that children born into society should basically be raised by society. However, in this case, society does not raise children as future labor force, but as future "citizens" who are equipped with the skills to be the bearers of society.
1.2. Compulsory childcare system
The communist principle that children are raised by society first appears in the life course of the compulsory childcare system. Today, compulsory education is widespread even in capitalist countries, and insofar as it is, it can be said that "children are raised by society" is half-realized even under capitalism.
However, as in the analogy of "strike while the iron is hot", preschool childcare has an importance equal to that of education in terms of social development of human beings. Therefore, it is highly necessary to make not only education but also childcare an obligation for all children.
This compulsory childcare system applies to all infants from 6 months of age until they reach the school age (standard 6 years old) for the integrated basic education (compulsory education) described later. The contents of the childcare are different from mere day care and so-called "gifted education." "Gifted education" is nothing but the exploitation of the child's potential by the parents to satisfy the self-esteem of the child, ignoring the child's inherent aptitude and preferences, and is an expression of the child's personalization.
The obligatory childcare is, as mentioned above, early childhood preschooling with the aim of cultivating social human beings. Therefore, in terms of its contents, the focus is first on having children learn how to relate to others, which is the essence of sociality, that is, relationships to others, including negative relationships such as discord and confrontation.
However, because childcare also has welfare elements, it is the commune that is responsible for compulsory childcare. Communes must, of course, provide childcare facilities to accommodate all relevant infants within their jurisdiction. On that point, just like the “welfare without financial resources” that we saw in the previous chapter, in a communist society freed from financial resources, it is fully possible for communes to provide the necessary number of childcare facilities.
1.3. Children's Group activities
The principle that children are raised by society generally takes the form of education through public educational institutions. However, there is a limit to the training of people with social skills through such formal education alone. Therefore, as a more informal form of education, a community-based Children's Group will be introduced.
This is aimed at children from 7 to 15 years old, who are the most important in developing social skills. Mixed-age/gender-mixed boy groups are organized in the community, and under the guidance of instructors who have undergone prescribed training, weekends and This is an outdoor activity that takes place twice a month on national holidays (with or without overnight stays). The purpose is to provide social education, which is not covered by compulsory education, for children of the age when full-fledged social development should be promoted.
The declining birthrate, which is also a correlated phenomenon of the nuclear family--the basic line of which will not change in the coming communist society-has generally fewer siblings or an increase in the number of children who are only children. In light of the fact that opportunities to acquire social skills through sibling relationships are greatly reduced, Children's Groups can be thought of as forming a "pseudo-sibling relationship" based on the community.
For that purpose, all children of the relevant age are obliged to participate, unless it is difficult for them to participate for medical reasons. The content of the activities is not schoolwork or sports, but a form of free play in the natural environment through nature observation, etc., which is informal but also serves as environmental education.
The implementation body is the same as childcare, the commune. In the commune, a Children's Group is organized in each district, and instructors are trained and assigned. As mentioned in Chapter 4 and touched upon again in this chapter, basic education courses are managed at the level of regional areas as intermediate municipalities, so communes can focus on such informal education in addition to compulsory childcare.
