Page 129 - Looking_after_school

4. Lessons learned

Formation, not qualification and socialisation

We are well aware that the pedagogical perspective and our views on
scholastic freedom and equality can come across as idealistic, or even
simply naïve; but it is probably no-less naive or idealistic than an eco-
nomic theory which assumes we are all homo economicus, that we all
make rational cost-benefit analyses, that learning is the production
of human capital, or that we can organise society in a rational way.
Every approach seems to have its idealistic assumptions, or rather,
every approach is perhaps naive in its assumptions. Are all these
approaches then equally valuable? Should we place the economical,
sociological, and pedagogical approach beside each other at equal
height? It would be politically correct if we would, indeed, treat these
perspectives equally, which would mean that education has three
functions which are as valuable as one another: a function of quali-
fication (economical), of socialisation (sociological) and of formation
(pedagogical). The advantage of such a triple divide is that everybody
can identify with it, and only the balance of the functions would be
a matter of debate. This political correctness reconciles sociologists,
economists, and pedagogues concerning matters of education. But
still: shouldn’t we muster the courage to abandon political correct-
ness? Isn’t this reconciliation a way to avoid discussing the truly crucial
matter? The pedagogic assumption that everybody has the chance to
become somebody, and that nobody’s future is set, would then be on
the same level as the (economic or sociological) assumption that the
future of young people is economically or socially determined. We
would then forget about the school itself.
Our point is not that socialisation and qualification have no importance,
but instead that these ideals are not what school is about, and that the
school, if it wants to operate as a school, has no control over qualifica-
tion or socialisation. Concerning the importance of the pedagogical
perspective in respect to the other perspectives or functions, we are
obviously not politically correct. We make a politically incorrect plea
for a more central position of the school. And we do not make this plea
because - nostalgics as we are - we want to hold on to an old institution,
but rather because we see the school as a way of approaching newcom-
ers in light of equality, freedom, and formation. It is an approach that

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