What styles of education are there?
There are different styles of education that have evolved throughout history and were considered the best education at different times. One distinguishes between four different basic types.
- This includes the authoritarian style of upbringing, which has a high degree of control and little parental love and warmth as basic characteristics.
This form of education is completely out of fashion in Germany today and is considered critical.
- Furthermore, there is authoritative education (also called democratic education style), which also has a high degree of parental control, but also has a high degree of love and warmth, with parents taking good and caring care of the children. This is the currently prevailing style and is considered the best education.
- There is also the permissive or even pampering style of education. This is characterized by a high degree of parental love and warmth.
The parents do not control the child at all, which gives it a very high degree of freedom.
- This high degree of freedom and low control is also found in the neglected (rejecting) education and thus in the last style of education. In this style, however, the parents hardly convey love and warmth to the child, but rather adopt a negative attitude towards the child.
The authoritative education combines the authoritarian and laissez-faire educational style and thus represents a very widespread and successful style. There is a high degree of control and at the same time there is a high degree of acceptance of the child.
The child is to be given a lot of freedom and yet at the same time limits and rules are set.The child must follow the rules, but should also be able to understand them, the parents make an effort to explain them to the child in a way that is appropriate for its age. If the child disregards rules, this can lead to a punishment appropriate to the situation, but corporal punishment is prohibited in this style of upbringing. In addition to the clearly defined rules, there is also the free scope of action in which the children can develop freely and live their creativity and initiative.
The opinion of the child is just as important as that of the parents and is listened to, so that parents and children are in dialogue with each other. If the children resist the parents, the parents stick to their point of view, but in a conversation they try to listen to the child’s side and find a common solution. The child grows up with a lot of parental support, emotional warmth and love.
This leads to a close relationship between parents and children. Anti-authoritarian education is an educational concept that originated in the 1960s. It pursues the idea of renouncing parental power and thus promotes a free development of the child’s personality.
In addition, it aims to strengthen self-confidence, creativity and the sense of community. This form of education is seen as an antipole to authoritarian education. This form of education does not follow rigid guidelines, but rather embodies a way of life that emerged from the student movements of the 1960s.
The generation that has lived this concept has itself mostly been educated in an authoritarian way with many constraints and obedience. In anti-authoritarian education, the opposite is true. The children are brought up freely, and accordingly they are allowed to decide almost everything themselves, since there is almost never a “no” from the parents, just as there are no rules to be followed.
The parents leave the decision making to the children in case of questions or problems, so that the children can live freely according to the pleasure principle. These freedoms are granted to every child, regardless of age. Anti-authoritarian education in its extreme form hardly exists in today’s society, as it is now considered critical.
At selected private kindergartens or schools, this form of education can still be found in a weakened form. In an intercultural education the main idea is that children should be prepared for a life in a heterogeneous society, i.e. a society with people of different nations and cultures. In this education it is assumed that all different cultures with all their differences and similarities are equally valuable and coexist side by side. The basic idea is that through education the child is taught to live peacefully with different cultures and to treat each other with respect. Furthermore, the idea is pursued that everyone can learn from the other culture and is encouraged to rethink their own point of view.
