Supporters of free education ideologically oppose any coercion, and therefore also against education that contains elements of coercion.
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, as a staunch supporter of free education, wrote about it this way: “Nutrition is a violent, coercive influence of one person on another in order to form such a person who seems good to us. Education, as the deliberate formation of people according to known patterns, is fruitless, illegal and impossible. There is no right to educate. Only education is permissible and legal, as free communication of people, which has as its basis the need of one, the acquisition of information, and the other (person) to communicate what he has already acquired. Let the children know what is their good, therefore let them educate themselves and follow the path that they choose for themselves. The teacher should not have any power over the students, the relationship between them should be one of equality. The school should only provide students with the opportunity to gain knowledge, students should have the right to choose what they need, what is of interest to them according to their own concepts. See →
Supporters of free upbringing proceed from the fact that a child is born initially free, and coercion in the process of upbringing of this freedom deprives him. It seems, however, that such a view is rather a delusion, and even two delusions. First: a child is not born free, but a dependent being, dependent both on external influences and on his inner nature. Second: coercion in the process of raising a child does not deprive him of freedom, but just leads to freedom. See →
No matter what disputes occur, smart representatives of this trend still understand that it is simply unrealistic to seriously oppose any coercion in the matter of education, and at least one type of coercive education is allowed by everyone: this is education that cares about preserving the life and health of the child and those who is next to him. See →
In practice, representatives of free education are more concerned not that there is no coercion, but that children do not feel coercion. Indeed, when children are forced not by the educator, but by circumstances, then there is, as it were, no coercion. Even if these circumstances were skillfully organized by the educator himself … See →