Freedom of Education

Transcription

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2 Freedom of Education Proceedings of the conference The Pro mo tion of Ed u ca tion Free dom in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope October 2004, Budapest, Hungary s-gravenhage Socires

3 This book is ded i cated to Prof.Dr. Alis Koekoek Socires ISBN NUR 840 De sign asnd typesetting: Hans Groen, Set in Sabon Printed at Ridderprint, Dordrecht

4 iii Foreword In Oc to ber 2004, some 75 peo ple from 14 dif fer ent coun tries gath ered in Bu da pest, Hun gary, for a three-day con fer ence. Amongst them some of the world s lead ing ex perts on le gal and pol icy is sues re gard ing ed u ca tion free dom, (ex-) min is ters, schol ars, and field work ers in ed u ca tion. The theme of the con fer ence was: The Pro mo tion of Ed u ca - tion Free dom in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope. The con fer ence was, in deed, about the pro mo tion of ed u ca tion free dom, as well as about strength en ing civil so ci ety or ga ni za - tions in the area of ed u ca tion. Strength en ing them, both at field level and through na - tional and Eu ro pean leg is la tion and pol icy mak ing, as a rel e vant al ter na tive to both the state and the mar ket in the de liv ery of pub lic ser vices. Be sides, the pur pose of the event was to es tab lish ef fec tive net works be tween civil so ci ety or ga ni za tions work ing in the pub lic so cial do main at the na tional, re gional, and Eu ro pean level. The en coun ter be tween ac a demic ex perts, pol icy mak ers and field work ers from East and West gave rise not only to stim u lat ing ex changes and very lively dis cus - sions, but also to shared new in sights and com mon en gage ments. The con fer ence is to mark the be gin ning of a liv ing net work ing programme for which the or ga niz ing com mit - tee com mit ted it self to pro vide the ini tial ce ment. In this book, you find the texts of the lec tures which were given dur ing the con fer - ence, as well as the Char ter of Bu da pest that was for mu lated, and suggestions for the fol - low up. The event was or ga nized by the Socires Foun da tion, in co op er a tion with the Foun da - tion for the Pro mo tion of Free Ed u ca tion; the Cen ter for Sci ence and Value of Tilburg Uni ver sity; the Law Fac ulty of Tilburg Uni ver sity (De part ment of Con sti tu tional and Ad min is tra tive Law); and the ELA Eu ro pean As so ci a tion for Ed u ca tion Law and Pol - icy. The de ci sion to or ga nize the con fer ence in Bu da pest and to rely on the ex pe ri ence and the or ga niz ing skills of the Rob ert Schuman In sti tute for De vel op ing De moc racy in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope proved to be en tirely cor rect. The or ga niz ing com mit tee wishes to ex press its pro found grat i tude to Cordaid, Fidentia, and the Edu ar do Frei Foun da tion for their be lief in this pro ject, and for their gen er ous sup port. Also, we wish to thank CEEC and ECNAIS for their sup port through - out the pro cess. We are deeply in debted to all these or ga ni za tions, in our shared and con - tin ued com mit ment to pro mote free ed u ca tion and civil so ci ety or ga ni za tions in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope. Cor van Beu ning en Di rec tor of the So ci res Foun da ti on

5 iv Con tents Fore word iii The Pro mo ti on of Edu ca ti on Free dom in Cen tral and Eas tern Europe 1 Jos J.A.M. van Gennip Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back, Look ing Forward 5 Charles L. Glenn The Civil Society, the Government, and the Market dealing with Education Pluralism 21 Jan De Groof Edu ca ti on Free dom in the Ne ther lands and ot her EU-coun tries: Di lem mas and Debates 55 Ben P. Vermeulen The importance of citizens initiatives in education 69 Maria van der Hoeven Free dom in Edu ca ti on 75 Judit Szemkeö, Hun gary Draft Char ter of the Bu da pest Con fer ence Free dom of Ed u ca tion 81 Eval u a tion and fol low up 83 Participants 91

6 The Pro mo ti on of Edu ca ti on Free dom in Cen tral and Eas tern Europe 1 The Promotion of Education Freedom in Central and Eas tern Europe Opening Address Jos J.A.M. van Gen nip, Pre si dent of Socires The peo ple of Af rica en coun ter a com mon chal lenge, com mon and sim i lar: how to stop the de ser ti fi ca tion, how to keep fer tile the ad vanc ing desert, how to pro tect one self against that ever faster at tack ing desert, swal low ing more and more fruit ful land. In West ern, Cen tral and most of East ern Eu rope we, wé have to cope with an other de ser ti fi ca tion, which swal lows our so cial and spir i tual land scape. Not the phys i cal desert of so many coun tries of Af rica. Our sur vival does not de pend pri mar ily on the pro duc tion, but of the es tab lish ment, re plen ish ment of social capital and the trans fer of knowl edge and val ues. The root causes of the pro cess of the in creas ing break down of the tra di tional so ci etal struc tures in the West and the de lib er ate wip ing out of them in the past in other parts of Eu rope may dif fer, but the new chal lenges are alike for all so ci et ies: We can not deny that there is a grow ing need for a new de sign for the strength en ing of so ci etal struc tures and com mu ni ca tions of val ues alike. A new de sign, be cause long ing to the past, de ny ing the new re al i ties of psy chol ogy, econ omy, the cul ture would be a mis take and would lead to fail ure. In di vid u al ism, the nu cleus fam ily, so cial mo bil ity, the eman ci pa tion in dou ble sense gen der and as cit i zen are re al i ties as are the dif fer ing at ti tude to wards re li gion and the dom i nance of secu lar is ation in our Eu ro pean civili sa tion. But one thing is for sure: all of us are con fronted with that dou ble ques tion and chal - lenge: how to fill the gap, the empty space be tween state, mar ket and the in di vid ual, how to in sert in the so ci ety that in dis pens able fourth el e ment of a hu mane and re spon sive so ci - ety: the com mu nity. Es gibt keine funktionierende Geselschaft ohne eine lebendigen Gemeinschaft.

7 2 Freedom of Education But com mu nity, the civil so ci ety, the so cial cap i tal can not be re newed and re in forced only along the for mer pat terns of be fore the Sec ond World War. Time has changed, wé have changed his tory and his tory has changed us! and the sec ond chal lenge: how can we com mu ni cate, trans fer knowl edge and val ues to a new gen er a tion, which has to grow up in an en vi ron ment of dis trac tion, of the monetarisation of the cul ture and the so ci ety, of per sonal suc cess and sat is fac tion. Also here a re turn to pre sec ond world war sys tems, meth ods and con vic tions will not be suf - fi cient. These two chal lenges should lead to a com mon agenda, re spect ing the dif fer ences of each in di vid ual na tion, a shared agenda about the pro mo tion of pri vate non-profit ed u - ca tion, of high qual ity, high ef fi ciency and above all as a bridge be tween tra di tion and his tory on one hand and fu ture and per spec tive on the other. But even more im por tant is the ques tion whether we can work to gether at the trans - la tion within the in di vid ual na tional spaces of the con cept of free ed u ca tion into in sti - tutes which are re ally owned and tak ing care of by the so ci ety. Free: that means free from the dom i nance of the state; free that im plies also free from the dom i nance of the mar ket. Socires stands for society and responsability. We have been founded as a think-tank to fa cil i tate the de bate about the fu ture of the Eu ro pean So ci ety. What kind of Eu ro pean so ci ety do we want to achieve. The dis cus sion about for ex am ple the Eu ro pean Par lia - ment or the com pe tences of the Coun cil should not be an end in it self. They are in stru - men tal for the real de bate: what are Eu ro pean an swers in the do main of the econ omy, the so cial in fra struc ture, the se cu rity, the ex ter nal re spon si bil i ties and last but not least the ed u ca tion. Socires tries to stim u late and to fa cil i tate thát kind of de bate, to con struct a plat form to bring to gether the most rel e vant ac tors in all these spe cific ar eas. The con fer ence to day is the sec ond phase in a three layer programme about Ed u ca - tion Free dom. The first was the re search and the pub li ca tion of the study about the way in which the ac tual law and gov er nance in dif fer ent coun tries have been for mu lated and set up mainly af ter The third phase would hope fully be the es tab lish ment of a more per ma nent al though open net work of con cerned pol icy mak ers, ac a dem ics, pol i ti cians, but above all of peo - ple with ex ec u tive re spon si bil i ties in the area of ed u ca tion and of rep re sen ta tives of par - ents as so ci a tions. In other words a net work of con cerned and en gaged cit i zens about how to set up and run value ori en tated, so ci ety-owned ed u ca tional sys tems and in sti tu - tions. Which con di tions have to be ful filled there fore at the level of the state and within the society.

8 The Pro mo ti on of Edu ca ti on Free dom in Cen tral and Eas tern Europe 3 We are grate ful for the as sis tance, co-op er a tion and part ner ship our Foun da tion has en - coun tered so far. The ini tia tive it self was brought about by the Foun da tion for the Pro mo tion of Free Ed u ca tion in Cen tral and East ern Eu rope, which on its turn was the prod uct of the in - dis pens able en gage ment of our col leagues as Prof. Alis Koekkoek and Dr. Henk Hoefnagel. It were Prof. Jan de Groof, Pres i dent of the Eu ro pean As so ci a tion for Ed u ca tion Law and Pol icy, and Prof. Charles Glenn, Pro fes sor at Boston Uni ver sity, who did the com - par a tive re search and who wrote the study Ed u ca tion Free dom, which is the ba sis of this con fer ence. They did this on a strict vol un tary ba sis. The con fer ence it self was or gan ised with the ac tive as sis tance of the Fac ulty of Law of the Tilburg Uni ver sity, in the per sons of, again and pri mar ily, Prof. Koekkoek and fur - ther more Ms. Liesbeth Verhagen and Ms. Anna Jasiak. The Rob ert Schuman Foun da tion was will ing, in a very co-op er a tive and ef fi cient way, to host this event here in Bu da pest. Thanks to the fi nan cial as sis tance of the Edu ar do Frei Foun da tion in The Hague the first dif fi cult pi o neer phase was made pos si ble the pub lish ing and dis tri bu tion of the ta bled study Ed u ca tion Free dom and af ter wards a sub stan tial al lo ca tion was made to phase two, this con fer ence. Cordaid, the Neth er lands um brella foun da tion of Cath o lic de vel op ment and re lief or gani sa tions, was will ing to pro vide the ad di tional fund ing for this con fer ence and the start of the fol low-up. The Foun da tion Fidentia did the same and we hope to en gage more do nors for the set-up of the net work and the pub li ca tion of the con tri bu tions and dis cus sions around this conference. But most of all we are grate ful for your par tic i pa tion, your con tri bu tion in the form of in tro duc tions and lec tures, your in put in the dis cus sions and plan ning, and your pres - ence here. There is one per son, who could not be pres ent here, but whom we will miss dearly: Prof. Dr. Alis Koekkoek. Since more than two years he ini ti ated this pro cess, to gether with Dr. Henk Hoefnagel, and he was the driv ing force be hind, the real key ac tor. Prof. Koekkoek, who is also a very dis tin guished mem ber of the Sen ate in my coun try and my col league and above all an em i nent scholar in many ar eas, amongst them ed u ca tional law. In the course of this pro cess, dur ing which he ex posed such an enor mous en thu si - asm and lead er ship, he was sud denly struck by a very se ri ous ill ness, which is the cause of his ab sence here to day. I pro pose we will send him our best wishes from this con fer - ence, which is so much in need of his vi sion and which owed so much to his in spi ra tion. Best wishes to him and to his fam ily. In this new cen tury, in this new post-1989 era we have to cope with the phe nom e non of de ser ti fi ca tion, a so ci etal and spir i tual de ser ti fi ca tion. Dams and walls, wa ter, seeds and

9 4 Freedom of Education fer til iz ers are the in stru ments and the in gre di ents to con tain de ser ti fi ca tion and to change them into blühende Landschaften, fruit ful green land scapes. The dams and the walls are the ju rid i cal con di tions and the po lit i cal pre con di tions in which we re ally can es tab lish and let func tion so ci ety owned ed u ca tional in sti tutes;» the wa ter is your in spi ra tion and your will ing ness to fight for an al ter na tive high level, value-con scious ed u ca tional sys tem;» the seeds are the so ci etal forces and rep re sen ta tives teach ers, par ents, ad - min is tra tors, vol un teers and pro fes sion als, who let func tion these schools and in sti tutes;» the fertilizers are the expertise, the mutual experiences, the experiments, the re search about what is needed for rel e vant ed u ca tion to day;» and the fruits, the fruits are the chil dren and young stu dents who get a for - ma tion, more than teach ing, and an en hance ment to sur vive as hu man per - sons, in dig nity, sur viv ing and mak ing their own choices in an econ omy, in a so ci ety, in a cul ture, which mostly wants to re duce them to pro duc ers, to con sum ers, to trend fol low ers, to vot ers and tax pay ers, not more: oth ers should pro vide to them the tools to be come, what they only can do them - selves; hu man per sons. I wish you, on be half of Socires, a very in spired and suc cess ful con fer ence.

10 Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back, Look ing Forward 5 Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back, Looking Forward Char les L. Glenn, Bos ton Uni ver si ty Per mit me to be gin with a per sonal note. It was through my en gage ment with is sues of ed u ca tional eq uity for poor and mi nor ity fam i lies that I be came con vinced of the im por - tance, as a mat ter of fun da men tal jus tice, of al low ing them to choose the schools that their chil dren would at tend. Just like wealthy par ents in ev ery coun try, they should be em pow ered to de cide which school and which teach ers would best meet the needs of their chil dren and their own con vic tions about ed u ca tion. This con vic tion led me to work for the ex ten sion of pa ren tal choice in my own state where I was the gov ern ment of fi cial re spon si ble for equal ed u ca tional op por tu nity and coun try, and even tu ally with ed u ca tional free dom world wide through OIDEL, a Geneva-based or ga ni za tion pro mot ing hu man rights in ed u ca tion which I now serve as a vice-president. It was at a con fer ence or ga nized by OIDEL in Oc to ber 1989 that I be came aware of the quiet spread of ed u ca tional free dom in east ern and cen tral Eu rope. It would be dif fi - cult to com mu ni cate how ex cit ing we found it that a del e ga tion from Po land joined us at this event, and told us that for the first time in forty years new par ent-ini ti ated schools were be ing ap proved and even sup ported by the gov ern ment. Re port ing this back to friends in my own na tional gov ern ment, I was asked to write a re port on the new de vel - op ments in ed u ca tional free dom. When re leased by the United States De part ment of Ed - u ca tion in 1994 (and as a book the fol low ing year), this in cluded chap ters on Po land and Hun gary, the Czech Re pub lic and Slovakia, Bul garia and Ro ma nia, Rus sia and the Baltics, and East Ger many. For me, this con fer ence in Bu da pest has been an ex cit ing chance to be come re-ac quainted with the de vel op ments which I fol lowed with such in - ter est a de cade ago, and to meet some of those who have been car ry ing them for ward! Why edu ca ti o nal free dom mat ters to a he al thy ci vil so cie ty A fun da men tal goal of all Com mu nist re gimes, be gin ning with that es tab lished in Rus sia

11 6 Freedom of Education in 1917, was to cre ate a new type of hu man ity that would be in ca pa ble of less than full de vo tion to the Party and its lead er ship. The new hu man ity, Com mu nist the o re ti cians prom ised, would bear no traces of value-sys tems peas ant or bour geois that were con demned by the for ward move ment of his tory. There would no lon ger be a place for self ish in di vid u al ism, nor would re li gious be lief or eth nic ity sup port iden ti ties in com pe - ti tion with those de fined by the State. So cial ism will be pos si ble, as Krupskaya wrote, only when the psy chol ogy of peo ple is rad i cally changed. 1 The goal of chang ing hu man na ture de fines to tal i tar ian rule, which is not sat is fied with ex ter nal obe di ence, with pas sive ac qui es cence in ab so lute rule, but seeks to gain will ing in ner ad her ence as well. Es sen tial to this strat egy, as Hannah Arendt pointed out in The Or i gins of To tal i tar i an ism (1951), was the iso la tion of in di vid u als from one an - other and from tra di tions and com mu ni ties. The ef fort to im pose an all-en com pass ing worldview that was in tol er ant of any ri vals be gan to ward the end of the 1920s in So viet Rus sia and took on in creas ingly ma jor pro - por tions with in dus tri al iza tion and ur ban iza tion. The chang ing econ omy re quired lit er - ate work ers and the spread of school ing cre ated new chal lenges for the re gime. As Rus - sian émigré Al ex an der Zinoviev put it, as the cul tural level of a so ci ety rises, as liv ing con di tions im prove, as peo ple be come more ed u cated, as an op po si tion de vel ops and other phe nom ena that di rectly or in di rectly threaten [Com mu nist] so ci ety s mono lithic ide ol ogy, there is need for more ef fort and more ide ol ogy. By the last years of the Com - munist regime, eve ry o ne is sub jec ted to the in flu en ce of ide o lo gy from birth to de ath, sys te - ma ti cal ly and with a stri king ly pe dan tic con sis ten cy. The num ber of pe ople em ploy ed pro fes si o nal ly in the ide o lo gi cal field is enor mous. The num ber of pe ople who in one way or anot her are for ced to car ry out bits of ide o lo gi cal work is in nu me ra ble. 2 Al though the task of in cul cat ing and con tin u ally up dat ing a worldview and an un - der stand ing of the de mands of the Party Line was shared by many in sti tu tions in each of the na tions un der com mu nist re gimes, the po si tion of for mal school ing was nat u rally cen tral. Schools were ex pected to give con sis tent at ten tion to shap ing the val ues and at ti - tudes of their pu pils: to teach Marx ism/le nin ism and to com bat any sign of ri val be liefs. The col lapse of com mu nist he ge mony in na tion af ter na tion of Cen tral and East ern Eu rope, and ul ti mately in the So viet Un ion, star tled most in formed ob serv ers. Some had de scribed these sys tems as fun da men tally suc cess ful in meet ing the chal lenges they faced, 1 Qu o ted by Zbig niew Rau, Hu man Na tu re, So ci al Engi nee ring, and the Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie - ty, in The Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty in Eas tern Eu ro pe and the So viet Uni on, Boul der: West view Press 1991, Alexan der Zi no viev, The Re a li ty of Com mu nism, trans la ted by Char les Jan son, New York: Schoc ken Books 1984,

12 Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back, Look ing Forward 7 as sta ble work ing so ci et ies in which the lead er ship and var i ous sec tions of so ci ety were al most har mo ni ously in volved in macrosocial pro cesses such as mod ern iza tion and ur - ban iza tion. 3 Oth ers, while more crit i cal of the eco nomic and so cial ac com plish ments of Com mu nism, had ar gued that the pro cess of re mak ing hu man na ture had been gen er ally suc cess ful and pre cluded ef fec tive re sis tance to Com mu nist rule. Com mu nists and some of their crit ics shared the be lief that there is no such thing as in di vid ual hu man na ture, since all hu man ac tiv ity is so cially learned and de ter mined by the kind of so ci ety that peo ple live in. In Bukharin s im age, a hu man be ing was noth ing more than a sau sage skin stuffed by en vi ron men tal in flu ences. From that per spec tive, it seemed ob vi ous that a con certed ef fort to em ploy for mal school ing and a wide range of other so cial iz ing ex pe ri ences to change hu man na ture would lead in ev i ta bly to the de - sired re sult. As Zinoviev put it, homo sovieticus to tally sup ports his lead er ship be cause he pos sesses the stan dard ized con scious ness formed by the ide ol ogy. 4 Or, again, Under Com mu nism man li ves from the crad le to the gra ve in a po wer ful mag net field of ide o lo gi cal in flu en ce. He is a par ti cle in it re cei ving a par ti - cu lar char ge, po si ti on and orien ta ti on. Once cre a ted, this field re news and streng thens it self and be co mes con ti nu al ly more pro fes si o nal and ef fec ti ve... Ide o lo gy doesn t only or ga ni ze people s con sci ous ness, it cre a tes the so ci al in - tel lect of so cie ty as a who le and an in tel lec tu al ste re o ty pe for in di vi du al mem - bers of so cie ty. 5 Rau finds a more nuanced ver sion of the same as sump tion in Czeslaw Milosz s 1953 book The Cap tive Mind, in which the au thor pre dicted that even those in tel lec tu als who prac ticed an in ner re sis tance to the con trol of the Com mu nist re gime would come even - tu ally to ac cept its in ev i ta bil ity. Forty or fifty years of this ed u ca tion... must cre ate a new and ir re triev able spe cies of man kind. The new man is not merely a pos tu late. He is be gin ning to be come a re al ity. But was this pro cess of ac cep tance in ev i ta ble? Were the ef forts of com mu nist so ci et - ies to shape a new hu man na ture suc cess ful? Events in the late 1980s and early 1990s dis proved Zinoviev s claim that this so ci ety is not only sta ble; it is in the high est de gree sta ble just as it has dra mat i cally fal si fied his claim that the Com mu nist re gime deals suc cess fully with na tional prob lems, as So viet ex pe ri ence has shown... any ex pec ta tion that con flicts be tween na tion al i ties will cause the ruin of the So viet Em pire de rives from 3 Zbig niew Rau, Intro duc ti on, in The Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty in Eas tern Eu ro pe and the So viet Uni on, Boul der: West view Press 1991, 1. 4 Zbig niew Rau, Hu man Na tu re, So ci al Engi nee ring, and the Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty, in The Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty in Eas tern Eu ro pe and the So viet Uni on, Boul der: West view Press 1991, 27, 32, 36; Alexan der Zi no viev, Homo So vie ti cus (trans la ted by Char les Jan son), Bos ton: Atlan tic Monthly Press 1985, Zi no viev, The Re a li ty of Com mu nism

13 8 Freedom of Education a to tal mis con cep tion of the real sit u a tion in the coun try... 6 Václav Havel ar gued in 1978, in his in flu en tial es say The Power of the Pow er less, that, al though ide ol ogy was one of the pil lars of the sys tem s ex ter nal sta bil ity, it was built on a very un sta ble foun da tion. It is built on lies. It works only as long as peo ple are will ing to live within the lie. There co mes a point, how ever, when a grow ing num - ber of in di vid u als be come de ter mined to live within the truth. They go be yond pro - tect ing a pri vate sphere of con scious ness from ma nip u la tion by the Com mu nist sys tem, and be gin to act in ways that show a new found sense of higher re spon si bil ity. The point whe re li ving wit hin the truth ce a ses to be a mere ne ga ti on of li ving with a lie and be co mes ar ti cu la te in a par ti cu lar way, is the point at which so - met hing is born that might be cal led the independent spi ri tu al, so ci al and po - li ti cal life of so cie ty.... [This] in clu des eve ryt hing from self-edu ca ti on and think ing about the world, through free cre a ti ve ac ti vi ty and its com mu ni ca ti - on to ot hers, to the most va ried free, ci vic ac ti vi ties, in clu ding in stan ces of in - de pen dent so ci al self-or ga ni za ti on. 7 But are such ef forts, un der a to tal i tar ian sys tem, only fu tile ges tures on the part of a mi - nor ity of in tel lec tu als and other dis si dents, with no real power to trans form the so cial or der? The ques tion re mained rel e vant even af ter the po lit i cal col lapse of Com mu nism, since the vac uum that it left seemed likely, many ob serv ers be lieved, to be filled by new forms of au thor i tar i an ism un less men and women at all lev els be gan act ing in a fash ion for which the so cial iza tion pro cess un der Com mu nist re gimes might have un fit ted them. Nei ther a free mar ket, nor a dem o cratic po lit i cal sys tem, nor a healthy so ci ety can func - tion with out the ac tive in volve ment of in di vid u als who are both au ton o mous and re - spon si ble, ca pa ble of act ing freely and at the same time in vol un tary co op er a tion with oth ers through a host of for mal and in for mal as so ci a tions. Po lit i cal re form alone would not be enough. As Jacques Maritain ob served, fam ily, eco nomic, cul tural, ed u ca tional, re li gious life mat ter as much as does po lit i cal life to the very ex is tence and pros per ity of the body pol i tic. 8 The ef fort of Com mu nist re gimes to elim i nate the civil so ci ety, all forms of so cial or ga ni za tion not di rectly sub or di nated to the State and Party, some ob serv ers feared, might have done pro found dam age to the abil ity of these so ci et ies and of in di vid u als within them to re spond to the de mands of free dom. These crit ics were pre oc cu pied with that hy per tro phy of cen tral au thor ity which be came so very char ac ter is tic of Com mu nist so ci ety, and with the achieve ment of the ero sion or to tal de struc tion of ri val cen tres of coun ter vail ing power. 9 6 Zi no viev, The Re a li ty of Com mu nism 246, Václav Ha vel, Li ving in Truth, Lon don: Fa ber and Fa ber 1987, 50, Jac ques Ma ri tain, Man and the Sta te (1951), ex cerp ted in Po li ti cal Order and the Plu ral Struc tu re of So cie ty, edi ted by Ja mes W. Skil len and Roc kne M. McCart hy, Atlan ta: Scho lars Press 1991, Ernest Gellner, Ci vil So cie ty in His to ri cal Con text, Inter na ti o nal So ci al Scien ce Jour nal 43 (Au gust)

14 Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back, Look ing Forward 9 Civil so ci ety has been de fined in var i ous ways. Mi chael Walzer wrote that the words civil so ci ety name the space of uncoerced hu man as so ci a tion and also the set of re la tional net works formed for the sake of fam ily, faith, in ter est, and ide ol ogy that fill this space. 10 Adam Seligman has ar gued that what made the clas sic vi sion of civil so ci ety unique was its pos it ing of the so cial space of hu man in ter ac tion as a moral sphere that is, not sim ply as a neu tral arena of ex change where moral at trib utes were de rived from the na ture of man him self. 11 The to tal i tar ian (and Dar win ian) in sis tence on the in fi nite makeability of hu man ity of course de nies any such es sen tial hu man na - ture. A pri mary strat egy of Com mu nist re gimes was to elim i nate or sub or di nate all ex - pres sions of the civil so ci ety to their di rect con trol: the state dis solved the in sti tu tions of civil so ci ety and re placed the nor ma tive or der of that so ci ety with one of its own mak ing... Po lit i cal par ties, busi ness as so ci a tions, trade un ions, learned so ci et ies, re li gious or ga - ni za tions, and pub lish ing houses were abol ished or put un der the con trol of the state. 12 Iron i cally, how ever, the tre men dous stress of Com mu nist re gimes upon mo bi liz ing the en tire pop u la tion in sup port of the goals of eco nomic and so cial trans for ma tion had the un an tic i pated con se quence of re viv ing what the re gimes had ear lier de stroyed, as be - came ap par ent once con di tions were right. Even in the late So viet Un ion, The con tin u - ous pro cesses of so cial mo bi li za tion, the ex pan sion of ed u ca tion, and the growth of nu - mer ous pro fes sional groups and or ga ni za tions cre ated... a much greater range of nu clei, the ker nels of civil so ci ety. 13 This was all the more the case in So viet sat el lites in which a shorter pe riod of to tal i tar ian rule had left many of the hab its of free as so ci a tion in tact. The con vic tion grew that eco nomic and po lit i cal re forms in the na tions of Cen tral and East ern Eu rope would not be suc cess ful with out such a re vival of this civil so ci ety. Ef forts from the cen ter, dur ing Gorbachev s cam paign of peres troika, to in sist upon new forms of be hav ior at the pe riph ery of So viet life harder work, less abuse of al co hol, more eco nomic ini tia tive within a sys tem that was fun da men tally un changed proved largely in ca pa ble of reach ing the de sired re sults, con firm ing Mar tin Malia s in sis tence upon the in trin sic irreformability of com mu nism. 14 Or, as Vic tor Zaslavsky put it, Pe res troi ka was es sen ti al ly a po li ti cal re vo lu ti on that des troy ed the old po li ti - cal or der but neit her shat te red the in sti tu ti o nal struc tu re of the eco no my nor chang ed the sta te-de pen dent men ta li ty of the po pu la ti on , Michael Wal zer, The Idea of Ci vil So cie ty, Dis sent 38 (Spring 1991), Adam B. Se lig man, The Idea of Ci vil So cie ty, Princeton University Press, 1992, Zbig niew Rau, Intro duc ti on, in The Ree mer gen ce of Ci vil So cie ty in Eas tern Eu ro pe and the So viet Uni on, Boul der: West view Press 1991, S. N. Ei sen stadt, The Bre ak down of Com mu nist Re gi mes and the Vi cis si tu des of Mo der ni ty, Dae - da lus: The Exit from Com mu nism Spring, 1992, Mar tin Ma lia, Le ni nist Endga me, Dae da lus: The Exit from Com mu nism Spring, 1992, Vic tor Za slavsky, Na ti o na lism and De mo cra tic Tran si ti on in Post com mu nist So cie ties, Dae da lus:

15 10 Freedom of Education But pro cesses were at work within the for merly Com mu nist so ci et ies them selves that be - gan to lead to new and more pos i tive forms of so cial or ga ni za tion. Malia took the pes si - mis tic view that the cre ation of a ma ture, di ver si fied civil so ci ety in the East still lies many years in the fu ture; the econ o mies would not re vive as hoped, de spite po lit i cal changes, be cause the nec es sary changes re quire ini tia tive on the part of so ci ety, and the ru di men tary civil so ci ety that emerged from the col lapse of com mu nism is too weak for such a re sponse. 16 Sim i larly, Seligman ar gued that in the East, the (prac ti cal) con di - tions for the emer gence of the clas si cal West ern lib eral-in di vid u al ist model of civil so ci - ety do not fully ex ist. 17 For tu nately, it ap pears that they were wrong. Václav Havel gave a dif fer ent pre dic tion long be fore the po lit i cal changes, in his 1978 es say: the at tempt at po lit i cal re form [in the Prague Spring of 1968] was not the cause of so ci ety s re awak en ing, but rather the fi nal out come of that re awak en ing. Fun - da men tally dis agree ing with the Marx ist/le nin ist as sump tion that hu man na ture would change in re sponse to changes in the eco nomic and po lit i cal or der, Havel in sisted that po lit i cal and eco nomic re form could only oc cur through pro found ex is ten tial and moral changes in so ci ety. 18 Through ini tia tives in de pend ent of State and Party con trol, those de ter mined to re ject the lies im posed upon them by ide ol ogy would be gin to rec re - ate a so cial space within which it would be pos si ble to live within the truth, and not only for them selves, but ul ti mately for the en tire so ci ety. What else are tho se ini ti al at tempts at so ci al self-or ga ni za ti on than the ef forts of a cert ain part of so cie ty to live as a so cie ty wit hin the truth, to rid it self of the self-sus tai ning as pects of to ta li ta ri a nism and, thus, to ex tri ca te it self ra - di cal ly from its in vol ve ment in the post-to ta li ta ri an sy stem? What else is it but a non-vi o lent at tempt by pe ople to ne ga te the sy stem wit hin them sel ves and to es ta blish their li ves on a new ba sis, that of their own pro per iden ti ty?... it would be qui te wrong to un der stand the pa ral lel struc tu res and the pa ral lel po lis as a ret re at into a ghet to and as an act of iso la ti on, ad dres sing it self only to tho se who had de ci ded on such a cour se, and who are in dif fe rent to the rest.... the pa ral lel po lis points bey ond it self and only ma kes sen se as an act of dee pe ning one s res pon si bi li ty to and for the who le... Inde pen dent ini ti a ti ves... de mon stra te that li ving wit hin the truth is a hu man and so ci al al ter na ti ve and they strug gle to ex pand the spa ce avai la ble for that life. 19 This phe nom e non of a grad ual re-an i ma tion and or ga ni za tion of civil so ci ety by vol un - tary ef forts from be low has been de scribed as the so cial self-or ga ni za tion of so ci ety in The Exit from Com mu nism Spring, 1992, Ma lia, Se lig man, Ha vel, 60, Ha vel,

16 Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back, Look ing Forward 11 Po land, a par al lel or in de pend ent so ci ety in Czecho slo va kia, or a sec ond so ci ety in Hun gary. 20 The ques tion re mains (one should add par en thet i cally) whether it can oc cur only in those na tions of Cen tral Eu rope with an ex pe ri ence of civic cul ture be fore the Com mu - nist take-over. Some ques tion whether Rus sia, in par tic u lar, has in her ited pat terns of be - hav ior from its pre-so viet past that will pre vent the im ple men ta tion of fun da men tal re - forms. The se en du ring con stan cies in Rus si an and So viet po li ti cal life im po se se ve re li mits on the pos si bi li ties for the com ple ti on of a true cul tu ral re vo lu ti on: the cre a ti on of a no vel form of so ci al life in for med by a new set of va lu es. Rat her, once in sti tu ti o na li zed, ha bits ori gi na ting in an ol der tra di ti on are pas sed on to young ge ne ra ti ons as part of their so ci a li za ti on ex pe rien ces... So viet cul tu ral re vo lu ti o na ries can not es ca pe their past, the col lec ti ve his to ry and tra di ti ons of their pe ople. 21 Sim i larly, so cial an thro pol o gist Er nest Gellner asks whether eco nomic plu ral ism can be re born whe re it has been abo lis hed?... [par ti cu lar ly] in a lar ger so cie ty in which 70 ye ars of So vie ti za ti on a good part of it being ye ars of to tal ter - ror have all but era di ca ted any ge nui ne al ter na ti ve tra di ti ons. The con sci - ous ly in ten ded re-in au gu ra ti on of free en ter pri se may per haps eng en der only an op por tu nist lum pen bour geoi sie, de void of tho se vir tu es which per haps ac - com pa nied the slow emer gen ce of the en tre pre neu ri al class du ring the first and spon ta ne ous, unin ten ded birth of ca pi ta lism. 22 Whether a true civil so ci ety can emerge in the for mer So viet Un ion or whether Rus sia, Ukraine and other suc ces sor states will slip back into au thor i tar ian modes of po lit i cal and so cial or ga ni za tion is still not al to gether clear and ob vi ously is of con se quence not only to their own cit i zens but also to the dem o cratic na tions of the West. Just as ed u ca tional sys tems were for sev eral gen er a tions deeply im pli cated in ef forts to re shape hu man na ture into obe di ence to cen tral di rec tion by the Com mu nist Party/ State, by elim i nat ing all forms of in de pend ent think ing and all com pet ing loy al ties, so to day the same sys tems are on the front lines of the re vival of civil so ci ety in East ern and Cen tral Eu rope. 20 Václav Ben da, Mi lan Šimeka, Ivan M. Ji rous, JiÍí Dienst bier, Václav Ha vel, La di slav Hejdánek and Jan Šimsa, Pa ral lel Po lis, or An Inde pen dent So cie ty in Cen tral and Eas tern Eu ro pe: An Inqui ry, So ci al Re se arch 55, 1-2 (Spring/Sum mer 1988), Step hen R. Bu rant, The Influ en ce of Rus si an Tra di ti on on the Po li ti cal Sty le of the So viet Eli te, Po - li ti cal Scien ce Qu ar ter ly 102, 2 (Sum mer) 1987, Ernest Gellner, Ci vil So cie ty in His to ri cal Con text, Inter na ti o nal So ci al Scien ce Jour nal 43 (Au - gust) 1991,

17 12 Freedom of Education This pro cess is oc cur ring in two dis tinct ways. The first is through the re newal of cur - ric u lum to elim i nate ex plicit and in for mal in doc tri na tion and to teach the civic and so - cial virtues considered necessary for responsible citizenship in the free societies that are strug gling to be born. There is great in ter est at pres ent in de vel op ing, some times with the help of West ern spe cial ists, cur ric u lum stress ing de moc racy and free mar kets and in train ing teach ers to pres ent it in a non-au thor i tar ian par tic i pa tory man ner. The other as pect of the pro cess of re newal of ed u ca tion sys tems is that which Václav Havel fore saw in 1978, when he pre dicted that the of fi ci al struc tu res as agen cies of the post-to ta li ta ri an sy stem, exis ting only to ser ve its au to ma tism and con struc ted in the spi rit of that role sim ply be gin wit he ring away and dy ing off, to be re pla ced by new struc tu res that have evol ved from below and are put to ge ther in a fun da men tal ly dif fe rent way. These new struc tures would be held to ge ther more by a com mon ly sha red fee ling of the im por tan ce of cert ain com mu ni ties than by com mon ly sha red ex pan si o nist am bi ti ons di rec ted outward. The re can and must be struc tu res that are open, dy na mic and small; bey ond a cert ain point, hu man ties like per so nal trust and per so nal res - pon si bi li ty can not work. 23 Havel was not re fer ring pri mar ily to schools in his 1978 es say (though he men tions, as an ex am ple of the in de pend ent life of so ci ety, teach ers who pri vately teach young peo ple things that are kept from them in the state schools 24 ), but in fact new and trans - formed schools were among the most com mon new struc tures emerg ing dur ing the last years of Com mu nist rule and in a flood since its col lapse. Groups of par ents and teach ers be gan to re-cre ate ed u ca tion through school-level ini tia tives to serve their chil dren more hon estly and more ef fec tively, and ed u ca tion pol - icy de bates fo cused, even more than in the United States, on whether such ini tia tives should be merely tol er ated as an ex pres sion of free dom or wel comed and sup ported in the in ter est of so ci ety as a whole. Even more than in the West, such ini tia tives are an es sen tial as pect of ed u ca tional reform in the for merly Com mu nist na tions, where a rich net work of in de pend ent in sti - tu tions and or ga ni za tions has to be formed, that are nei ther state-di rected nor state-con - trolled, that are au ton o mous so cial, po lit i cal, and cul tural en ti ties. Seek ing and con sti - tut ing such so cial, cul tural, po lit i cal forces, ca pa ble of at tain ing such in de pend ence and bal ance, is the pro cess which will de cide whether a postcommunist re gime is suc cess ful 23 Ha vel, 108, Ha vel, 87.

18 Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back, Look ing Forward 13 in its ef forts to achieve de moc racy. 25 Schools are ide ally sit u ated to serve as the oc ca - sion for new hab its of co op er a tion, for the de vel op ment of trust as adults work to gether in the in ter est of their chil dren. Edu ca ti o nal Free dom is not just a Post-com mu nist Issue Free dom is es sen tial to full hu man de vel op ment. Only as in di vid u als ex er cise their free - dom ac tively in re spon si ble de ci sion-mak ing do they (and thus the so ci et ies in which they are par tic i pants) grow mor ally into full hu man ity. Re spon si ble free dom is thus un - avoid ably a con cern of ed u ca tion, not in the form of in dif fer ence to what pu pils do and will do, to the choices that they make and will make, but pre cisely in rec og ni tion of the heavy moral sig nif i cance of such choices. For those who are par ents, the de sire to raise chil dren ca pa ble of ex er cis ing free dom within a con text of re spon si bil ity ne ces sity of re spon si ble choice is a daily re al ity ex ists in ten sion with the nat u ral de sire to pass on an in her i tance of con vic tions and loy al ties. All par ents, it is safe to say, hope that their chil dren will come to value and live by the con vic tions by which the par ents have di rected and given mean ing to their own lives. Thus it is a fun da men tal anom aly and in jus tice when the State sets it self up as a ri val to par ents in shap ing the be liefs and loy al ties of chil dren. Re spon si ble de ci sion-mak ing by in di vid u als is, in these so ci et ies, not per mit ted in the sphere that par ents them selves per ceive as be ing of the great est moral weight how their chil dren are ed u cated. It is no ac ci dent that ed u ca tion is the sphere where the State is most tempted to seek to ex tend its in flu ence over its cit i zens. The ex ten sion of pop u lar ed u ca tion through gov - ern ment ini tia tives has, through out the nine teenth and twen ti eth cen tu ries, been marked by con flict over the ex tent to which the State sought to de fine and im pose a sin gle worldview through its schools. That such con flicts have oc curred in al most ev ery mod - ern iz ing so ci ety is by no means ac ci den tal: cre at ing sys tems of State-con trolled school ing has in al most ev ery case been one of the pri mary means of car ry ing out the es sen tial tasks of na tion build ing: break ing through and po lit i cal in te gra tion. Jowitt has de scribed break ing through as the de ci sive al ter ation or de struc tion of val ues, struc tures, and be hav iors which are per ceived by a rev o lu tion ary elite as com pris ing or con trib ut ing to the ac tual or po ten tial ex is tence of al ter na tive cen ters of po lit i cal power. 26 It would be nat u ral to as sume that the to tal i tar ian pro ject of cre at ing a new con - scious ness through uni ver sal com pul sory school ing was in vented by re gimes com mu - nist or fas cist in which the State has at tempted to swal low up all of so ci ety. In fact, this pro ject was al ready an tic i pated by Jean-Jacques Rous seau. In A Dis course on Po lit i cal 25 JiÍí Mu sil, Czechos lo va kia in the Middle of Tran si ti on, Dae da lus: The Exit from Com mu nism Spring, 1992, Ken neth Jo witt, Revolutionary Breakthroughs and National Development: The Case of Romania, , Berkeley: University of California Press 1971, 7.

19 14 Freedom of Education Econ omy (1755) he wrote that the most ab so lute au thor ity is that which pen e trates a man s in most be ing, and con cerns it self no less with his will than with his ac tions. It is cer tain that all peo ples be come in the long run what the gov ern ment makes them... Make men, there fore, if you would com mand men. But to form cit i zens is not the work of a day, and in or der to have men it is nec es sary to ed u cate them when they are chil dren. To that end, gov ern ment ought the less in dis crim i nately to aban don to the in tel li gence and pa tri o tism and prej u dices of fa thers the ed u ca tion of their chil dren, as that ed u ca tion is of still greater im por tance to the State than to the fa thers. 27 Sim i larly, in The So cial Con tract (1762) Rous seau wrote that he who dares to un - der take the mak ing of a peo ple s in sti tu tions ought to feel him self ca pa ble, so to speak, of chang ing hu man na ture, of trans form ing each in di vid ual. 28 And, a lit tle closer to home, in Con sid er ations on the Gov ern ment of Po land (1773) Rous seau wrote that Ev ery true pa triot sucks in the love of coun try with his mother s milk. This love is his whole ex is tence. He thinks of noth ing but his coun try. He lives only for his coun try. Take him by him self, and he counts for noth ing. 29 Now, we may well agree that love of coun try is an im por tant qual ity, a form of civic vir tue, which a good ed u ca tion should cul ti vate along with wider con cerns for all of hu man ity but shrink from the idea that it should in ef fect elim i nate all in di vid u al ity. For a to tal i tar ian re gime, how ever, con trol of pop u lar ed u ca tion is a fun da men tal means of seek ing to im pose uni for mity and ad her ence to the re gime. The child be longs to the State rather than to his or her fam ily. That par ents might seek to nur ture in their chil dren com mit ment to a re li gious tra di tion, to dis tinc tive val ues, or in deed to any en tity in the civil so ci ety that could be a source of com pet ing val ues is seen as a di rect threat to the State s au thor ity. Al though the op po si tion be tween Com mu nism and re li gion is in her ent and un avoid - able in the to tal claims which each makes upon the hu man spirit, it should be noted that Marx and Engels them selves did not call for the sort of at tacks upon re li gion that be - came a char ac ter is tic of all of the re gimes call ing them selves Marx ist. To Marx and Engels, re li gion was the prod uct of un just so cial and eco nomic re la tion ships, and would wither away when they did. Le nin and his suc ces sors, how ever, in sisted that re li gion was an in tol er a ble ri val to the rul ing Party for the to tal loy alty of the masses, and a dan ger - ous source of al ter na tive ways of un der stand ing and liv ing in the world. A study of Po land around 1980 noted that [p]lanned sec u lar iza tion and anti-re li - gious policy, key features of atheist totalitarianism, are themselves a secular version of the mil len nial fan tasy: planned sec u lar iza tion is typ i cally de scribed by its pro po nents as 27 Jean-Jac ques Rous seau, The Social Contract and Discourses, trans la ted by G.D.H. Cole, Lon don: Eve ry man, 1993, 139, Rous seau, In József Nagy and Péter Sze be nyi, Curriculum Policy in Hungary, Budapest: Hungarian Institute for Educational Research 1990; The Mi nor Edu ca ti o nal Wri tings of Jean Jac ques Rous seau, translated by Wil li am Boyd, New York: Te achers Col le ge, 1962, 97.

20 Edu ca ti on, Sta te, and Ci vil So cie ty: Look ing Back, Look ing Forward 15 a means to the re al iza tion of those val ues which Chris tian ity it self pos tu lates but is un - able or un will ing to im ple ment. 30 There is noth ing ac ci den tal about this quasi-re li gious em pha sis upon win ning the hearts and souls of the ris ing gen er a tion. One im por tant char ac ter is tic of a to tal i tar ian re gime is that it is not sat is fied with sim ple obe di ence from its sub jects but also tries to ob tain their en thu si as tic sup port. It is of cen tral im por tance to such re gimes that the peo ple ac tively want what their rul ers want them to want and there is en thu si as tic una nim ity through out the whole of so ci ety. 31 While an au thor i tar ian re gime may be sat is fied with obe di ence, a to tal i tar ian re gime seeks de vo tion that will be self-per pet u at ing. Any one seiz ing power wishes to keep it for a cer tain length of time; it is how ever a spe cial fea ture of peo ple s rev o lu tions to set their goals on the pros pect of a bound less fu ture through cul ti vat ing rev o lu tion ary successors. 32 The pro ject of us ing pop u lar ed u ca tion as a means of im pos ing a sin gle set of val ues and loy al ties upon an en tire ris ing gen er a tion, in the in ter est of the State and its rul ing elite, was not in vented in our own age, how ever, nor was the Com mu nist re gime in the So viet Un ion the first to seek to im ple ment it. The French Jac o bins of 1792 ar tic u lated this am bi tion as clearly as it has ever been stated. It is in na tional schools, Danton told the Con ven tion, that chil dren must suck re pub li can milk. The Re pub lic is one and in di vis i ble; pub lic in struc tion must also be re - lated to this cen ter of unity. Only in this way could the to tal re gen er a tion of the French peo ple called for by Robespierre and his al lies be ac com plished. But this could be ac com plished only through res o lute de nial of the claims of par ents. As a Jac o bin or a tor warned his col leagues, You will lose the young er ge ne ra ti on in aban do ning it to pa rents with pre ju di - ces and ig no ran ce who give it the de fec ti ve tint which they have them sel ves. The re fo re, let the Fat her land take hold of chil dren who are born for it alo ne. 33 While the Jac o bin pro gram did not pre vail, the na tion-build ing elites who made pop u lar ed u ca tion a pri or ity in the United States and other in dus tri al iz ing na tions through out the nine teenth cen tury had some thing rather sim i lar in mind. With out in tend ing to sug - gest a moral equiv a lence be tween the ed u ca tional goals of to tal i tar ian re gimes and those of lib eral de moc ra cies, it is ap pro pri ate to rec og nize that few po lit i cal lead ers in 30 Maciej Pomian-Srzednicki, Religious Change in Contemporary Poland: Secularization and Politics, Lon don: Rout led ge & Ke gan Paul, 1982, Michael Lind say, Con tra dic ti ons in a To ta li ta ri an So cie ty, The Chi na Qu ar ter ly 39, July-Sep tem - ber 1969, Ma ri an ne Bas tid, Eco no mic Ne ces si ty and Po li ti cal Ide als in Edu ca ti o nal Re form Du ring the Cul tu - ral Re vo lu ti on, The Chi na Qu ar ter ly 42, April-June 1970, References for Danton, Robespierre and Billaud-Varenne found in Charles L. Glenn, The Myth of the Common School, Uni ver si ty of Mas sachu setts Press, 1988,