Die Willensfreiheit des Kindes wertschätzen – Prolegomena zu einer pädagogischen Ethik der Responsivität in nachmythischer Zeit

If we pursue the question of the child’s freedom of will as a resistive factor in the process of education from a historical and systematic point of view, a significant and at the same time still highly controversial change in thought and action can be observed. With the release of man from his childship to God initiated by the Enlightenment, pedagogical authority loses its once absolute basis of legitimacy. The educator’s claim to unconditional obedience on the part of the child is gradually being called into doubt – right up to the radical view of an ideology-critical philosophy of education today that the only legitimate judge of pedagogical interventions is their addressee itself, namely the child and the later adult. For the ethics of education, this means a shift in emphasis from the authoritative should to the conciliatory dialogue with the child, which is in principle open-ended. In the process of upbringing/education, the child is now conceded a relevant voice that can count on being heard and receiving an understanding response.