Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their school masters would have wished
Interpretation
The quote critiques education that suppresses individual thought and autonomy.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte's quote expresses a concern about educational practices that prioritize conformity and obedience over critical thinking and personal freedom. He argues that such an education aims to limit the students' ability to think independently, effectively shaping them to adhere to the desires of their teachers rather than fostering their own unique perspectives and talents.
In practice
During a discussion on educational reform, one might quote Fichte to emphasize the need for fostering independent thought.
By mere burial man arrives not at bliss; and in the future life, throughout its whole infinite range, they will seek for happiness as vainly as they sought it here, who seek it in aught else than that which so closely surrounds them here - the Infinite
Upon the progress of knowledge the whole progress of the human race is immediately dependent: he who retards that, hinders this also.
By philosophy the mind of man comes to itself, and from henceforth rests on itself without foreign aid, and is completely master of itself, as the dancer of his feet, or the boxer of his hands.
What sort of philosophy one chooses depends on what sort of person one is.
The schools must fashion the person, and fashion him in such a way that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will.
He who is firm in will molds the world to himself.
I had this feeling that, somehow, we ought to be teaching not just the history of particular nations or particular regions, but the history of humanity.
They lack suggestive power. And when a book lacks suggestive power, however hard it hits the surface of the mind it cannot penetrate within.
The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. Look at the magazines, the newspapers around us - it's all junk, all trash, tidbits of news. The average TV ad has 120 images a minute. Everything just falls off your mind. You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play; they will find that what they have mastered is child's play.
BE A STUDENT BY STAYING OPEN AND WILLING TO LEARN FROM EVERYONE AND ANYONE.
I suggest to my students that they write under a pseudonym for a week. That allows young men to write as women, and women as men. It allows them a lot of freedom they don't have ordinarily.
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