The relationship betwen the individual and the social in cultural pedagogy in Croatia between the two world wars

Abstract

On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the publication of the book The Century of the Child by the Swedish authoress Ellen Key which, when it first appeared, caused a vigorous reaction amongst the pedagogical public, the article analyses the relationship between the individual and die social approach to upbringing as one of the basic pedagogical problems. After reviewing the key features of radically individual and extremely social movements in pedagogy which always ended up without any practical pedagogical breakthroughs, die author sets down to elaborate the positions of cultural pedagogy in Croatia between the two world wars. Research has shown that cultural pedagogy lakes a balanced attitude towards the individual and the social element in education. The process of bringing nearer the subjective spirit to the objective spirit of the community within the educational process is developed in an active interrelationship and equal treatment of both the individual and the social aspect. The neglect of either one or the other educational pole would thwart the achievement of integral educational results. However, despite the enormous significance which cultural pedagogy assigns to this question it has not been elaborated on the level of practical pedagogical application. The manner of implementing this theory has been left to te freedom of the educational process. The harmonization of die relationship between the individual and die social in education is the common task of both pedagogy and society. The quality of pedagogy is measured by the manner in which these two extremes in education are reconciled and a society that takes man as its measure thrives when it ensures the presuppositions for the education of the complete potential merits of all of its members.