@Article{
AUTHOR = {Heller-Sahlgren, Gabriel Heller-Sahlgren and Wennström, Johan Wennström},
TITLE = {The Fatal Conceit: Swedish Education after Nazism},
JOURNAL = {Journal of Controversial Ideas},
VOLUME = {2},
YEAR = {2022},
NUMBER = {1},
PAGES = {0--0},
URL = {https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/article/2/1/176},
ISSN = {2694-5991},
ABSTRACT = {In the aftermath of the Second World War, Sweden dismantled an education system that was strongly influenced by German, Neo-Humanist pedagogical principles in favor of a progressive, student-centered system. This article suggests this was in large part due to a fatal misinterpretation of the education policy on which Nazism was predicated. Contrary to scholarly and popular belief, Nazi schools were not characterized by discipline and run top-down by teachers. In fact, the Nazis encouraged a nationwide youth rebellion in schools. Many Nazi leaders had themselves experienced the belligerent, child-centered war pedagogy of 1914–1918 rather than a traditional German education. Yet, Swedish school reformers came to regard Neo-Humanism as a fulcrum of the Third Reich. The article suggests this mistake paved the way for a school system that inadvertently came to share certain traits with the true educational credo of Nazism and likely contributed to Sweden’s recent educational decline.},
DOI = {10.35995/jci02010009}
}