From Hand to Mind

The concept of polytechnical education has influenced educational thought for more than a hundred years, and the relationship between school and work has been a recurring topic of debate in educational theory. The basic contradiction between mental and manual labor, as it has developed under capitalism, has been of major concern for societies all over the world. In the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries, the polytechnic concept has been taken as a guiding principle for the development of the educational system. The school system in the GDR (East Germany) has built a direct link between school and work through the polytechnical principle. All schools have a relationship to a factory or a farm collective, and all students take part in production. The principle of “learning by participation” has been used to try to solve the contradictions in the school system in 20th century capitalist society. John Dewey laid the groundwork for a reform movement in the U.S.A. on this basis, as did Georg Kerschensteiner in Germany and Celestin Freinet with his print shops in France in the 1920s.