The school, a political issue through time

Everyone dreams of a school free of political influence. But isn't that just wishful thinking? History reminds us that it is through schools that the future of a society is at stake. In Switzerland, it was even through politics that peace was achieved.

What do children need to learn? Who is entitled to teach them, and with what objectives? These questions have long plagued the social forces of every country, to the point of turning schools into a political battleground where the good of the child is constantly indexed to competing worldviews. And yet, while learning to read and write was certainly considered fundamental, it wasn't until the Reformation that the need for elementary instruction took root in people's minds: its conviction was that mastery of the written word and reading were the only way to establish an immediate relationship with the biblical text.