Black Pedagogy

Black pedagogy, or poisonous pedagogy, is a type of child rearing or methodical upbringing process intended to instill a sense of social superego within the child, and implement a defense against their psyche. Many theorists describe the behaviors and communications associated with the concept to be very violent and manipulative. The parents intentions focus primarily around honing obedience and preparing children for a dominant adult culture.

The story of “Little Red Riding Hood” ties in heavily with black pedagogy. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, a majority of children’s literature existed as a way of “civilizing children according to stringent codes of class behavior. ” The girls mother deliberately leads her into a pedagogical situation in which she cant get out, and ultimately subjects her to dangerous experiences and eventual death.

The girl is a quintessential example of the ideal child of black pedagogy, with her devout obedience and determination to carry out the mothers orders. The mothers only requirements serve grave importance as she tells her to stay on the path and not to ruin the food for her grandmother, which hints at the importance of primacy of family, and unquestioned filial loyal. The links between black pedagogy as described in Zornado’s article and Erika and Thomas Mann’s book titled School for Barbarians are highly evident.

While black pedagogy associated with the eighteenth and early nineteenth century centers more around parental supervisions, this process in School for Barbarians focuses on the loyalty and appreciation of the fascist dictatorship under Hitler’s rule, and the transformations it had on the Nazi Germany educational system. Hitlers hopes were to create a violently active, and dominating brutal youth beginning a a very young age.

The schooling systems, with their obnoxious children’s stories and exaggerated world news filled the students with a false sense of education that allowed Hitler to heavily manipulate the youth. “Heil Hitler! ” was said anywhere from 50 to 150 times a day, and it accompanied anything from a greeting to prayer closings. The students were heavily devoted to their loyalty of this enormous governmental change because they simply knew of no other alternative.