Abstract

The paper seeks to integrate Theodor W. Adorno’s observations about upbringing and education, scattered throughout his almost entire opus. The intention, however, is not doctrinal: loyalty to the author would be betrayed and it would fall short of his criticism if such integration would sought to reconstruct some uncollected or unspoken Adorno’s “educational doctrine”. With a sworn antisystematist, even visions of educational theory and practice must not grow into a system. It is rather about an attitude that insists on trying to bring the antinomy of education – by non-free means to the goal of freedom, by manipulation to the point of impossibility to be manipulated – into school and not only school tasks, as a goal that will prevent Auschwitz’s repetition, enable autonomy and empower for self-reflection.