Education is a struggle against nature that forms each new generation

Evidence

This type of Rousseauesque, liberal theory of learning is criticised by Gramsci, e.g. Int. p. 115: “it is believed that a child’s mind is like a ball of string which the teacher helps to unwind. In reality each generation educates the new generation, i.e. forms it, and education is a struggle against instincts linked to the elementary biological functions, a struggle against nature, to dominate it and create the ‘contemporary’ man of the epoch.” — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2031

Categorization

• DEFINE: This frames Gramsci’s core conception of education as formation against nature, not unfolding — a load-bearing distinction in his pedagogical theory.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2031
• XREF: connects to: Work mediates between natural and social orders as an educational principle; Capitalism requires continuous re-education of the popular classes through cultural struggle; Knowledge is produced by strategic struggle rather than by human nature — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 17 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Knowledge is produced by strategic struggle rather than by human nature #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 17
• Capitalism requires continuous re-education of the popular classes through cultural struggle #expands (0.78)
• Ideological change happens through class struggle, not through ideas alone #expands (0.75)
• Education and abstract values are unattainable without the material conditions that make them possible #qualifies (0.72) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 347