Fundamental Pedagogy Jana Doležalová

Liberal education is an opposite of authoritarian education. In liberal 
education, the child is the centrepiece of interest; everything is done according 
to his/her wishes or even commands in some cases. As a result of this 
education, the child becomes selfish, haughty, unadaptable and asocial. V. 
Tamášová (2006) specifies several types of liberal education. It is mercantile 
education (where the child keeps to be rewarded without any merits so he/she 
does not hold values dear); grumbling education (where parents are convinced 
that their child keeps being treated unjustly and that everyone has ‘picked on’ 
their child, which results in the child's negative attitudes to teachers or other 
persons, and the child also blames others for his/her own failure), and 
demobilising education (where parents insufficiently stimulate the child to 
further development and education, claiming that lower education would do to 
earn a lot of money).
The parents’ approach to education influences the child’s qualities, experience 
and condition. No extreme cases are recommended. Democratic education 
seems to be the most appropriate educational style with regard to the child’s 
healthy development. 
In some cases, a difference is made between functional family (performing all 
basic family functions at least at the minimum level which enables development 
of family members) and non-functional family. Family with pathological 
demonstrations of the parents’ conduct, e.g. alcoholics, gamblers, delinquents, 
etc., is designated as a pathological family type. Such parents do not react to 

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the manifestations of their children; they care only for themselves and do not 
perform the basic family functions. They do not influence the child’s 
development and do not provide the child with the right social model of 
behaviour. Children also suffer emotionally because their basic needs have not 
been satisfied. Psychological problems and problems in relations to other people 
manifested in adulthood originate in childhood, mostly for the reasons 
described above. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that parents seek to 
create a safe, stimulating and loving environment for their children.