Education, shmeducation. Who needs it anyway? Well maybe Tommy and Annika. They do, after all, attend school every day in Pippi Longstocking, and no one ever suggests that they shouldn't. Not even Pippi, who only needs a few hours to decide it's not for her, Christmas vacation or no.
Still, Pippi knows how to do a lot of things that most ten-year-olds don't. She cooks, cleans, sails, sews, rides horseback, cares for complicated pets, teaches herself to dance and draw, and out-thinks a fire chief in order to rescue children from a burning building. She knows the capital of Portugal because she's been there, but does her life experience count as education?
Questions About Education
- Do you think Pippi will need to attend school at some point? Why or why not?
- Even after Pippi decides that formal education isn't her thing, Tommy and Annika continue to go every day. Should they? Why or why not? And if you think Tommy and Annika should keep attending school, but that Pippi probably doesn't need to, explain your reasoning there, too.
- What do you think of the schoolteacher in Pippi Longstocking? Does she seem like a real person? A real teacher? Is she a good teacher? Why or why not?
- What does it mean to be educated? Is every individual who graduates from high school necessarily educated? Are people who've never had any formal schooling at all uneducated? Use examples from Pippi Longstocking to explain and support your opinions.
Chew on This
People can get pretty much all the education they need through life experience and self-study (especially with the Internet at their fingertips). Formal education is completely unnecessary.
By having Pippi dismiss the idea of going to school so quickly, Astrid Lindgren both undervalues the importance of public education and damages its reputation with her readers.