People are often moved by such poetic and emotional remarks, but after being moved, the question of "what is education" still seems to be inexplicable, but it is even more vague and even has a feeling of "de-education".
Is that really the case? Karl jaspers is regarded as an existentialist philosopher. "Existentialism" emphasizes transcending the limitations of human body and thinking and realizing the essential meaning of human beings. It especially emphasizes people's free choice and action, and is responsible for their own choices and actions.
Perhaps we can find the answer to "what is education" from the following fragment of the chapter "The Essence of Education" in Jaspers' What is Education.
Jaspers said: "Real education should first acquire its own essence. Education should have faith. Without faith, it is not education, but teaching skills. The purpose of education is to make yourself clear about the essence of education and your will. Besides, you can't find the purpose of education. Therefore, we often hear some educational slogans that fail to grasp the true essence of education, such as learning skills, enhancing ability, broadening knowledge, cultivating temperament and patriotic consciousness, independent ability, expressive ability, shaping personality, creating common cultural consciousness and so on.
If the whole essence of education is presented without cover, this is the natural connotation of education, and education naturally has its fixed form. Education is an extremely serious and great undertaking. Through training, we will continue to bring the new generation into the excellent cultural spirit of mankind and let them live, work and communicate in a complete spiritual life. In this kind of education, almost no one will notice the teachers' personal achievements. Teachers are not perfunctory with speculative attitude, but serve a generation wholeheartedly-a stable and continuous job.
Education can't be without piety, otherwise it's just an attitude of persuading students at most. Devotion to ultimate value and absolute truth is the essence of education. Without absolute enthusiasm, people can't live, or living unlike individuals becomes meaningless.
There are two kinds of "absolute" things: one is common to the public, such as the class to which an individual belongs, or the religious consciousness reflected in the questioning of the country or infinity, and the other is personal, such as truth, independence, responsibility and freedom. Individuals can also have these two absolute things at the same time. "([Germany] karl jaspers, translated by Zou Jin. What is education [M]. Beijing: new knowledge of life reading, 199 1p44-p45).
Jaspers also said: "Real education always depends on educators who constantly educate themselves and constantly surpass themselves. They constantly pay and listen to others, strictly abide by their own ideals and awaken others' beliefs, and find a way not to be bound by others through learning methods and teaching rich content. "(same as P24)
"Cultivating children to become the pillars of society means two aspects to the requirements of the school. The first is to awaken the historical spirit and symbolic life consciousness of the group. In the unrestrained daily life, children acquire the historical spirit and life consciousness through the communication with similar groups, the way of language exchange and the human reality taught by educators. Secondly, we should study the courses necessary for our future jobs and careers. The two should not be neglected. The first aspect involves the spirit of the school. In essence, every school is a place to spread knowledge. This is its only duty, and it can't be changed at will. It can only be nurtured and cared for to make it stronger. The second aspect involves the planning intention of the school. In the past 100 years, people have made great achievements in improving teaching methods, constantly revising teaching materials, finding suitable practice methods and enhancing intuition. " (same as P32)
It can be seen that the poetic and emotional statement that "the essence of education is that a tree shakes another tree, a cloud shakes another cloud, and a soul awakens another soul" does not mean that "education" means "being educated", but that "education" is an education in which the spiritual essence of education is integrated with the specific content of education.
So, how can one soul awaken another soul? Jaspers said in What is Education:
"The so-called education is nothing more than the communication between people (especially between the older generation and the younger generation), including the teaching of knowledge content, the understanding of life connotation, the norms of will and behavior, and the teaching of cultural inheritance to the younger generation through the cultural transmission function, so that they can freely generate and enlighten their free nature.
Therefore, the principle of education is to guide the source and foundation of people's soul awakening through all cultures in the existing world, rather than guiding things derived from the original place and mediocre knowledge (of course, the ability as the basis of education, except language and memory content). Real education never allows rote memorization, nor does it expect everyone to become a thoughtful thinker.
The process of education is to let the educated practice, learn and grow themselves in practice, which is characterized by free play and constant trial. In this way, the manual class develops students' dexterity through labor; Physical education class expresses his life by exercising students' physical quality and bodybuilding. Philosophy class cultivates keenness and transparency of thought and spirit, clarity and conciseness of speech, preciseness and conciseness of expression, grasping the shape and characteristics of things, understanding the focus of both sides of ideological debate, and how to clarify problems with "thinking". Through contact with great works, we can grasp the true spiritual connotation of human beings (great works include Homer's epic, Bible, works of Greek tragic writers, works of Shakespeare and Goethe), and the teaching of history class is to cultivate students' sincere love for ancient culture, inspire them to strive for higher goals of human beings, and form a sober historical view that criticizes reality. The course of natural science is the basic methodology to master and understand natural science (including morphology, mathematical view and experiment).
In my opinion, the key to all education is to choose the perfect educational content, so that students' "thinking" will not go astray and lead to the source of things as much as possible. Educational activities focus on how to mobilize and realize human potential to the maximum extent, and how to fully generate human inner spirituality and possibility. In a word, education is the education of human soul, not the accumulation of rational knowledge and understanding. Through education, talented people can choose and decide what kind of person they want to be and grasp the root of their lives.
Anyone who simply limits himself to learning and cognition, even if his learning ability is strong, his soul is deficient and unsound. If a person wants to change from emotional life to spiritual life, he must study and learn, but learning and knowledge are secondary to him in loving wisdom and finding spiritual roots.
([Germany] karl jaspers, translated by Zou Jin. What is education [M]. Beijing: Life, Reading, New Knowledge,1991:3,4)
From the above analysis, Aristotle attaches great importance to the role of education in establishing people's beliefs, forming rational thinking habits and shaping aesthetic habits. Therefore, the educated can stimulate their self-awareness of understanding the world to the greatest extent and use their free will to act. In short, the so-called "soul education" can be understood as an education that pursues "essence". "Education should awaken people's potential essence, gradually realize their knowledge and explore morality." (ibid. 9).
Aristotle also highly praised Socrates for using the educational method of "dialogue" to explain the concept: "Dialogue is the way to explore truth and self-knowledge. Only through interpersonal communication and understanding the essence of things can we get the truth. " (ditto +0 1)
"Socratic education: in the sense of education, teachers and students are in an equal position. Both teachers and students can think freely, and there is no fixed teaching method. Only through endless questioning can they feel that they know nothing about absolute truth. Therefore, teachers inspire students' sense of responsibility to explore knowledge and strengthen this sense of responsibility. In other words, it is necessary to awaken students' potential power and urge them to generate an automatic power from the inside, rather than exerting pressure from the outside. This is not relying on accidental and temporary experiences to give full play to students' specialties, but to let students find themselves in exploration.
Socratic teachers have always opposed becoming the biggest supplier of students; Teachers should shift students' attention from the classroom to the students themselves, and the teachers themselves should retreat to the suggested position. There is only a well-intentioned polemic relationship between teachers and students, and there is no relationship of submission and dependence. Teachers are self-aware and ask students to distinguish between God and the world.
Education requires students to have awe of the absolute truth, and also needs the guide to seek the truth-the teacher. In Socratic education, students' awe is manifested in infinite spirit. In this infinite spirit, everyone should assume the responsibility of transcending their own existence. "(same book)
Finally, how does one soul awaken another? (9) It is to awaken people's potential essence through education, gradually realize knowledge and explore morality; ⑤ Socrates-style dialogue is an equal educational way and method.
Attachment: Education should awaken people's potential essence, gradually realize their knowledge, and explore morality ... Philosophy courses should cultivate the keenness and transparency of thought and spirit, the clarity and conciseness of speech, the rigor and conciseness of expression, grasp the form and characteristics of things, understand the focus of both sides of ideological debate, and how to clarify problems through "thinking". Through contact with great works, we can grasp the true spiritual connotation of human beings (great works include Homer's epic, Bible, works of Greek tragic writers, works of Shakespeare and Goethe), and the teaching of history class is to cultivate students' sincere love for ancient culture, inspire them to strive for higher goals of human beings, and form a sober historical view that criticizes reality. Offering natural science courses is the basic methodology to master and understand natural science (including morphology, mathematical view and experiment) —— Excerpted from What is Education. What Aristotle said above is of great practical significance to the education of Chinese, politics, history and natural science in China!
What Aristotle said above can also be regarded as the true meaning of his "the essence of education is: one tree shakes another tree, one cloud shakes another cloud, and one soul awakens another soul"!
The master will starve to death if he teaches his disciples. The master not only teaches the apprentice experience and knowledge, but also makes the apprentice understand the essential things and has innovative consciousness and ability. Shine on you is better than blue!