Paper Keywords: rationality; Freedom; Free compulsory education
Free education is an ancient educational thought in the history of western education. Although liberal education is a constantly changing concept, different educators in different historical periods have different interpretations and concerns about liberal education, "freedom" and "rationality" have always been the eternal soul and essence of liberal education.
First, the connotation of free education
Free education is an ancient educational thought and ideal in the history of western education. To define free education, we must first examine the essential connotation of the core concept of free education. However, different people have different understandings of freedom, and different theories hold different views on freedom, just like "a thousand listeners have a thousand Hamlets". Therefore, the concept of free education based on the philosophical thinking of "freedom" cannot be completely consistent.
Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher who first put forward the concept of "free education", paid attention to people's inner freedom and thought that free education was an education for "free people" to use their leisure time to engage in philosophical thinking and develop their rationality freely, rather than vocational training. Newman, on the other hand, believes that freedom is freedom for freedom itself, which can give free people an open mind and elegant taste. Based on this, he believes that "free education is intellectual education" and is the practice of wisdom, rationality and thinking; Humboldt, a classical humanist educator, believes that the highest ideal of free education is to cultivate human nature and develop personality in an all-round way through the cultivation of humanistic literacy; Educator Huxley believes that free education should be a general education with both arts and sciences; Hutchins emphasized the foundation of free education and advocated the integration of free education and vocational education. A bartlett Giamatti, the former president of Yale University, believes that free education is an education that connects one's thoughts with other thoughts and spirits in the process of exploring truth, and freely expresses and explores thoughts. It can be seen that since the origin of ancient Greece, free education has always been regarded as an education suitable for free people, and it is also an education that directs people's spiritual freedom, points to the advanced stage of human development, and trains people to become perfect people. Although liberal education is a constantly changing concept, different educators in different historical periods have different interpretations and concerns about liberal education, "freedom" and "rationality" are always the eternal soul and essence of liberal education.
Second, rationalism's thought of free education: developing rationality
Rationalism is the ideological and philosophical basis of liberal education. Rationalists such as Plato, Socrates and Aristotle in ancient Greece believed that the unique value of man lies in his thinking ability and his wisdom, that is, rationality. The basic characteristic of human beings is that they are rational. Only by fully utilizing and developing rationality can we truly realize ourselves. Therefore, the main purpose of free education is to protect and develop people's rationality and guide people's life correctly through knowledge equipment, rather than "living" on the basis of false appearances and unreliable beliefs. As Newman said, "liberal education itself is the development of rationality" or "the cultivation of rational culture".
The characteristics of rationalist liberal education thought are as follows: ① The fundamental purpose of liberal education is to cultivate rationality. Free education enables human beings to carry out rational activities in their leisure life, make people develop in an all-round and harmonious way physically, morally and intellectually, make people tend to rational life, overcome ignorance, pursue truth with wisdom, enhance their rational value, and finally realize their spiritual freedom. Free education does not include any utilitarian or vocational training, which is "neither necessary nor practical" for life. Hutchins clearly pointed out that "free education" is "education of developing rationality". Newman believes that "free education is the education of intellectual cultivation" and that "in the process of cultivation, the cultivation of intelligence does not tend to a specific `goal or accidental purpose, nor does it point to a specific occupation, research or science, but aims at pursuing intelligence itself"; It is also pointed out that it is the ideal of universities to make people rational through free education, and universities should only impart "knowledge and culture" and cultivate excellent intelligence. ② General education takes liberal arts as its core educational content, and the courses advocated are humanistic knowledge, which is an inherently perfect liberal arts-"Seven Arts". ③ In terms of educational methods, we should pay special attention to let students know their unknown fields through rationality, give full play to their potential in rational activities, and gain all kinds of knowledge, and attach importance to the great role of meditation activities in cultivating rational souls. Hutchins emphasized: "The cultivation and development of rationality is education." The purpose of free education is to "promote the development of human thinking" and enable students to master the methods of solving problems.
Third, the humanistic thought of free education: the pursuit of freedom
As an eternal value, freedom has always been the ultimate goal pursued by people. As the core concept of free education, "freedom" naturally becomes its primary spiritual refuge. Many educators summarize liberal education as "education for freedom". Italian humanistic educator Vergelius said that the so-called free education is "an education that can inspire and form some of the highest talents that make people noble physically and mentally, and an education that pays attention to the life value of free people". Freedom is the soul of human and education. People can't be human without freedom, and education can't be education without freedom; Denying free education will inevitably destroy human nature, create morbid personality, or enslave others' autocratic character. From the perspective of free education, education respects people's free nature and free will, and recognizes individual differences. Oppose simple indoctrination, standardization and homogenization, and advocate awakening people's inner strength, so we need to listen to the dialogue of the greatest soul and let the educated become themselves. It can be said that in this kind of education, students can have a "human" experience, can really behave like "people", and students can really be like "people". Arnold, a British educator, believes that the purpose of free education is for the value of people themselves. The basic feature of humanistic general education thought is that humanistic general education is people-oriented, people-oriented education, not people-oriented education, so it has a strong humanistic atmosphere and profound humanistic care. Freedom is the ultimate goal of free education. From individual freedom to rational freedom, and then to spiritual freedom, the purpose of education is to highlight the dignity and value of individuals themselves, and always insist on cultivating people with both freedom ability and freedom consciousness by learning the contents of free subjects. The purpose of education is to realize the freedom of human nature and the harmonious development of body and mind. The content of education is a free subject course based on the "Seven Arts", which enriches and develops the "Seven Arts" course, actively advocates comprehensive education or holistic education in line with the value of free people, takes the pursuit of morality and virtue as a higher purpose, and pays attention to the moral education function of classic literary works. Strauss believes that free education is "education liberated from vulgarity" and that free education "will give us the experience of beautiful things and cultivate people with excellent minds".
Four. Concluding remarks
As an educational thought, liberal education still has great influence in the field of educational theory and practice. The soul and essence of free education-"freedom" and "rationality" not only conform to the nature of human nature and education, but also reflect the requirements of people and society. Freedom is the embodiment of human nature and the highest stage of human development, so free education will become the ultimate destination of higher education thoughts and theories. Modern education under the impact of market economy is relatively short of attention to humanistic education and spiritual perfection of the educated. Free education is making up for its shortcomings, paying attention to the life value and spiritual world of the educated and paying attention to human freedom. Without free time, space and free atmosphere, it is impossible to use and develop students' rationality, fully stimulate the motivation of the educated and enjoy the happiness of creation. Free education does not exclude the instrumental value of education, but regards instrumental value as a means to realize ontological value. Free education guides people to think about the purpose, significance and value of life by maintaining the tradition of humanistic education and according to values, and develops human nature and perfects personality by improving people's cultural literacy and cultural character. As the foundation of pedagogy, life has been truly interpreted here. Therefore, it is necessary to re-examine the current concept of free education, so that universities can still be presented to the world with the elegant attitude of "spiritual castle".
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