Since 1970s, with the overall revival of humanism, humanistic education has also begun its modern revival. Facing the increasingly serious world crisis and human crisis, education has to think about such a question: "What kind of thinking training, what kind of knowledge is more suitable for understanding, and what kind of more effective values can have a more positive impact on human progress rather than a destructive role!" The profound world crisis and human crisis have posed unprecedented challenges to human education, and the important response of education to this challenge is to revive humanistic education.
Nowadays, the revival of humanistic education has become a trend. Contemporary humanistic education view is different from the traditional humanistic education view, which mainly advocates the following ethical values: understanding and peace, human dignity, freedom and responsibility, and respect for nature. Therefore, this view of education advocates: strengthening the teaching of literature, art, ethics, society, history, geography and other humanities; Put the education of values at the top of the whole education; Infiltrate human nature education into the whole process of education to humanize the whole education; Strengthen the education of freedom and responsibility, and regard freedom and responsibility as the core values of modern ethical life.
Generally speaking, the contemporary humanistic education view mainly has the following three propositions.
First, take personality perfection as the ultimate goal of education.
Taking the perfection of personality as the highest or ultimate goal of education is a core view that humanistic education has always adhered to. Nowadays, no matter what the social state of each country is, almost all countries regard "all-round education" and "all-round and harmonious development of human beings" as the ultimate value orientation of education. As far as people's condition is concerned, this educational view is put forward directly against the one-sided development and personality deformity of modern people; As far as education itself is concerned, it is directly put forward in view of the increasingly serious utilitarian tendency of education; As far as the relationship between education and society is concerned, in a sense, it is also put forward in view of the excessive intervention of the state in education after World War II, making education a tool of a certain aspect of society. Undoubtedly, excessive utilitarianism and social instrumentalism in education will inevitably lead to one-sided education and incomplete human development.
Whether it is necessary for education to establish an eternal ultimate goal for itself has always been a controversial issue. Humanistic education view has always held a positive attitude towards this. However, from the perspective of scientism education, the ultimate educational goal is too abstract, too illusory, too romantic and too divorced from reality, so it is meaningless.
However, practice has proved that the ultimate educational purpose is not only necessary, but also should be placed at the highest level of the value system of educational purpose. It is necessary to establish realistic, short-term and concrete educational goals that meet the current actual needs, but this cannot be opposed to the eternal pursuit and belief of education. The eternal ideal educational goal and the current realistic educational goal are very important to education. Without the former, education will have no ideals and beliefs, and it will be vulgar; Without the latter, education will have no practical significance and will be empty and useless; Moreover, without the latter, the former cannot be realized. Lassek and G. Vaideanu, invited education experts of the United Nations, pointed out: "We should not forget the beneficial role of the philosophy of Renaissance and Enlightenment in reforming education, especially the valuable example of ancient Greece. Just like Carl? Karl Marx pointed out that in ancient Greece, ideal was a powerful and lasting goal, which successfully shaped human body and spirit. In any case, educational activities and institutions can only exist if they follow a supreme purpose. " 〔2〕
Human society and its culture seem to be changeable. However, careful observation reveals that some things are basically unchanged beyond the times, and some things change with the times, both of which are very complicated. On the one hand, education must accurately understand what is immutable beyond the times, strive to maintain and inherit the excellent heritage and tradition of human culture, and pass on this immutable and beautiful thing from generation to generation; On the other hand, education must selectively accept things that change with the times with a keen sense. Forgetting the unity of the two, if we only stick to the former, education will inevitably fall into arbitrariness and rigidity; On the contrary, education must be frivolous and superficial [3]. In short, education should have its own eternal foothold in any case, that is, to pursue the perfection of personality forever and ever. It includes not only the tolerance of education to history and reality, but also the openness of education to the future. Without this, there will be no foundation for education, and there will be no basis for unity and combination of "invariance" and "popularity".
Second, attach importance to scientific and humanistic education.
Since the 1970s, with the revival of humanism, more and more attention has been paid to the education of humanities, and more and more countries tend to give humanities and natural disciplines the same status in education. Japan put forward in the third educational reform: "At the beginning of the new century, the revitalization of not only natural sciences, but also humanities and social sciences is a subject that cannot be underestimated." [4] Since 1970s, the United States has also vigorously strengthened humanities teaching in education, especially in higher education.
From 65438 to 0984, the American Association for the Advancement of Humanities published "Saving Our Spiritual Heritage-A Report on Humanities in Higher Education", expressing deep concern about the declining humanities education. When emphasizing the significance of humanities, the report points out that humanities are the most valuable records that sages have said, thought and recorded. Humanities tells us how people persist in discussing some eternal questions about the basic problems of life in themselves or other major civilizations [5]. The report is extremely worried about the neglect of humanities in American schools: many college students have no clear concept of educational goals and the importance of humanities teaching; The humanities has lost its central position in the university curriculum, and the school only offers one course or none at all; Among those who have obtained a bachelor's degree, 75% have never studied European history; Most of the humanities courses offered by universities are taught in the first two years; The number of humanities students has dropped sharply; Many college graduates are at a loss about the founding history, literature, art and philosophy of the United States; The teaching effect of humanities in universities is not good, and only 2% university presidents actively lead educational affairs in this area. In order to reverse this situation, the report puts forward several suggestions, mainly including two points: universities should revise the curriculum, and students should have a considerable knowledge of history, philosophy, language and literature no matter what major they study; Schools and teachers should design new courses with humanities teaching as the core and humanities, especially the history of western civilization as the key subject.
There are many motives and purposes for strengthening humanities teaching in various countries, but one of the important aspects is to carry out science and humanities education, so that the younger generation can establish the value concept of serving humanities purposes with science.
In the mid-1980s, the United States effectively strengthened scientific humanitarian education. E. Boyer pointed out in the report "College Teaching Experience of American Undergraduates" that it is very important to master science and technology. "But more importantly, if the United States wants to continue to be a country worthy of the name, it should educate its children into kind and caring people and use its skills to serve the greater social goals." [6] In his view, the purpose of education is not only to enable students to find jobs, so schools can not only impart scientific knowledge to students, but also guide students to establish the values of using this knowledge, thus "using this knowledge for humanitarian purposes". In Boyi's view, if students are limited to too narrow technical knowledge, it is difficult to have a sense of historical mission, social responsibility and humanitarian spirit. He pointed out that experts in almost every field, once using their scientific knowledge, will inevitably answer the question of "why". The expert's judgment should not only be technically correct, but also include moral and social thinking. The value given by experts to the work is as important as the work itself, so students must deeply understand the social and ethical significance of their major. However, we find that in many fields, technology itself has become an end. ..... We are training technicians, but the crisis of the times is not only related to technological competition, but also related to the lack of knowledge about social and historical prospects and the disastrous separation between competition and rationality. It is out of deep thinking about the ethical value of scientific application that Boyi strongly appeals: "The teaching content should not be limited to the scope of the subject itself, but also reflect the spirit of humanistic education in the classroom." 〔7〕
Nowadays, modern education is gradually developing in the direction of combining scientism with humanism, and cultivating new talents who understand both professional technology and humanistic thought has become the goal of education. As Sir EricAshby BaronAshby, a British educator, wrote, "The road of culture should run through one's major, not bypass it. A student who can integrate the technology he has learned into the whole social structure can be said to have received a humanistic education, while a student who can't do this is not even worthy of a good technical expert. " [8] When talking about the trend of combining science education with humanities education, Lassek and G. Vaideanu excitedly pointed out: "One of the most interesting features of modern school policy is to show a clearer understanding of the interdependence between various disciplines, between natural science and humanities and social sciences, and between various sources of educational content." 〔9〕
Third, strengthen new moral education.
Paying attention to moral education is one of the typical traditions of humanistic education. However, since the 20th century, especially after the Second World War, school moral education has been weakening in general. At the same time, the social moral level is increasingly worrying, and the rich material life is in sharp contrast with the poor and unhealthy moral life. After entering the 1970s, with the revival of humanism, moral education has once again become a concern of many countries. Some western countries have put forward slogans such as "returning the social foundation of school moral education to schools" and "filling the gap in moral education that lasted for 20 years after World War II". The re-emphasis on moral education by society and schools highlights the serious anxiety about the present situation and prospects of human education.
The revival of contemporary humanistic education is not a simple return to classical or traditional humanistic education, but a kind of inheritance, reform and development. From the perspective of moral education, classical humanistic education mainly pays attention to individuals, especially to the rational cultivation of individuals and the formation of personal moral quality. Although contemporary humanistic education is concerned about individuals, it also emphasizes the concern for the interests of others, society and mankind. Contemporary humanistic education tends to pay more attention to the latter when the interests of individuals and groups, parts and the whole conflict. In other words, contemporary humanistic education has gradually changed from the individual-oriented in classical education to caring for individuals, others, the collective and even all mankind. This is a major change in moral values in humanistic education. Although this process of change existed throughout the 20th century, it has never been as urgent and real as it is today. The moral values advocated by contemporary humanistic education believe that morality is not only to cultivate students' personal good moral quality, but also to enable students to form ethical rationality, to examine nature, people and society with broader ethical thinking and ethical behavior, and to make ethically correct value judgments and behavior choices.
Due to the transformation of contemporary humanism in moral values, the moral education advocated by it attaches great importance to the cultivation of social responsibility. Although attaching importance to the cultivation of social responsibility is an important feature of education in many countries in the 20th century, for a long time in the past, the cultivation of social responsibility has a strong political color and a narrow tendency of local egoism, national egoism and national egoism.
The sense of social responsibility advocated by humanistic education today is healthier, broader and richer than before. It not only attaches importance to self-responsibility and personal responsibility to others, nations and countries, but also attaches importance to personal responsibility to the world and mankind. Obviously, this kind of moral education is more humanistic.
In Boyi's view, students' quality includes two aspects: one is ability, and the other is sense of responsibility. In view of the fact that American education has long attached importance to ability and neglected responsibility, Boyd proposed that the focus of educational purpose should be the transformation from ability to responsibility [10]. American educational sociologist T. Parsons also believes that students' quality can be summarized as ability and morality, and the core of morality can be attributed to responsibility. He pointed out that the main challenge facing the younger generation is not their cognitive ability or intelligence, but their morality and ability. Therefore, "the socialization function of schools can be summarized as the development of personal responsibility and ability, which is the most basic premise of their initial role-playing". [11] In Parsons' view, students must form "two responsibilities": one is "the responsibility to fulfill a wide range of social values"; The second is "fulfilling the sense of responsibility of a certain role in the social structure", which are linked together [12].
In Japan, cultivating social responsibility has always been an important aspect of the purpose of Japanese moral education, which is directly related to Japan's strong national spirit and national consciousness. Japanese education attaches great importance to the cultivation of social responsibility and Japanese people's high sense of responsibility is also recognized by the world. However, with the abundance of material life, the individualism of the younger generation born after World War II is expanding and the sense of social responsibility is shrinking, which has caused widespread dissatisfaction among the older generation and society. Therefore, the cultivation of social responsibility has become a common concern in Japan's third educational reform in the 1980s.
The third educational reform in Japan, which has a strong humanistic meaning, is based on the principle of "respecting individuality", but it not only advocates individual freedom, but also emphasizes the cultivation of social responsibility. The first consultation report published by the Provisional Education Council pointed out: "The meaning of freedom is fundamentally different from indulgence, irresponsibility and disorder. Freedom is accompanied by a sacred responsibility to society. When people live in a society with more and more freedom of choice, on the one hand, they enjoy freedom, on the other hand, they do their duty for freedom. Therefore, personal dignity, respect for individuality, freedom, self-discipline and due diligence are an inseparable unity. Only by giving full play to others' personality can we give full play to our own personality; Only by knowing others can we know ourselves better; Only by respecting others can self-esteem be realized. or vice versa, Dallas to the auditorium These are two aspects of unity. ..... This is an eternal philosophy that runs through all aspects of individuals, society and the country. " [13] The fourth advisory report of the Provisional Education Review Committee once again wrote: "No one in the world exists in isolation, and everyone should consciously realize the important task of building a country and society. Therefore, we must attach importance to the cultivation of' public spirit', including the spirit of serving the public and society wholeheartedly, the spirit of respecting social norms and laws and regulations, and the tolerance, heterogeneity and diversity of others. And this' public spirit' can only be based on' freedom and self-discipline'. " 〔 14〕
It is worth pointing out that the sense of social responsibility advocated by humanistic education today has become more and more worldwide. In other words, individuals should be responsible not only to the national society, but also to the world society. An important aspect of our commitment to the international community is to firmly safeguard the moral principles of safeguarding world peace, equality and all mankind. Due to the common needs of mankind, the moral standards of all mankind have gradually become one of the foundations of international politics. In the report "Learn to survive", the Commission for International Education Development of UNESCO pointed out: "Even if modern countries only consider their own interests, they cannot help but realize that it is very necessary to strengthen cooperation between countries." When talking about "international education", the report pointed out: "Democracy must develop for peace. Democracy encourages mutual tolerance between countries and promotes friendship and cooperation. " "The desire to be hostile to others and destroy troubles is closely related to depression, failure and inferiority. A person with inferiority complex always advocates nationalism, confines himself to the circle of local culture, and refuses to understand and know the national life, thoughts or values beyond his own limitations. He always looks for opportunities to win the support of his compatriots and thinks that he is superior to foreigners and maintains their tall image. " [16] The report holds that in the era of internationalization, education should cultivate new people with moral awareness of all mankind. "This newcomer must understand that personal behavior has global consequences, be able to consider the priorities of affairs, and be able to assume their own responsibilities in the common responsibility of human destiny." "Education has a mission, which is to help people treat foreigners not as abstract people, but as concrete people. They have their own reason, their own pain and their own happiness. The mission of education is to help people find common humanity among different nationalities "[17]. 1978, UNESCO initiated an international seminar on the relationship between moral values and the needs of the contemporary world. In his congratulatory message to the meeting, the then UN Secretary-General said: "On behalf of the UN Secretary-General, I would like to congratulate UNESCO for initiating such an important international meeting ... It is particularly encouraging that international cooperative education has become an integral part of moral education and civic education in more and more countries." [18] At the moral education conference held in 1980 with the participation of 16 countries, all countries attached great importance to the moral values of the country and the world, including: "patriotism, national consciousness, peaceful civic responsibility, international understanding, human friendship and interdependence among countries." This shows that more and more countries are trying to properly combine national values with world values in moral education.
It is also worth mentioning that contemporary humanism also extends ethical education from the relationship between people to the relationship between man and nature, emphasizing the education of environmental ethics and ecological ethics for students. Traditional humanistic education mainly focuses on how people show their main strength in front of nature, but rarely pays attention to the damage to the natural environment when people ask for wealth from nature. As long as there are economic benefits, it seems that people can tolerate excessive plunder of natural resources and damage and pollution to the environment. Facing the worsening human living environment, contemporary humanistic education advocates the creation of a new coexistence relationship between man and nature, and requires education to cultivate students' attitude of being close to and loving nature, and help them form a sense of responsibility for maintaining ecology and protecting the environment, so as to pass on a colorful nature to future generations and make human history enter an era of life first and nature first.
note:
[1] [6] [7] [8] [10] Boyi: College-American undergraduate education experience. National Education Development and Policy Research Center: Trends and Trends of Education Reform in Developed Countries (Volume II), People's Education Press, 1987, pp. 247 and 277, 108 and 243.
[2] [9] [18] [19] Lassek and Vidinu: "Global Outlook of Educational Content Development from Now to 2000", Education Science Press, 1992, 120,150.
[3] See Provisional Board of Education: Second Consultation Report on Education Reform. Qu Baokui, Editor-in-Chief, Selected Works on Education in Zhong Qiquan? Education Reform in Japan, People's Education Press, 199 1 Edition, p. 456.
[4] [13] Interim Education Review Conference: the first consultation report on education reform. Qu Baokui, editor-in-chief, Zhong Qiquan's Selected Works: Selected Works of Education and Teaching? Education Reform in Japan, People's Education Press, 199 1 Edition, p. 428 and 164.
[5] See Cui: "Exploration of Education Reform in Developed Countries in the 20th Century", Hunan Education Press, 1990, the first10/page.
[1 1] [12] Parsons: Class as a social system: some functions in American society. Renjie Zhang, editor-in-chief: Selected Works of Sociology of Education Abroad, East China Normal University Press, 1989, p. 507.
[14] Provisional Board of Education: Fourth Consultation Report on Education Reform. Qu Baokui, editor-in-chief, Zhong Qiquan, Selected Works: Essays on Education? Education Reform in Japan, People's Education Press, 199 1 Edition, p. 623.
[15] [16] [17] UNESCO Committee on International Education Development: Learn to live, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1979, pp. 3, 208 and 209.