Paper Keywords: freedom; Freedom; rationality
As an important educational thought, liberal education has a wide and far-reaching impact on educational practice around the world. ? Free reason is fundamental and universal for its own purposes? It is the basic spirit of free education, which not only conforms to the essential attributes of human beings and the essence of education, but also reflects the inherent needs of human beings. Through the research and discussion on the evolution and essential connotation of free education, we realize that free education is the best choice to protect the foundation of universities from the discussion on the conservatism and adaptability of universities in modern society.
From ancient Greece to modern times since the Renaissance, and now, liberal education has always been one of the traditions of western education, and has had a positive and far-reaching impact on university education. This ancient form of education has experienced thousands of years of social changes, and its own significance has also injected new connotation and breath with the development of the times and the changes of education. Since the 20th century, from the edge of society to the center of society, liberal education has maintained the foundation for the continuation and development of reality because of its basic spirit, but it has also been questioned by the world because of its conservative characteristics. However, it is not difficult to find that there is a shadow of free education in the practice of higher education all over the world, and the nature of universities has a tendency of free education, which makes the academic circles trace the origin of free education and call for the return of free education to become the choice of the times in the process of solving the increasingly prominent fundamental problems of higher education.
First, the origin of free education
In the history of western education, free education is one of the main directions of university education thought and practice, which has a wide and profound impact on university education thought. From the historical development process of liberal education, it can be roughly divided into four periods.
1. Ancient Greek period
As early as the 4th century BC, in ancient Greece, liberal education began to breed and develop, which was put forward by Aristotle. Aristotle believes that education must go beyond the needs of survival, cultivate people's free ability, and acquire the wisdom and education of free citizens. He also advocates a kind of leisure education, in which he develops his own reason, obtains inner pleasure from it and reaches the happy realm of life. Therefore, the initial connotation of free education is: an education suitable for free people, and its main purposes are: first, to promote the harmonious development of human body and wisdom; The second is to promote the full development of human reason and free people from the shackles of ignorance and narrowness. In order to achieve this goal, the content of education must be centered on free subjects and avoid single special education.
2. Medieval to Renaissance
The model and spirit of liberal education in ancient Greece were reformed by theology? Seven arts? The thoughts of Plato and Aristotle entered the academic tradition of medieval universities in Europe and became the mainstream educational form and orthodox thought that adapted to the knowledge form before modern times. However, in the Middle Ages, human reason and value were placed in the shadow of theology, which was divorced from the purpose of liberal education in ancient Greece for rational development and human value promotion, leaving only a microcosm. It was not until the Renaissance that humanist educators noticed Aristotle's? Free education? Re-interpretation, but most of the methods they adopted were studying the classics of past dynasties, which made a great change in the concept of free education: the study of classical literature itself was equivalent to free education, and free education was endowed with the significance of humanistic education or liberal arts education.
3. In modern times
With the development of natural science and the rise of science education, the meaning of modern liberal education has developed to a certain extent. Especially in the19th century, through the transformation and development of British educator Huxley, liberal education was gradually given? General education? Or is it? General education? Meaning of. According to Huxley's academic thought, free education? It is an intellectual training in the laws of nature, including not only all kinds of things and their forces, but also human beings and their various aspects, and also the desire to transform feelings and will into sincere love in harmony with those laws. ? [1] This kind of education is essentially a kind of general education, which tries to link human education with various factors of nature and society, thus making its connotation broader and richer, and reflecting the great influence of scientific and technological progress on all aspects of human life.
4. Current era
In the 20th century, with the deepening of human understanding of themselves, society and the inherent nature of education, as well as the constant challenges of utilitarianism and pragmatism, the concept of free education has been constantly changed and improved. Hutchins, a famous American educator in the 20th century, was right at that time? Free education? Make such a description. ? Free education is a kind of rational training, which will enable people to solve new problems when new problems arise, master new problems when new situations arise, meet new needs when new needs arise, and transform the environment to meet the wishes of human spirit. ? [2] At the same time, he stressed that the way of university lies in that all different departments and majors must have the same spiritual foundation and should receive an education. Only by developing general education or education can we conform to the idea of university, communicate modernity with tradition, and keep civilization from breaking. At this point, due to the development and changes of society and culture, the concept of free education has also evolved from traditional free education to modern general education.
Second, the essential connotation of free education
Free education is also called. General education? Or? General education? It is through the freedom of human nature that some unreasonable laws and restrictions are broken, so that people can truly become human beings and bring some spiritual transcendence. Therefore, it means the harmonious development of individual's body, mind, morality and wisdom. It is a natural elite education rather than mass education, and a general education in a broad sense rather than a special education in a narrow sense. Tracing back to the historical process of liberal arts education, it is not difficult to find that no matter where liberal arts education is expanded and deepened, there are still some similarities in the deep sense. Freedom and reason are aimed at knowledge itself. Basic and universal? They are always the basic core of liberal education.
1. Freedom
Freedom has always been the ultimate goal pursued by people, with eternal value, and? Freedom? As the core idea of liberal education, it naturally becomes its primary spiritual refuge. Freedom is the goal of free education. From individual freedom to rational freedom and then to spiritual freedom, education aims to make people become people, and cultivate people with both freedom ability and freedom consciousness by learning the contents of free subjects. At the same time, freedom is the premise of free education. The purpose of education is to cultivate people? Free will? Its task is to help people untie the shackles and truly realize people's spiritual freedom.
Be rational.
Wisdom and thinking ability are people's unique values, namely rationality. Only by making full use of and developing rationality can we realize our real self-life. The main purpose of free education is to promote the full development of human reason and make people's whole life effective and correct through the accumulation of knowledge. As far as liberal education is concerned, it is the development of rationality, or the cultivation of rational culture. It is based on truth, so it has the ultimate value that general practical education or science education does not have.
3. For the purpose of knowledge itself
In order to seek true freedom, education must aim at knowledge itself and educate for education's sake. Since free education wants to achieve real freedom, it must take itself as the only pursuit purpose, adhere to its own ideas and opinions, and strive for its own perfection. If education takes itself as its ultimate goal and has no other purpose, then education is truly free. The realization of educational purpose is based on the pursuit of knowledge, so we can think that general education is based on knowledge itself to meet people's inner spiritual needs, especially the needs of rational development.
4. Fundamentality and universality
From the perspective of educational content, is it? Seven arts? Education and the current general education curriculum reflect the importance of general education on basic and universal knowledge. Even professional education requires a broad and solid knowledge base. Basic and universal knowledge can provide a platform for communication and exchange between different fields of society, and also lay the foundation for personal future career development and lifelong learning. In addition, under the development trend of modern mass education, free education is no longer limited to the elite, but has become a right that everyone can enjoy equally, so it is vividly described as general education.
Third, restoration and return: the mission of free education
Education is essentially a process of human self-realization, a process from individuality to universality, and represents human self-realization and self-liberation. The idea of free education is a kind of idea that universities have actually existed since their birth. Under normal circumstances, universities have the nature of devoting themselves to free education unless society destroys this nature by force. [3] This kind of educational concept that starts directly from people is ultimately most beneficial to the development of science and technology and even the whole human society, economy and culture.
However, since the beginning of the 20th century, higher education has gradually developed from the edge of society to the center of society. The social division of labor and the refinement of professional disciplines and the sharp increase in knowledge have directly led to the fact that people in modern society can only master limited knowledge, and no one can become an encyclopedic person who knows everything. As a result, the concept of liberal education gradually declined, and today in the 2 1 century, both European countries and China are facing challenges.
As brubeck said, there are two main ways for universities to establish their status, namely, there are two main ways for higher education, one is based on epistemology and the other is based on theory. ? [4] In essence, it is more inclined to the epistemological educational philosophy of value freedom, while the reality is more conducive to the educational philosophy of political theory. Solving the contradiction and conflict between the two higher education is actually to solve the relationship between university and development, that is, the relationship between the development of the university itself and its role in society. If universities are far away from social reality, then universities will lose their legitimacy in modern society; If a university becomes a factory that only produces knowledge and diplomas, it will be difficult for the university to survive because it has lost its uniqueness.
In today's prevailing political theory, under the two different notes of conservatism and adaptability of universities, free education is undoubtedly a good way to play a harmonious movement better. Liberal education pays attention to the education of humanities and social sciences and the improvement of educators' spiritual level, which is precisely the relative lack of modern education under the impact. With the increasing integration of human knowledge, the over-detailed division of majors has been questioned by both practice and theory. Pursuing the footsteps of free education is objectively conducive to alleviating the bad tendency of professionalization, specialization and practicality of school education. Moreover, because many modern occupations are permeated with theoretical elements, professionals need to have a comprehensive understanding in addition to professional accomplishment, and also need to dabble as widely as possible. The acquisition of any vocational and technical knowledge and ability must be based on the general understanding ability. Without a basic understanding, professional knowledge and ability will be like cooking without rice. It can be seen from the practice of all parties that free education and education can coexist harmoniously and support each other. Free education and practical education have the same useful characteristics, which makes there a unified and coordinated foundation between free education and professional education.
Four. Concluding remarks
Freedom is the unchangeable ultimate belief and pursuit of education. Although the traditional educational thought of free education has experienced the changes of the times, it is highly respected because of its basic spirit. The British university education model can continue to this day, which also shows the real value of universities as universities to some extent. Contemporary general education or for general education, universities? Academic for academic sake, academic for freedom, and academic for people themselves? The conservatism of higher education will penetrate and run through the whole higher education system more effectively. In the process of the transition from liberal education to the times, higher education in all countries in the world has gradually changed the previous university-running policy of overemphasizing vocational training and professional education, and began to pay attention to the all-round cultivation of college students' knowledge system and the integration and cross-infiltration of liberal arts disciplines. Therefore, free education has realized the education of free people with its inherent spirit of freedom, which accords with people's expectation for the return of education standard.
References:
[1] Shan Zhonghui, translated by Ping Bo. Constant? Huxley. Science and education [M]. Beijing: People's Education Press, 1990: 59.
[2] Lu Youquan translation. Hutchins. Conflict in education [M]. Taipei: Taipei Laurel Book Co., Ltd., 1994: 8 1.
[3] Zhang Chuting. Philosophy of education [M]. Beijing: Education Science Press, 2006: 248.
[4] Wang,, etc. Translated by John? s？ Brubeck. Philosophy of higher education [M]. Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Press, 1987: 13.
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