What is the
effect of education on social life? Should education strive for changing
society? Or should it try to maintain our social and cultural norms? In other
words, is education a force of change? Or a force of maintaining the good old
days? Reference your preference and why?
Introduction
Education
is one of the most important means to improve personal endowments, build
capabilities, overcome constraints and in the process, enlarge available set of
opportunities and choices for a sustained improvement in well-being. The
process of education and attainments thereof has an impact on all aspects of
life. It is a critical invasive instrument for bringing about social, economic
and political inclusion of people (NHDR, 2001). In this context, we will try to
make an attempt to assess the contribution of education to one of such several
dimensions of life of individuals and their social development.
Social
development first attracted widespread attention in all civilizations which
conceive social development as a process of planned social change designed to
promote the well-being of the population as a whole in conjunction with a
dynamic process of economic development. But this meaning is the modern one of
social development. In past, social development was introduced with many
meanings according to the differences in philosophies and authorities between
societies especially between the East and the West. In addition to that, it was
very obvious that inside each of the eastern and western philosophies there
were many differences in the field of education but, in this context we will
try to show the general differences between those two societies.
To
show the difference between the Eastern and Western philosophies about the view
to education, we will talk about the pragmatism from the west which is the most
popular and practical nowadays in the West, and the eastern philosophies in
general, where they relatively resemble each other.
Western Philosophy:
John Dewey, greatest of the
pragmatists and generally recognized as the most outstanding philosopher his
country has yet produced, made significant contributions to virtually every
field of philosophy as well as to such other areas of inquiry as education and
psychology. According to Dewey the aim of education is the development of
child’s powers and abilities. It is impossible to lay down any definite
principle for a particular kind of development, because this development will
differ from one child to the next, with respect to the unique abilities of the
individual. The educator should guide the child according to the abilities and
powers he observes in it. It is better, in Dewey’s opinion, to leave the
question of educational objectives unanswered. In general, the aim of education
is to create an atmosphere in which the child gets an opportunity to be active
in and contribute to the social awakening of the human race. From the pragmatic
standpoint, education aims at creating social efficiency in the child. Man is a
social being who must develop at all. For this reason, education must aim at
creating social efficiency and skill.
Pragmatic education aims also at
instilling democratic values and ideals in the individual. Every individual
must be given the freedom to develop his own desires and achieve his ambitions.
Every individual must be equal to every other member of society. Such a society
can be created only when there is no fundamental difference between the
individual and collective interest. Education should create cooperation and
harmony among individuals, instilling democratic values in school between
children. In fact, the school itself is a miniature form of democratic society
in which the child undergoes various forms of development, of which moral
education and development is the most important. Morality can be developed
through active participation, because such participation in the activities of
the school trains the child in shouldering responsibility. Pragmatic education
is basically practical in as much as it aims at preparing the individual for
future life in such a manner that he can fulfill his requirements and achieve
contentment. Dewey was critical of the contemporary modes of education because
they tend to drive the child away from democratic life by giving advantages to
a small section of society. It also lays more stress on book or formal teaching
than is really desirable.
Hence Dewey laid the foundations of
a progressive education in the form of a Progressive School, which aimed at
establishing democratic values and developing the child’s personality. Dewey
also emphasized the importance of the social aspect of the education where he
said that all education has its beginnings in the individual’s participation in
the social consciousness of the race. Hence it is necessary to create an atmosphere
in the school, which will allow the child to take an active part in the social
awakening of his group. This improves his conduct and develops his personality
and abilities. He also talked about the methodology of this process that
includes the following steps: learning by doing, integration of life and
subjects, catering in child's interest and participation in collective
activities. In the western society Dewey affected education where nowadays, it
is an important aim of education to teach according his thoughts, where he
insisted on developing social qualities in the child.
So, in modern schools these aims of
education have been accepted as valid. The greatest impact of Dewey’s ideas is
seen in the methods of education in more recent times. Dewey suggested that
education should be based on the child’s own experience, and also that the
method of teaching should vary according to the interests and inclinations of
each individual child. These ideas influenced modern teaching techniques and
led to active teaching in schools. One such school is the Activity School. The
project method is also a result of Dewey’s ideas. Even in the other schools,
attention is paid to the principles of child psychology, which guide the
educator in creating an atmosphere suitable for developing social consciousness
in the educated.
The impact of Dewey’s ideas on the
subject of curriculum was significant also where he led to the introduction of
manual skill subjects into modern curricula. Special importance is now being
attached to various kinds of games, objects, the use of certain tools and
implements, etc. In selecting the subject to be taught, attention is now paid
to the individual interests and abilities of the child.
As a result, now the students are
entrusted with much of the work done in the school. In this manner the students
are trained for self-control and democratic citizenship. Apart this, once the
student have to face responsibility, he is compelled to think scientifically
and reason out things for himself.
Dewey’s thinking and ideal also
affected the universal and compulsory education. Education aims at the
development of personality. Hence every individual must be given the
opportunity to develop his personality through education. The current stress on
the scientific and social tendency owed much to Dewey’s influence. He pointed
that education was a social necessity, in that it was not merely a preparation
for life itself. It aimed at the development of both the individual as well as
society. This leads to the comprehensive development of the individual.
Eastern Philosophy
With respect to the eastern
education, we will discuss the thoughts of the Indian philosopher Sri
Aurobindo, where he defined educational objectives by saying: “It must be an
education that for the individual will make its one central object the growth
of the soul and its powers and possibilities, for the nation will keep first in
view the preservation, strengthening and enrichment of the nation-soul and its
dharma (Eternal law), and raise both into powers of the life and ascending mind
and soul of humanity". Aurobindo presented a national system of education
which may be adopted for the educational reconstruction in India and at the
same time develop the Indians as world citizens and the fore-runners of the
advent of the only gives and important place to individual and nation. In the
words of Sri Aurobindo, the true national education is that, which helps to
bring out to full advantage, makes ready for the full purpose and scope of
human life all that is in the individual man and which at the same time, helps
him to enter into right relation with the life, mind and soul humanity of which
he himself is a unit and his people or nation a living, a separate and yet
inseparable member.
In order to achieve these purposes,
Aurobindo gave three issues that the curriculum should include:
1. To teach students how to observe
and know rightly the facts on which they have to
form a judgment.
2. To train them to think fruitfully
and soundly.
3. To fit them to use their
knowledge and their thought effectively for their own and
for the common good.
Thus, as it is shown that the
eastern philosophy shown in this paper is different from that of the western.
It is obvious that the Eastern educational system tries to accomplish the
individual knowledge for the Eastern, but spontaneously it is trying to
conserve the traditions, eternals and humanity more than the Westerns. Beside
their academic process they believe in the need for reaching the full purpose
and scope of human life, which came from their religions and their parents in
the past. This means that they are trying to conserve it besides their academic
progress. The Easterns are willing to conserve the ancient educational ideals
along with methods and techniques of their own and other western originated
that are useful for them.
Easterns nowadays, define education not only as spiritual,
but also rational,
vital and physical. In other words,
it is an integral education. This integral education has been explained by Sri
Aurobindo’s closest collaborator the Mother, in these words, “Edcuation to be
complete must have five principal aspects relating to the five principal
activities of the human being: the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic
and the spiritual". Sri Aurobindo’s scheme of education is integral in two
senses. Firstly, it is integral in the sense of including all the aspects of
the individual being, physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual. Secondly,
it is integral in the sense of being an education not only for the evolution of
the humanity. The ultimate aim of education is the evolution of total humanity,
which includes the evolution of the nation, which in its turn depends upon the
evolution of the individual.
Conclusion
From these two philosophies
proposed, one can obviously notice how Eastern people are related more to their
traditions and beliefs. They all believe that education should be man’s
adjustment to his nature, to his fellows and to the ultimate nature of the
cosmos. Even the relations between them are affected by the traditions and
beliefs more than the education, whether the relations between people with each
other or, between the people and their governments. It is also obvious in many
Eastern countries that the laws are still related to the traditions and
beliefs. Thus we can show according to that that education, although changed
significantly the society but it still did not reach the level of influence
that traditions did in these societies.Even in some of these countries, the
level of scientific achievements are very high and the ranking of their
educational systems shows that they are from the best in the world in
education, like in Japan, the effect of traditions and beliefs is the major
with respect to education.
However, on the other hand, the
Western education affected significantly the society, traditions and beliefs.
These effects are so clear for those who observe it, where the Western
traditions are not respected as those for the Easterns because they are not
pragmatic enough for the purpose of achievements and social progress. The
Western society changed a lot and quickly during the last century, which could
be the main reason for getting far away from the traditions, to walk with these
changes, and this can be obvious also with respect to eternal beliefs that are
not well adopted by the Western citizens as in the Easterns, although they
adopt democracy in a very well manner.
But this cannot be taken as a reason
for what is going on in the West with respect to traditions where they are approaching education in its narrow sense, as a formal conservative
process mainly confined to school campus. On the other hand, education in its
wider sense becomes a vague and informal process aiming at nothing but allowing
the child uncontrolled freedom for arbitrary activities as in some Eastern
societies, where through such a process it is not possible to inculcate social,
moral and spiritual values in children. Thus, both the processes are one-sided
and emphasize two extremes. The real concept of education is a synthesis of
these two processes. This synthesis will develop the child to the full
according to his inherent tendencies with emphasis on concurrent development of
society, of which he is an integral part. Such an education will develop both
the child and the society to higher and higher positions of glory and cultural
eminence, besides the conservation of traditions and beliefs.
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