Introduction To Philosophy Of Education

Book: Introduction To Philosophy Of Education

 

 

Philosophy has generally been defined in ways which imply a certain totality, generality, and ultimate ness of both subject matter and method It has always been assumed that philosophy signified achieving a wisdom which would influence the conduct of life. Here in the present book, we have collected articles from authoritative sources. These are-Meaning of philosophy of education; Function of education in the biological record; The social inheritance; Population and education; Competition and cooperation; Education and adolescence; Adult education; Education for emerging age; Pride and prejudice in education; Knowledge explosion and education; Essentialism; and education in later adolescence, industry and education etc.

 

Defining education

 

The Auroville Charter makes education a defining characteristic of life in Auroville. There is a need however to make certain distinctions between education as it is commonly understood, and education as mentioned by Mother in the Auroville Charter and practiced in Auroville.

 

Education is usually understood as a course of study to acquire a body of knowledge or skills undertaken to enhance one's ability to do a particular job and be able to earn more money. The more liberal definitions of education, where it is understood as development and refinement of one's personality, without necessarily an eye to economic advantage, have been out of use for long, and one finds only scattered instances of the practice of education with such aims. Even so, what has been envisaged for Auroville is far beyond and above the goals set by liberal education.

 

In relation to the education offered at the Centre of Education at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Mother had pointed out that "We are not here to do (only a little better) what others do. We are here to do what others cannot do because they do not have the idea that it can be done."

 

Man's place in the world

 

Sri Aurobindo and Mother do not reject the utilitarian or liberal perspectives. These form a very small part of their total vision of education, which is based on a deep understanding of the human personality, of man's place in the world, of the world itself and its position in the order of the worlds, of how these worlds influence and impinge on the human personality, of the nature of creation, - and deriving from all these, the aim of human existence.

 

Man is seen as a multi-layered being composed of the physical, vital and emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual personalities. Each of these is further sub-divided, and each has a counterpart on subtle planes surrounding the body. There is within man a spark of the transcendent divine, and the aim of human existence, as seen by Auroville's founders, is to become conscious of this reality and unite with it. Each human being has his/her unique path to arrive at this union, and this can be done in life, in matter itself, and not by removing oneself from life as advocated by traditional spiritual practices.

 

Higher levels of consciousness

 

So far, man has developed mainly the physical, mental and vital parts of his being, but now there is an evolutionary thrust to develop still higher parts, which are contained within man and known as the supramental personality. By the use of mind, man has now created a complex structure of society using stupendous advances in technology which have gone out of control. Only a move to higher levels of consciousness can save the human race.

In the light of this high vision underlying Auroville, the internal dynamics of the township are set in such a way that all its residents are under constant pressure to exceed themselves, to continually seek self-perfection. These pressures exist everywhere in the world at this moment in time - yet there is a difference. Firstly, due to the collective nature of Auroville the intensity here is much greater and, secondly, its participants have the guidance of Mother and Sri Aurobindo for understanding and correctly handling these pressures. As each has a unique path to follow, the guidance to each comes by establishing contact with the psychic being within.

Living education

 

Auroville contains many different individuals of varying nationality, background and karmic path. Despite the great diversity among them, it can generally be said that the movement of each individual on his/her path to self perfection and growth in consciousness is what we 'live' in Auroville as "unending education".

 

 

 

Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.

 

Teachers in educational institutions direct the education of students and might draw on many subjects, including reading, writing, mathematics, science and history. This process is sometimes called schooling when referring to the education of teaching only a certain subject, usually as professors at institutions of higher learning. There is also education in fields for those who want specific vocational skills, such as those required to be a pilot. In addition there is an array of education possible at the informal level, such as, in museums and libraries, with the Internet and in life experience.

 

 

 

 

Defining words can leave some of us tongue-tied

(Current usage/news)

 

Several weeks ago I was riding in a cab when the driver's eyes caught mine in the rear view mirror and he said, "Excuse me, Miss? Can you help me?"

 

As any hard-bitten city dweller knows, the correct answer to a generic "Can you help me?" should always be some version of "It depends." I chirped, "Sure."

 

"Thank you," he said. He passed a scrap of yellow paper into the back seat.

 

I stared at the paper, mystified. Was this a joke? A threat? An abridged haiku? Hand-printed on the paper in tiny block letters was this:

 

proverb

 

peculiar

 

idiomatic

 

"Please," he said. "What is the meaning of these words?"

 

[ ... ]

 

Until that moment, I'd been so inspired by the driver's determination to learn English, so enthralled by the chance to indulge my curiosity about words with another curious soul, that I didn't fully grasp the potential for linguistic fraud perpetrated in this man's cab. Now I could barely allow myself to imagine what kind of warped English he was being fed by cowards like me who couldn't simply say, "I don't really know my own language."

 

I can only trust that someone as curious as he is also owns a dictionary. And that he figures out that, no matter what his passengers may say, haste doesn't always make waste at the gapers block.

 

(extract from "Defining words can leave some of us tongue-tied", Mary Schmich, "The Chicago Tribune")

 

http://chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0201160120jan16.column

 

 

 

Why bad grammar ain't so bad

(Grammar)

 

Even graduates of France's top university have been offered help writing official letters. But is perfect grammar really that important asks BBC News Online's Ryan Dilley? It seems even attending a world class university cannot adequately equip modern graduates with the skills required to pen a formal letter.

 

The Sorbonne in Paris has decided a two-year course in letter writing is required to instruct students in the art of corresponding with officialdom.

 

"Don't you have spell checkers in London, Tony?"

 

It is not only the notoriously precise French who are horrified by the inability of some citizens to adhere to the rules of grammar. On this side of the Channel there are many who grumble that standards of formal English just ain't what they used to be.

 

The conventions of grammar and punctuation do seem to be falling victim to a new informality in our written communications. At the spearhead of this onslaught is e-mail.

 

Two-thirds of those aged 18-24 admit to being more concerned about the content than the grammatical correctness of their electronic missives.

 

Bad spelling btw :(

 

Even one in four older e-mailers say they don't worry about grammar when tapping out a message.

 

Oddly, the majority of those questioned in this MSN survey said they were annoyed by errors in e-mail they receive.

 

Tolerance for mistakes reaches an even lower ebb when words are set to paper.

 

"I r a genius"

 

This year, a Royal Mail survey of companies showed poorly-written letters and literature were a major turn off.

 

Using such errors as an indicator of their wider professionalism (or rather lack of), bosses said they would not do business with a firm that couldn't weed out grammatical mistakes.

 

Unbelievably, even overcharging was seen as a less serious business-loser than missing an apostrophe. The survey calculated dodgy writing skills could be costing offending firms 2bn in lost contracts.

 

It's not only managers who get irritated about such mistakes. Earlier this year Wigan MP Neil Turner returned a letter to a constituent having added his own handwritten corrections of the correspondent's mistakes.

 

(extract from the BBC News site)