-Written by philosopher Steve Han- Traditionally, education is called a farsighted policy, the so-called centenary program in Korea. But the existing state is far from the original purpose of education and its realization. In the view of society, the purpose of education is to establish a better framework of society and to train new members of society. In the view of the individual, of course, it would be a means to achieve social position and self-realization. Thus, in the view of either society or the individual, if education yields some productive outcomes to both society and the individual, it would satisfy the original purpose of education. Of course, there would be no debate about the fact that there are more comprehensive and more radical aspects of education in home teaching or religious precepts. What I wish to point out at this point is the social, systematic sphere of education. The reason to indicate the contradiction and to suggest the alternatives is to make more people aim at a reasonable achievement in a more advanced society, in order to establish more educated human culture. The recent situation exposed the fact that the directions of the efforts of each person are sometimes countervailed or result in a bad reaction. What is worse, there has been left a fundamental contradiction of an unfixed educational system we have come to question even the fairness of justice in society in this country over a long time. This results in a national loss as well, for the maximum production of society (including both material and spiritual values) which can be obtained by way of education cannot be generated. In turn, the production of society by means of education in society inflicts a loss in contributing to the overall good of all human beings in the world, as much as it does within the society. As a matter of course, it is the degree to which it contributes to all human beings that should be evaluated as a measure of an advanced society. There should be a consistency toward this very direction in educational treatment. Eventually, the reasonable effort from the individual view point and the reasonable organization with regard to the social viewpoint should be working toward same direction without being countervailed. In the past, J.P. Pestalozzi pointed out that for an individual the procedure of education should be the same as that of the history of mathematics. But this is a suggestion about the rational aspect of human reason: I would point out some documents for common properties about Nobel prize winners in order to see more comprehensive education for the whole man. There are remarkable points among them as follows: they deal with the state of things in a subject-centered way (That is, their intention is merely to solve the problems. Thats all. In contrast to this, most people need the things in order not to solve the problem, but to satisfy their own feelings). They have love for humanity towards their countries (That is to say, their feeling is far from exclusive patriotism). They keep in close touch with several friends rather than casual touch with many people. And so on. What we conceive to be common features from the facts above is that they are pursuing wholeness. The exertion to pursue or at least not to abandon wholeness of perception and recognition, the wholeness of hierarchy of value, and the wholeness of ethical aim, are found in their thinking. Now we can see through the core substance of the purpose and the line in the realization of education. It is not the restrictive contents of the rational aspect, but the origin of sound, healthy mentality that would pursue wholeness. That is the decision-making for what and how to use the organs of perception and the ability of reason. The brain as a rational entity would try to pursue perfection. As a result, it will find something omitted within the scope of a particular field, scientific discovery or actual creation. But the sphere of education does not rely upon merely what is restricted to the pursuit of perfection by the brain. As described above, when something happens like deficiency in the hearts pursuing wholeness, the very heart pursuing wholeness finds the deficiency itself. Accordingly, what composes the base of creation in human activities and then results in the foundation of creation from a small scale of creation (fragmentary discovery) to a large scale of creation (ethical discovery), is the very hearts pursuing wholeness. The heart cannot be perfect but can pursue wholeness! This is the ultimate object of education. All the exertions to master the subsidiary guides, principles, rules and natural laws etc. under the target of wholeness need to be organized reasonably in hierarchical order and direction; at least the exertions of agents should be in the state in which the structure of the educational system is organized in a reasonable way. If the immeasurable exertion of man, A were put together with that of an other person, B, only to come up to nothing (zero), how much does it damage the society? Also, if a person who can gain fame through doing something, α, had any difficulty due to doing something, β, it would be indeed a calamity. Specific alternatives to prevent this would be followed. First of all, before suggesting a practical alternative, we need to point out several principles in advance. First, a person who has acquired a social position should turn out much more value-added products than the advantages he could come to enjoy from the position, or at least as much as he can, in which way both (value-added products, some points of advantages) should be linked with each other. (Here, the meaning of value-added products is signified as a comprehensive meaning of the Good which can be measured or assessed in terms of material or spiritual value.) Second, such resistances against society as civil disobedience are merely a visualized aspect of a number of unreasonable pains which have not come up to the surface, so it is the substantial realization of justice that can fundamentally prevent such countervailing pains, including a number of unreasonable pains which are not visualized. Third, a fair distribution of social advantages among social levels could be accomplished by the two purports above, and then spontaneous respect and submission would stabilize the social order. Now, this attempt to pursue one of the goals through which we can achieve the ideal education in this course, cyber-Symposium, is not only to confine several fragments of knowledge and information, but to give every member satisfaction and benefit. And at the same time, as a member of society with an enhanced sense of responsibility by making an effort to create a leading task, we can make a better society.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Apr 2014 00:38:30 +0000
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