Immanuel Kant writes “Enlightenment is the human being’s emergence from his self-incurred minority. Minority is inability to make use of one’s own understanding without direction.from another (An answer to the Question: What is enlightenment?).” Our theory of education will revolve around the idea that children need to grow up with a multi-perspective approach.This means that we need to create an education that is unbiased and allows students to make decisions for themselves using the information they know. The best example of where this theory could be applied is in the subject of World History.
Textbooks are a common resource used by many educational institutions; however, they are sometimes ridiculed for the selective removal of damaging crucial evidence of historical events. As Ralph Waldo Emerson stated in his commencement speech at Harvard University in 1837, at this instance, “…the book [has become] noxious: the guide is a tyrant” and it is no longer reliable. This misconduct of our society’s faults is often downplayed in favor of a more patriotic view. The bias ultimately clouds students’ judgement, restricts their ability to form impartial opinions and to a degree “brainwashes” them. Therefore, Rousseau in his treatise for education emphasizes the importance of allowing his pupil observe and understand the phenomena of nature and life by himself and only providing answers to his questions that are sufficient enough to “whet his curiosity but not enough to satisfy it” (Rousseau 17). In this way, the pupil is not “corrupted” by Rousseau and is free from any possible biases. Accordingly, students should be offered a more holistic approach to education so they are equipped with enough knowledge to not only form their own opinions, but to hopefully help find their purpose.
We gain more knowledge when we learn about things collectively as a whole, rather than just one specific approach. All of the information gathered from different areas can then be combined to have one collective idea. In the United States, World History is sometimes taught to students generally in High School where they will learn about civilizations around the world including China, Russia etc. World History essential because rather than being self absorbent in your own society, you obtain more knowledge and become well rounded. There is a similar dynamic with language. Language is an extremely useful skill to have and is needed everywhere, just like history. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, language was crucial for the monsters integration into society. Many steps should be taken to avoid bias within educational establishments, but a good first step would be to have international textbooks to get different perspectives of historical events. Studying different languages could potentially increase students abilities to see historical events and cultural customs from a variety of perspectives.
Students should have a holistic approach to history and learn about the different dynasties and civilizations in the history of the world. NO COUNTRY SHOULD HAVE PREFERENCE. By the end of the year, students should be able to understand why different countries and civilizations act differently and under which circumstances. We also shouldn’t limit ourselves to history. Subject like philosophy should also strive to learn about philosophers not just in Europe but also those in the MIddle East, Asia and Africa.
This is especially necessary in today’s polarized and partisan world. Now more than ever, we are seeing a world where tensions are growing between nations and even between different parties within a country. Our theory strives to create students capable of understanding others which will lead to more harmonious and empathetic community, nation and world.
Okay this is good because I see you referencing the reading, and i see you stating what’s important to you.
I’m m wondering two things:
1) How exactly does holistic education translate to one who thinks for them self?
2) Relatedly how do you plan for students to have this equal handed knowledge about all the countries in one year? It seems like a huge task. Furthermore it seems like a task that requires students to be passive receptacles to a lot of facts and books rather than thinking for themselves. It seems as if they will be using primarily the skill of absorbing information from someone else (teacher or book). Is this right? Or do you have other ideas about how this education will go down?
Remember Rousseau’s Emile is nearly ignorant about everything. Developing the character to think for one’s self is slow, inefficient, and often at the cost of mastery of content knowledge.