A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth



A TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR:

A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION FOR THE CONTEMPORARY YOUTH

Kireet Joshi, 2010, (PDF)

1. Let us Understand the Contemporary Youth 11

The unrest of the contemporary youth has a meaning 11

- Education, formal or non-formal, is the real centre of the preoccupations of the youth 11

- We need to create an integrated and all-embracing system 11

The fear and threat of unemployment, the problems of poverty, injustice and ignorance 12

- The youth in the villages need to be educated 12

There is another painful fact – Attractions which draw our youth towards vices 12

An enabling factor – The modern youth is an internationalist and lover of Science 12

- He begins to perceive that the new world demands a new man 14

- He is seeking a Philosophy of Education relevant to his needs and aspirations 14

2. A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth 17

Man’s quest of himself and of the universe – The questions that education fosters 17

- How can they be fostered and the answers be carried forward at the highest speed? 17

These constitute the very heart of the problem of the educational process 17

- The task of the contemporary educationist is rendered particularly difficult 17

There is today a phenomenon of unprecedented explosion of information 17

A new kind of education comprehensive and specialized or varied to suit each individual 17

The modern man is today, as never before, subject to psychological turmoil 17

Deeper and deeper layers of recent thought and experience 18

- For instance, a great quest all over the world for the synthesis of knowledge and culture 18

- The educational implications of these developments are obvious 18

Our educational syllabi have to reflect the latest trends of synthesis 18

Our educational objectives must include the idea of preparing a new kind of man 18

- Education is or can be made a most powerful instrument of evolutionary mutation 18

- The aim to cultivate, sharpen and transform the faculties and powers of personality 18

- There are also today powerful trends of revolutionary methods of education 18

They insist upon a free choice for the student, individual differentiation, new syllabi 18

The drawing out of total potentialities, based on the psychology of the child 19

The tremendous feat of learning that the child performs in the first few years of life 20

For him, all play is learning, and all learning is play – The concrete urge of experience 20

That implies a radical change in the content, method and structure of education 20

- A search for a school that has no walls, and for studies that have no boundaries 20

- A still deeper search – For the secret of perpetual progress and of perpetual youth 21

Education must proceed by a happy attraction, by noble example and influence 21

Two great tendencies must be united – Highest imagination and rigorous realism 21

The search for definitions, for meaning, for the highest aim of life 21

- These questions are like questions of the Book of Nature 22

New Education is against fragmentation and artificiality. Learning by snippets has to go 22

What we need is man-making education 22

- What is important is not so much information, but the power of concentration 22

- Unfailing concentration and irresistible will – The basis of man-making education 22

- There has to be a detailed and comprehensive programme of man-making education 22

The theme of man and evolution can provide the focal point of a new programme 23

- Education would need a new structure and challenging methods 23

A system in which the ‘formal’ and ‘non-formal’ aspects of education blend together 23

The new structure should permit ‘multi-entry system’ and ‘non-sequential progress’ 23

A proposed ‘power-house model’ in which studies and work-experience are correlated 23

The new stress is on the process of self-learning, assisted by teachers 24

There is also a great need for group-learning and group-work 24

- The insistence should be on a new attitude, a new heart and a new spirit 24

Systems and structures are important, but of even greater importance is the spirit 24

3. What should we do in India? 27

The assimilation of new trends by the Indian educational system has been a difficult task 27

- At the lowest of our problems – The need to fulfill the aim of universal education 27

The main cause of our failure – Our inelasticity as regards changing the formal system 27

- It is now proposed non-formal education, self-study, a ‘multi-point entry’ system 27

- At the next higher level – Issues that relate to the more profound aspects of education 28

That deeper layer of problems – The infusion of a new spirit in our education 31

- The central issue – We want the youth to be inspired wholly in their full being 31

- We want our youth to be the creators of the new future 31

To kindle that light and spirit is the central issue of education – An answer is crucial 31

There is an Indian formulation of this answer 31

The answer – Freedom of growth and fullness of the development of personality 32

- The answer is contained in the formulae, ‘learning to learn’ and ‘learning to be’ 32

- Education for personality and education for profession are one and the same process 32

- Freedom, if it is directed towards growth necessarily flowers into self-discipline 32

We should invite the attention of educationists to the Indian experiment 33

- An Indian answer to the problems of freedom and of the development of personality 33

- The Indian experiment deeply absorbed western ideas of New Education 33

The results of this experiment are valuable, not only in India, but in the world 33

- The Indian experiment confirms that freedom can easily be abused 33

Directing of freedom towards growth is not a sufficient antidote to its possible misuse 33

A trinity – Freedom united with the quest for truth and the austerity of harmony 33

If these three vibrate in unity also in the atmosphere – True knowledge 34

- Similar discoveries and proposals – Also in regard to the development of personality 34

The concept of the fourfold personality as a new basis for integral education 34

- These four values are: knowledge, power, harmony and skill in works 34

Life-long education is the natural corollary of this concept of the integral personality 34

- The practical implications are tremendous – Our call must be to Young India 37

India is, we should affirm, science, spirituality, and universality 37

India can become, if she wills, the cradle of the new future 37

- The children and the youth of India are to be prepared for this great work 37

4. Changing Horizons of the Contemporary Youth 39

The Contemporary Youth cries out for the New World and the New Man 39

- This requires New Education 39

5. The Groping of the Contemporary Youth 41

The Contemporary Youth is seeking the right goals and methodologies 41

- He is asking deep questions – What is the Secret of Learning? 41

This requires New Education 41

6. Philosophy, Science and Art of Learning 43

To know is good. To do is better. To be that is perfect. 43

7. New Visions and Messages for the Contemporary Youth 53

A Vision of Science 53

Scientific knowledge – On the borders that divide the material from the immaterial 53

A Vision of Philosophy 55

The unknown is not the unknowable; it need not remain the unknown for us 55

A Vision of Culture 56

The higher mental life has been democratized, sensationalized, activized 56

- New methods of education will create perhaps a cultured humanity 56

A Vision of New Society 59

The new society would be a field of unending education and of perpetual youth 59

8. Eternal India’s Message to Young India 61

India of the ages lives and has still something to do for herself and the human peoples 61

- The individuals who will most help the future of humanity in the new age 65

The Self that thou hast to become is that self that thou art within 66

About the Author 68

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