EDUCATIONAL EXISTENCIALISM

OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE IFE

(Adeyemi College of Education Chapter, Ondo)

EDUCATIONAL EXISTENCIALISM

By

Chiemeka Utazi

November, 2010

Ondo, Nigeria.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

NAMES AND MATRIC NUMBERS…………………………………………………….2

INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3

CHAPTER ONE..................................................................................................................5

1. EXISTENTIALISM AND PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION..................................5

1.1 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION.......................................................................5

1.2 EXISTENTIALISM..............................................................................................6

1.3 CONTRIBUTIONS OF SOME EXISTENTIAL THINKERS.............................7

1.3.1. MARTIN BUBER DIALOGUE AND EDUCATION..................................7

1.3.2 NIETZSCHE: THE CONQUEST OF FREEDOM.......................................8

1.3.3 SØREN KIERKEGAARD: THE BECOMING OF A SUBJECT................8

1.4 CONTRIBUTIONS OF EXISTENTIALISM TO MODERN EDUCATION.....9

CHAPTER TWO...............................................................................................................11

2. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF EXISTENTIALISM.................................11

2.1 EMPLOYING THE EXISTENTIAL FRAMEWORK.......................................12

2.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF EDUCATION AND EXISTENTIALISM......12

2.3 CURRICULUM OF EXISTENTIALISM..........................................................14

2.4 INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUE AND EXISTENTIALISM.........................15

2.5 COUNSELLING AND EXISTENTIALISM.....................................................16

2.6 THE COUNSELLOR’S ROLE..........................................................................16

2.7 THE TEACHER AND EXISTENTIALISM......................................................16

2.8 THE CHILD AND THE EXISTENTIALISM...................................................17

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2.9 SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND THE EXISTENTIALISM.........................18

2.10 VALUE JUDGEMENT AND LIMITATION................................................19

CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................22

REFERENCES..................................................................................................................24

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INTRODUCTION

Existentialism had its beginnings in art, psychology, and education. This paper

therefore, presents existentialism as related to education, with the basic philosophical

elements that may also be applied to literature; the reflection of man’s living and thinking.

Existentialism is thus, characterised by a reawakening of man’s interest in himself. It is a

theory of individual meaning that asks each man to ponder the reason for his existence. On

the existential view, to understand what a human being is it is not enough to know all the

truths that natural science—including the science of psychology—could tell us.

Hence in this paper, we intend to present an understanding and contribution of

existentialism as a school of philosophical thought to modern education. The paper is divided

categorically into three main branches chapters with sub chapers to enhance a detailed

understating of the concept.

In chapter one, we tried to expound what philosophy of education is and the meaning

of existentialism.

In a broad sense, education is that which helps an individual to realise the best that he

is capable of. However, we tried to show in the paper that in doing so, education must thus

help the individual to realise the facticity or contingency of his existence, to face the

categories of this facticity dread, anguish, anxiety and fear-resolutely, courageously, and

finally prepare him to meet death with pleasure.

This chapter also includes the ideas of some existential thinkers to help us have a

comprehensive understanding of the contributions of existentialism towards education.

Kierkegaard developed this problem in the context of his radical approach to Christian faith;

Nietzsche did so in light of his thesis of the death of God. Subsequent existential thought

reflects this difference. In Kierkegaard, the singularity of existence comes to light at the

moment of conflict between ethics and religious faith. Suppose it is my sense of doing God's

will that makes my life meaningful. How does philosophy conceive this meaning?

Chapter two thus deals with the contributions of existentialism to education,

educational implications of existentialism, the employment of existential framework to

education and other sub chapters.

Educational intervention should not simply provide an awareness of the coherence of

cultural frameworks or 'objective' discourses, but should also enable understanding to become

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authentically developed. This is the first characteristic, where the educated person is able to

choose and to make his or her life meaningful, and should not be conditioned to passively

inherit meaningfulness from others.

However, it is good to know that the philosophy of existentialism has not displayed

any particular interest in education yet. Therefore, the educational implications of

existentialism we discussed in this paper are those that are derived and deduced from their

philosophy rather than those developed by existentialists

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CHAPTER ONE

1. EXISTENTIALISM AND PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

1.1 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

There is a philosophy behind every school system, based on the views and values of the

educators, as well as the society that is sponsoring the education. The philosophy starts with

the view of reality and definitions of truth and goodness. From this, the mission of the schools

and the emphasis of the instruction are established.

On this basis, philosophy could be said to be a discipline that attempts to understand

reality in its complex forms, including the natural analysis of educational concepts. The

philosophy of education must then have its origin as early as humankind. That is why

educationists over the centuries say that all the contents of the universe are the educational

materials.

Plato believes that education is not to be taught or to be loaded with information, but

to be led by a balanced rational discovery by oneself the objective, universal and eternal truth.

For as long as he is concerned, people are not supposed to be impregnated with truth but are

to be given birth.

Good educational process results in individual’s happiness. The education of a person

begins from home at childhood by the parents (particularly the mother) and extends directly

towards the entire community. However, it is only in a stable and secure society that a

suitable educational environment for individual’s full development can be found.

Philosophy of education is a field of applied philosophy, drawing from the traditional

fields of philosophy (ontology, ethics, epistemology, etc.) and its approaches (speculative

philosophy, prescriptive, and/or analytic) to address questions regarding education

policy, human development, and curriculum theory, to name a few. Put another way,

philosophy of education is the philosophical study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals

of education. For example, it might study what constitutes upbringing and education, the

values and norms revealed through upbringing and educational practices, the limits and

legitimization of education as an academic discipline, and the relation between educational

theory and practice.

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Philosophy of education can be considered a branch of both philosophy and education.

The multiple ways of conceiving education coupled with the multiple fields and approaches

of philosophy make philosophy of education not only a very diverse field but also one that is

not easily defined. Although there is overlap, philosophy of education should not be conflated

with educational theory, which is not defined specifically by the application of philosophy to

questions in education.

Although philosophers around the world have asked questions regarding education for

millennia, as an academic discipline with its own place in the university it is relatively new.

Nonetheless, it is an internationally well-established field, with departments and programs

around the world.

1.2 EXISTENTIALISM

Existentialism is a philosophical approach to understanding human existence and

experiences. It is based on the assumption that individuals are free and responsible for their

own choices and actions. Hence, we are not victims of circumstance because we are what we

have chosen to be. As a term, 'Existentialism' appears to refer to a unified school of thought,

but this is a problematic assumption, because it is derived from a variety of existential

philosophers. Amongst the best known are Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre.

Heidegger used the term existential to refer to the structure of the individual in

general. He designated his term existentiell to mean self-understanding, how an individual

understands himself or herself. But this self-understanding is only possible through existence

itself, as Heidegger often emphasised the practicality of his lived philosophy. He argued that

"We come to terms with the question of existence always only through existence itself. We

shall call this kind of understanding of itself existentiell understanding" (Heidegger, 1996).

The nature of this school of thought demands that several themes be recognised, as

they are considered here to be interdependent upon one another, but it is not possible in this

particular paper to provide more than a brief overview of some of these. This section shall

now briefly address several themes that have importance for the formulation of a framework

that can be used for educational research, particularly for this era of uncertainty.

Like “rationalism” and “empiricism,” “existentialism” is a term that belongs to

intellectual history. Its definition is thus to some extent one of historical convenience. The

term was explicitly adopted as a self-description by Jean-Paul Sartre, and through the wide

dissemination of the post-war literary and philosophical output of Sartre and his associates—

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notably Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Albert Camus—existentialism

became identified with a cultural movement that flourished in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s.

Among the major philosophers identified as existentialists (many of whom—for instance

Camus and Heidegger—repudiated the label) were Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, and

Martin Buber in Germany, Jean Wahl and Gabriel Marcel in France, the Spaniards José

Ortega y Gasset and Miguel de Unamuno, and the Russians Nikolai Berdyaev and Lev

Shestov. The nineteenth century philosophers, Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche,

came to be seen as precursors of the movement.

1.3 CONTRIBUTIONS OF SOME EXISTENTIAL THINKERS

Like all labels, "existentialism" can be misleading. It seems to be a manner of

collecting into one bag a group of philosophers and writers who are concerned about human

existence. But the three great existentialists of the nineteenth century-Kierkegaard and

Nietzsche--never heard of the label or the concern. Furthermore, as one reads different

existentialists, one finds that their approaches seem to contradict each other; Kierkegaard was

a believing Protestant who wanted to renew subjective faith in Jesus' message; Nietzsche held

that God is dead. Thus, once we abandon the "central concern" of existentialists, we are struck

by their disagreeing with each other in many of their basic views. Our problem has been that

we have been trying to view existentialism as a "philosophical theme among others," and not

as a witnessing. Woven into the above paragraph are four assumptions that lead to a

misconstruing of existentialism. (Haim A. Gordon - Dance, Dialogue, and Despair: Existentialist Philosophy and

Education for Peace in Israel. University of Alabama. Place of Publication: Tuscaloosa, AL. Publication Year: 1986. P: 13)

1.3.1. MARTIN BUBER DIALOGUE AND EDUCATION

Perhaps Buber's most important assertion for the educator is that a person develops and

realizes his personality primarily through the relationships he develops with other human

beings, with nature, and with spiritual beings (i.e. works of art). Thus, a person who

manipulates, uses, or exploits other persons exists and develops differently from a person who

constantly strives to initiate dialogical relations with his fellow man, with nature, and with

God. The manipulator views other persons as objects for his use or enjoyment, and he will

strive to acquire maximum power over these objects; in the process, he himself learns to act

and to respond as an object. He exists in the realm of the I-It. In contrast, the dialogical person

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will attempt to reach a deep personal relationship with other persons, with nature, and with

God; he will repeatedly try to speak the basic word of dialogue, I-Thou. At times, such

relationships may bring him pain, but he has learned that such pain often brings with it new

knowledge of himself as a subject. Thus a person who cannot or does not ever relate

dialogically will not develop the deeper aspects of his personality; he will not realize much of

his human potential.

1.3.2 NIETZSCHE: THE CONQUEST OF FREEDOM

HOW can one educate for peace on the basis of Nietzsche's philosophy? The question may be

perturbing some readers who recall that the Nazis used Nietzsche's writings to justify many of

their atrocities. Of course it has now been proved by many scholars, and especially Walter

Kaufmann, that the Nazis blatantly distorted Nietzsche's thoughts--but still, education for

peace and Nietzsche's philosophy seem to be a rather odd couple. The answer is both simple

and complex. I believe that a lasting peace in the Mideast and elsewhere can only be

established among people who are free--free from prejudices, from distorted values, from

mediocrity, from the rule of the masses, from hatred of oneself, from fanaticism, from a

distorted relation to history, from a herd morality to mention just a few of the manners in

which we are enslaved. In addition, I know of no better example of an educator who taught

how to live as an unenslaved person than Nietzsche's Zarathustra. Two comments arise

immediately, a scholarly comment which I shall skip over and an educational comment which

I need address.

1.3.3 SØREN KIERKEGAARD: THE BECOMING OF A SUBJECT

The true ethical enthusiasm consists in willing to the utmost limits of one's powers, but at the

same time being so uplifted in divine jest as never to think about the accomplishment.

Nietzsche and Kierkegaard would probably have been very unhappy with the wealth of

scholarship, which has arisen since their deaths to elaborate upon and to suggest new exegeses

of their writings. They wanted their writings to influence the lives of persons who are

struggling to attain and to express their freedom; they wanted to influence their readers to live

differently, not only to think differently. They both sensed that their contemporaries lived

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with a distorted relationship to their passions and that this distortion enslaved the person to

the mediocrity, which encompassed him.

At this point their paths part: Nietzsche wished the person to formulate new values and to live

as a free, creative being. Kierkegaard wished the person to become a subject who could relate

with all his passion to God. Kierkegaard repeatedly emphasized that only a person who strives

to be a subject can rebel against an oppressing objective reality. He personally rebelled

against the Lutheran state church of Denmark, against bourgeois mentality, and against

Hegelian dialectics, yet his insights are valid for any rebellion against an objective reality.

(Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com)

1.4CONTRIBUTIONS OF EXISTENTIALISM TO MODERN EDUCATION

Existentialism believes in the personal interpretation of the world. It is based on the

view that the individual defines reality, truth and goodness. As a result, schools exist to aid

children in knowing themselves and their place in society.

A central focus is upon the individual rather than on a generalised category used to

represent people in mass. Existential writings are aimed to engage each reader as an entity.

Kierkegaard often referred to 'my dear reader' and the 'existing individual, and Nietzsche

often used phrases such as 'the sovereign individual' and 'the superman'. Heidegger referred to

Dasein, meaning literally 'being there' - to represent where the individual is at, with regards to

her or his concerns for existence in relation to being.

Initially Existentialism may appear to be a morbid philosophy because it deals with

depressing themes such as alienation, anxiety, death and crises. To conclude this however,

would be to misunderstand it. An expressed purpose of so many of the philosophers who have

contributed to this school of thought, is to allow people to experience a greater richness and

happiness in their lives and to feel at 'home' in their world. In order to achieve a richer and

more valuable existence however, the philosophy often refers to some 'uncomfortable'

suggestions. For example, it encourages the individual to stand on the edge of the abyss, to

stare at potential non-existence of self, to contemplate the dizziness and terror of freedom, and

then in passion to make a leap.

One of the most important thinkers in this movement, Martin Heidegger, is very little

concerned with deciding and acting, but is concerned with knowing. It not what you DO that

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matters to Heidegger, but how you KNOW it and that you KNOW it. Jean-Paul Sartre on the

other hand is profoundly concerned with acting.

However, in general the Existentialists recognize that human knowledge is limited and

fallible. One can be deeply committed to truth and investigation and simply fail to find

adequate truth, or get it wrong. Further, unlike science, which can keep searching for

generations for an answer and afford to just say: We don't know yet, in the everyday world,

we often simply must do or not do. The moment of decision comes. For the Existentialist one

faces these moments of decision with a sense of fallibility and seriousness of purpose, and

then RISKS. Sartre is extremely harsh on this point. At one place he says: When I choose I

choose for the whole world. Now what can this mean. I think what Sartre is getting at is that

first of all when I choose and act, I change the world in some iota. This note gets written or it

doesn't. That has ramifications. It commits me to say what I'm saying. It may change someone

who may be affected by my remarks. Others can be too if they hear or read them. And so on.

The ripples of actions are like ripples on the sea, they go on and on and on.

However, it is not surprising that acting, for the Existentialist, is a terrifying

responsibility and living and acting is a burden that causes great anxiety for the

Existentialists. There is not absolute certainty (for some of the reasons given above and for

yet more we can talk about later), thus human acts are the full responsibility of the individual.

Further, in another place in Sartre's major work, Being and Nothingness, he talks about

creating oneself in action. What he means by this is that I, the human, am free. I can make up

my own mind about my acts. What I will BE in some final sense is what I make of myself.

Thus my acts are not trivial, but definitive of my very self-hood. Again, acting in such a world

of freedom, uncertainty and ontological responsibility (as opposed to moral responsibility), is

so weighty that the Existentialists nearly recoil from living and acting under the terror of the

weight of it all. Put in the shortest form: Living without certainty and with personal

responsibility is a nearly unbearable burden.

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CHAPTER TWO

2. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF EXISTENTIALISM

The philosophy of existentialism has not displayed any particular interest in education.

Therefore, it has been observed that the educational implications are derived and deduced

from their philosophy rather than developed by existentialists. Nevertheless, applying

existentialism to modern education differs from many other types of suggestions for changes

to educational philosophy in that it pertains almost exclusively to the motivational component

rather than to any operational or mechanical aspect of teaching. Furthermore, because it

relates exclusively to motivation for learning, the existential approach to education is equally

applicable to virtually every subject and to all types of instructional methodologies

Educationally, Existentialism is critical of the systematically standardized and neatly

packaged curriculums that are targeted at students, invariably classified according to age,

academic preparation, and scholastic orientation. Existentialism in this regard purports the

reduction of impersonalization that has affected schooling and the introduction of the "I-

Thou" relationship between the mentor and the learner. Needless to say, Existentialism has

practically detached itself to any traditional philosophical belief-systems. This however, is

just half of the Existentialist equation. The other half enmeshes an attack on Pragmatism's

employment of the scientific method through experimentalism. The Existentialist sees in this

situation the individual being overwhelmed in his/her interaction with "like-minded" persons

that forces him/her to decide, mindful of the collective will of the group implications for

education.

On Existentialism's implications for education, emphasized should be made on the

public school conception that is supposed to be receptive and accommodative of the diversity

characteristic of the every Society. It is because of this premise that a need for an

institutionalization of cultural pluralism is recognized.

Existentialism posits that mentors have to be very wary about infringing too much into

the educative hemispheres of the learner. Gutek thus maintains that the "I-Thou" relationship

still serves as ground upon which Existential philosophizing in education is anchored.

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Educationally, Existentialism holds that the school, being one that is situated in the

material world has to provide a realistic atmosphere that invites optimization of the learner's

potential to make choices that help him/her achieve authenticity in the context of

individuality. However, such an atmosphere has to equally provide situations where

recognition of consequences comes in tandem with the Existential pursuit for freedom within

the educative framework.

2.1 EMPLOYING THE EXISTENTIAL FRAMEWORK

The existential framework as briefly described above, has important value for

educators and researchers, especially for this present era. Current uncertainty produces

challenges that can be surmounted through an existential approach. It is argued here that

educational research is able to examine the effectiveness of pedagogies, curriculums, policies

and programmes using this existential framework with regards to how effectively they

facilitate learners into becoming educated persons.

The ideal of the educated person continues to be a dynamic notion contingent upon

what is required for individuals to live well in particular cultural settings. It has been argued

that there are a number of characteristics that need to be included in this ideal. These

characteristics are able to incorporate uncertainty and enable people to live well. This is seen

to be the fundamental aim of education.

From the perspective of this existential framework the confrontations of crises and the

feelings of alienation and anxiety do not need to be seen as problematic ends in themselves.

The framework can be used to understand these as potentially positive conditions for the

educational development of persons. In order to demonstrate how this framework is able to

offer value, guidelines are offered as to what researchers should look for in the areas of

pedagogy, curriculum, policy, and programmes. In order to engage positively with an

existential approach there are certain conditions required within these areas, which shall now

be explored.

2.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF EDUCATION AND EXISTENTIALISM

1) Education  is that which helps an individual to realise the best of his capablity. In doing so

education must help the individual to realise the ‘facticity’ (contingency) of his existence

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to face the categories of this facticity - dread, anguish, anxiety and fear resolutely and

courageously and finally prepare him to meet death with pleasure.

2) Education for happiness is a dangerous doctrine because there can be no happiness

without pain and no ecstasy without suffering. Therefore, existentialists would welcome

an education, which throws open to children human suffering, misery, anguish and the

dreadful responsibilities of adult life.

3) Students must develop a consistent scale of values; authenticate their existence by being

committed to these values and so act as to be prepared to die for these values than to live

without them. Dying for one’s own country constituted the supreme sacrifice.

4) Every individual is unique. Education must develop in him this uniqueness. It must cater

to individual differences.

5) Education must make pupil aware of the infinite possibilities of his freedom and the

responsibilities he must bear in life.

6) His most important aim in education is the becoming of a human person as one who lives

and makes decisions about what he will do and be. “Knowing” in the sense of knowing

oneself, social relationships, and biological development, are all the parts of becoming.

Human existence and the value related to it is the primary factory in education.

7) Education for complete development of personality.

8) More importance to subjective knowledge than objective knowledge.

9) Education for perfection of man in his environment.

10) Education should create consciousness for ‘self’.

11) Education should train men to make better choices and also give the man the idea that

since his choices are never perfect, the consequences cannot be predicted.

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12) The ultimate aim of education is to make man conscious of his destination, to give

understanding of his ‘being’ and ultimately lead him to his heavenly abode. So, it is clear

that the existentialism accepts the principle of liberal education.

In short, the objective of education is to enable every individual to develop his unique

qualities, to harness his potentialities and cultivate his individualities. It means the implication

of existentialist formulations for child rearing education and counselling practises are many.

Since existentialists behold human life as unique and emerging a child is to be recognised as a

full person and not simple as an in complete adult. The practices by which the child is

socialized varied from culture to culture.

2.3 CURRICULUM  OF EXISTENTIALISM

1. Since the existentialists believe in the individuals freedom, they do not advocate any

rigid curriculum.

2. They recognise the ‘individual differences’ and wish to have diverse curricula suiting

the needs, abilities and aptitudes of the individual.

3. Curriculum, they say should not primarily satisfy the immediate needs but also

ultimate needs.

4. The central place is given to ‘humanities’, poetry, drama, music, art, novels etc. as

they exert the human impact in revealing man’s inherent quilt, sin, suffering, tragedy,

death, late and love. Humanities have spiritual power. Art and Literature, they say

should be taught, as they represent a priori (cause effect) power of human nature.

Through these the students profit from the ideas and judgement of others.

5. Second place is given to social sciences as they lead the man to feel that he is nothing

more than an object. They however, wish to teach social sciences for inculcating moral

obligation and for knowing the relationship of the individual to a group.

6. History  should be taught in order to help the students to change the course of history

and to mould future.

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7. The specialization in any field must be complemented by liberalising studies for it is

the man who counts and not the profession.

8. The study of the world’s religion should be taught so as to develop religious attitude

freely within the students. The ideal school permits religious unfolding in according

with whatever doctrine the student wishes to accept or to reject. Religion keeps him

aware of death.

9. Realisation of self-form part of the curriculum. Self-examination and social obedience

is the first lesson. The child must be saved from his own unexamined self and from

those who interfere with the free exercise of his moral decision.

10. Scientific subjects and mathematics should be included in the curriculum but they

should not be given more stress, as they deal with objective knowledge. ‘Self-

knowledge precedes universal knowledge.

In short, they don’t believe in formal curriculum consisting of set of body of studies to be

pursued but a curriculum, which features the reverberatory effect upon heart, and mind of

passionate good reading and then personal contact. The curriculum should be chosen, sorted

out and owned by the learner.

2.4 INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUE AND EXISTENTIALISM

1. Existentialists favour the Socratic Approach to teaching, as Socratic Method is

personal, intimate and an I-thou affair. As Kneller put it, “The existentialist favours

the Socratic method, not so much because it involves ‘induction’ or the collection and

analysis of all available evidence, nor because of its complementary process of

‘definition’, whereby general values are reached from particular instances; but chiefly

because it is a method that tests the inner-life-as a stethoscope sounds the heart.

2. Socratic ‘Problem Method’ should be accepted if the problem originates in the life of

the one who has to work out the solutions. But it is unacceptable if the problem is

derived from the needs of the society.

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3. Like Socrates, ‘personal reading’ should be stressed.

4. They reject the group method, because in-group dynamic, the superiority of the group

decision over individual decision is prominent. There is a danger of losing unique

individualism and free choice.

5. Methods of teaching must develop the creative abilities in children. The world and

man reveal themselves by their undertakings.

2.5 COUNSELLING AND EXISTENTIALISM

1. It is from the psychological interpretations of existential thought that counselling

thinkers get much of their intellectual grounding.

2. Counselling have become an integral part of education and are playing an important

role in helping young people to meet the challenge and to develop a positive view of

‘self’.

3. It insists that the aim of counselling in education is to promote maximum self-

development by enhancing the individuals’ powers to choose for, and direct himself.

2.6 THE COUNSELLOR’S ROLE

1. The counsellor’s efforts are directed through towards helping each of the counsellors

to formulate a set of unique beliefs and a way of practising them. He does not

emphasize and ‘right’ values.

2. All learning aims are formulating the aspirations and desires of the unique individuals,

so that he can understand himself and through this build up personal regard for others.

3. Counselling theory takes a dynamic view of personality. Each human being started

with what he has by heredity and should continue to change and grow through

experiences during his lifetime.

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2.7 THE TEACHER AND EXISTENTIALISM

1. Existentialists do not wish the teacher to be social minded umpire or provider of free

social activity (as the pragmatists want) or a model personality (as the Idealists say) to

be limited, by the students. He must himself be a free personality, engaged in such

relations and projects with individual students that they get the idea that they are too

are free personalities.

2. He may indirectly influence them about his values but he should impose his cherished

values on them, test his values become the code of conduct for the students, who may

begin to accept them without thought. Instead of expecting them to imitate he should

help them to be ‘original’ and ‘authentic’.

3. His effort should be that students’ mind should have autonomous functioning so that

they become free, charitable and self-moving.

4. The role of teacher is very important because he is the creator of such as educational

situation in which the student can establish contact with his self by becoming

conscious of his self and can achieve self-realization.

5. It is the teacher who impresses up on the students to work hard and make the best of

life and accept death as something inevitable but tell them that death can be gloomy as

well as glorious. It is he who inculcates in the students the idea that a life lived lazily,

selfishly or improperly is a life not worthy living. Dying for one’s country is glorious.

So, the role of the teacher is very important.

6. The teacher must build positive relationships between himself and his students.

7. Teachers should avoid applying labels to children (such as ‘lazy’, ‘slow learner’ etc.)

for individuals may indeed come to think of themselves this way.

8. The teacher is also changing and growing as he guides the pupil in his discovery of

self.

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2.8 THE CHILD AND THE EXISTENTIALISM

1. The existentialists want to give full freedom to the child. But the child should know

the nature of his ‘self’ and recognise his being and convert imperfection into

perfection.

2. They do not want the child to become selfish, autocratic and irresponsible. Freedom is

needed only for natural development.

3. Education should be provided according to the child’s powers and the needs. The

relation of the child with his ‘self’ should be strengthened rather than severed.

4. The child has to make ‘choices’ and decisions.

5. Child thrives better when relieved from intense competition, harsh discipline, and fear

of failure. Thus each child can grow to understand his own needs and values and take

charge of the experiences for changing him. In this way self-evaluation is the

beginning and end of the learning process, as learning proceeds, child is freely

growing, fearless, understanding individual.

6. Primary emphasis must always be on the child, as learner and not on the learning

programme.

7. Child needs positive evaluation, not labels.

2.9 SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND THE EXISTENTIALISM

1. The school should provide an atmosphere where the individuals develop in a healthy

way.

2. Any subject in school (even extra activities like athletics, music etc.) can present

existential situations for teaching and the development of human beings.

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3. The aim of school tasks should be to nurture self-discipline and cultivate self-

evaluation.

4. Mass teaching and mass testing are not advocated in schools.

5. The schedule must be flexible and open.

6. Democratic ideals should pervade the school. Democracy must be the soil in which the

individual grows. It should be the democracy of unique individuals who value

differences and respect one another. Self-government, pupil participation in planning

and the encouragement of a free atmosphere characterize the school.

7. Mechanization and impersonality should be counteracted in school. Students

timetables and work programmes are computerized. And thus the relationships

between the individual students and the school programme becomes an impersonal

one. Besides this, the use of programmed instruction, teaching machines and other

equipments tend to decrease the personal contact between teachers and pupils. This

impersonality is a hazard to the individual development and growth of the child’s

personality. Concern and respect for the individual student should be a feature of the

school.

2.10 VALUE JUDGEMENT AND LIMITATION

1. After studying the philosophy of Existentialism, the question will arise in anybody’s

mind : how can the aims, curricula and methods in a school depend upon the

individual’s choice and freedom? Organization of such a programme would be

impossible and bring about chaos.

2. The teacher’s individual relationship and close understanding of every pupil’s

personality would require a great deal of time and effort.

3. The concepts of ‘Being’, ‘meaning’, ‘Person’ are not very clear and appear nebulous.

It is not easy to build up an educational programme when the terminology for the

objectives of the educational process is not clear.

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4. Where there is child-rearing education and counselling practices are many the

practices by which the child is socialized varies from one culture to another. If the

emphasis in the culture is on mundane security and the value of world essence, then

the individual may experience neurotic growth through the conflict between these

unsuitable values and the person’s inner forces of creativity that continue to aspire for

unique emergence and subjective expression. The extent to which a child is accepted

or rejected, succeeds or fails, and develops satisfactorily of is retarded depends on the

experiences and processes which explain the meaning of things (persons, objects,

situations) in relation to the child’s being.

5. Educational standards and practices that manipulate the child’s behaviours in an

arbitrary manner violate the principle of free choice.

6. Many teaching practices, testing procedures, and bureaucratic system of classifying

children may be questioned.

7. Over structured public and parochial school systems enslave rather than liberate young

souls. Such institutions serve a political rather than a truly educational purpose,

promoting the manufacture of efficient robot rather than inspired, enlightened, and

creative individuals. As a result various contemporary educational theories are

radicalising the institutionalised structures of learning.

8. Teachers who have learned to provide existential encounters for their students enable

the learners, “to create meanings in a cosmos devoid of objective meaning to find

reasons for being in a society with fewer and fewer open doors.”

9. If the purpose of education is to build character, to optimise potential and creativity

and to enhance the quality of life through knowledge, then from an existentialist

perspective bureaucratisation needs to be replaced by humanization. That the

existential goal is not being achieved today is illustrated by such evidence as that

product in a study of students’ values indication that ‘American students

predominantly seek to learn survival skills rather than to develop a social conscience,

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a situation contrary to an existentialist view of satisfactory development.’ ‘This crisis

in education is not confined to the west but is observed in Eastern Cultures as well.’

10. In the realm of counselling existential intervention is conceptualised as “a conscious

attitudinal perspective toward rebuilding the impaired self’. The existential influences

on counselling practices, though not fully acknowledged nor duly assessed, have been

far-reaching.

Some form of existential intervention is employed by such a range of practioners as those

using gestalt therapy, “ant psychiatry,” rational-emotive psychotherapy, psychodrama,

transactional analysis communication and cognitive approaches, encounter groups, and reality

therapy.

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CONCLUSION

The school has always been the most important means of transferring the wealth of

tradition from one generation to the next. This applies today in an even higher degree than in

former times, for through modern development of the economic life, the family as bearer of

tradition and education has been weakened. The continuance and health of human society is

therefore in a still higher degree dependent on the school than formerly.

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have

not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little planet, aside from

stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreck and ruin without

fail. It is a grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be prompted

by means of coercion and a sense of duty. On the contrary, we believe that it would be

possible to rob even a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the

aid of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry, especially if

the food handed out under such coercion were to be selected accordingly.

The desire for the approval of one's fellow man certainly is one of the most important

binding powers of society. In this complex of feelings, constructive and destructive forces lie

closely together. Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive; but the desire to be

acknowledged as better, stronger, or more intelligent than a fellow being or scholar easily

leads to an excessively egoistic psychological adjustment, which may become injurious for

the individual and for the community. Therefore, the school and the teacher must guard

against employing the easy method of creating individual ambition, in order to induce the

pupils to diligent work.

Existentialism is a mind-set that accords premium to man's freedom to make choices

that he deems instrumental in his pursuit for authenticity. For this, Existentialism provided a

perspective that is alternative to Hegel's Idealism that heralded the virtues of absolute and

universalizable truths about the material cosmos. It has to be noted though that authenticity in

education is adumbrated with value-creation without reference to any external antecedent.

Man is presumed to have the facility to choose from among options that he regards as

contributory to the definition of his own person and the unravelling of the essence of his

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existence. Hence, unlike that of Plato's claim that man is antecendently good until he

immerses himself in society, Existentialism following Sartre's claim, is consistent with the

making of a man by him and for himself with nothing else to boot but himself and the

environment that he is in contact with.

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REFERENCES

1. Jean Wahl : ‘A Short History of Existentialism’, phil. Library, N.Y, 1949, 30.2. Heidegger : ‘Existence and Being’, Vision press, London, 1949, p. 368.3. Seetharamu, A.S. : ‘Philosophy of Education’, 1989, New Delhi, S.B. Nagia, for

Ashish Publishing House, 8/81, Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi - 110 026, p. 79.4. Kenneth Richmond : ‘Socrates and the Western World’ - An Essay in the philosophy

of Education, Alvin Redman (Ed.) London (1954), pp. 39-40, 46.5. Ralph Harper : ‘Existence and Recongnition’ in NSSE 54th Yearbook. ‘Modern

Philosophies of Edcuation’, Part-I, University of Chicago press, Chicago, pp. 236-237.6. Kingston, F.T. : 1981 : ‘French Existentialism : A Christian Critique’, University of

Toronto Press, Toronto, Ontario, p. xii.7. Ruggeiro, : ‘Extistentialism’ (ed.) Happen Stall, Editor’s Introduction, p. 17, Seeker

and Warburg, London, 1946.8. Blackham, H.J., 1953 : Six Existentialist Thinkers, Routledge and Kegan Paul,

Macmillan Co., London, p. 150.9. Heidegger : op.cit., ‘Being and Time’ is an exposition of this thesis, Seetharamu, op.

cit.,  p. 85.10. Taneja, V.R. : “Socio-Philosophical Approach to Eduction”, 1987, New Delhi :

Atalantic Publishers and Distributors, B-2, Vishal Enclave, Najafgarh Road, New Delhi-110027, p.256.

11. Green, M. : 1967, Existential Encounters for Teachers, Random House, New York, p.4.

12. Hannay, A., 1982. Kierkegaard, London: Routledge.13. vol. III. Ed. Paul Edwards. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.14. Marcel, G., 1968. The Philosophy of Existentialism, New York: Citadel Press.15.

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