EXISTENTIALISM

The Danish philosopher S Kierkegaard has said that truth is subjective, truth is
subjectivity : objectivity and abstraction are hallucinations. Existentialism is the
philosophy of subject rather than of the object. Each individual by probing into the
depths of ones subjectivity can discover the truth of ones being and discover his
authentic role in life. This is a creative process which gives rise to fresh insights.

This philosophy begins from man, but from man as existent rather than man as a
thinking subject, having a definite nature or essence. A man first exists,
encounters himself, and defines himself afterwards. Existence comes before man
is set with value or essence. It is because to begin with man is nothing, has no
essence, he will be what he makes of himself. Man defines himself in his own
subjectivity, and wanders between choice, freedom, and existential angst.
Existentialism often is associated with anxiety, dread, awareness of death, and
freedom.
Existentialists believe that the most important kind of knowledge is about the
human condition and the choices that each person has to make, and that
education is a process of developing consciousness about the freedom to
choose and the meaning of responsibility for ones choices. Hence, the notion of
group norms, authority, and established order social, political, philosophical,
religious, and so on are rejected. The existentialists recognize few standards,
customs to traditions, or eternal truths; in this respect, existentialism is at odds
with the ideas of idealism and realism.

Total Development : The existentialists have aimed at total development of

personality through education. Education should aim at the whole man. It should
aim at character formation and self realization. In the existentialist classroom,
subject matter takes second place to helping the students understand and
appreciate themselves as unique individuals who accept complete responsibility
for their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Since feeling is not divorced from reason
in decision making, the existentialist demands the education of the whole person,
not just the mind.

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References :
Macquarrie, J. (1968) : Existenatialism, Pelican Book.
Chaube S.P. & Chaube A. (1996) : Foundations of Education, Publishing House,
New Delhi.
Chandra S.S. & Sharma R.K. (2004) : Philosophy of Education, Atlantic
Publishers.
MARXISM

According to the theory, class struggle is the engine of a cycle in which socioeconomic systems are created, destroyed and replaced. Marsism identifies
several systems that have been created and destroyed by it since the beginning

of human history. However, social classes and therefore class struggle- have
not always existed. Marx argues that in capitalist society, an economic minority
dominates and exploits the working class majority. Marx attempted to argue that
capitalism was exploitative, specifically the way in which unpaid labor is extracted
from the working class, extending and critiquing the work of earlier political
economists on value. This forms the fundamental contradiction of capitalist
society. Without the elimination of the fetter of the private ownership of the
means of production, human society is unable to achieve further development.

TOTALITARIANISM

The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to
destroy the capacity to form any.

ESSENTIALISM

Essentialism is related to the cultural literacy movement, which advocates the

teaching of a core set of knowledge common to (and assumed to be possessed
by) members of a culture or society.
Strong emphasis is on basic skills in elementary schools. Emphasis is on
knowledge and scholastic achievement in secondary schools.
Reflecting the essentialist emphasis on technological literacy, A Nation at Risk
recommend that all high school students complete at least one semester of

Computer Science.
Essentialism refers to the "traditional" or "Back to the Basics" approach to
education.
Essentialism tries to instill all students with the most essential or basic academic
knowledge, skills and character development.
It is so named because it strives to instill students with the "essentials" of
academic knowledge and character development. The foundation of essentialist
curriculum is based on traditional disciplines such as math, natural science,
history, foreign language, and literature.
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Essentialists frown upon vocational courses. In the essentialist system, students
are required to master a set body of information and basic techniques for their
grade level before they are promoted to the next higher grade.
Juul Mulder, et al. Music Taste Groups and Problem Behavior. 2006. Springer
Science + Business Media, Inc
CONSTRUCTIVISM
Radical Constructivism was conceived as an attempt to circumvent the paradox
of traditional epistemology that springs from a perennial assumption that is
inextricably knitted into Western philosophy: the assumption that knowledge may
be called "true" only if it can be considered a more or less accurate
representation of a world that exists in itself, prior to and independent of the
knower's experience of it. The paradox arises, because the works of

philosophers by and large imply, if not explicitly claim, that they embody a path
towards Truth and True representations of the world, yet none of them has been
able to provide a feasible test for the accuracy of such representations.
(Glasersfeld, 1989b, p.2)
Glasersfeld, E. v. (1988). Constructivism as a scientific method. Scientific
Reasoning Research Institute Newsletter, 3(2), 8-9.
none of our beliefs about our world could be objectively true since true beliefs tell
us how things are and beliefs are objective when true or false independently of
what anyone might think.... Nonetheless, realism is controversial. (Khlentzos,
2000)
Khlentzos, D. (2000). Semantic Challenges to Realism. Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
IDEALISM
Idealism
Idealism is a philosophy that espouses the refined wisdom of men and women.
Reality is seen as a world within a person's mind. Truth is to be found in the
consistency of ideas. Goodness is an ideal state, something to be strived for.
Idealism would favor schools teaching subjects of the mind, such as is found in
most public school classrooms. Teachers, for the idealist, would be models of
ideal behavior. For idealists, the schools' function is to sharpen intellectual
processes, to present the wisdom of the ages, and to present models of behavior

that are exemplary. Students in such schools would have a somewhat passive
role, receiving and memorizing the reporting of the teacher. Change in the school
program would generally be considered an intrusion on the orderly process of
educating.

One cardinal objective of idealism and idealistic education is the ancient Greek
direc- tive to know thyself. Self-realization is, as noted previously, an important
aim of education; hence, idealists stress the importance of self-directed activity.
In essence, they believe that a true education occurs only within the individual
self. Although teachers cannot get inside students minds, they can provide
materials and activities that influence learning, and the re- sponse of the learner
to these materials and activities constitutes education. The sources of this action
are personal and private because, to the idealist, all education is self-education.
Teachers must recognize that they cannot always be present when learning
occurs and should attempt to stimulate students so that learning continues even
when the teacher is not present. The project method is one concrete example of
such self-directed activity. The ide- alist insists only that the nature of any and all
activities be on a high plane of thought.

Children should sometimes be released from the narrow constraint of school,

otherwise their natural joyousness will soon be quenched. When the child is set
free he soon recovers his natural elasticity. Those games in which children,

enjoying perfect freedom, are ever trying to

outdo one another, will serve this purpose best, and they will soon make their
minds bright and cheerful again. . . .

Immanuel Kant, Education, translated by

Annette Charton. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1960, pp. 8394
REALISM
For the realist, the world is as it is, and the job of schools would be to teach
students about the world. Goodness, for the realist, would be found in the laws of
nature and the order of the physical world. Truth would be the simple
correspondences of observation. The realist would favor a school dominated by
subjects of the here-and-now world, such as math and science. Students would
be taught factual information for mastery. The teacher would impart knowledge of
this reality to students or display such reality for observation and study.
Classrooms would be highly ordered and disciplined, like nature, and the
students would be passive participants in the study of things. Changes in school
would be perceived as a natural evolution toward a perfection of order.
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