Education put to the question : education and man's destiny

Abstract

It is over two hundred years since Rousseau wrote Emile in which he expressed his stupefaction at the way men were educated in the mid-eighteenth century. Was it really necessary for human beings to adapt themselves to the educational system? Would it not be better for the system to be adapted to the needs of men? The fundamental question was clearly stated. Regularly since then, for each succeeding generation, the relationship between education and life has been the subject of innumerable studies. The list of protests, proposals and projects are endless. After Jean-Jacques Rousseau came Jean-Henri Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Friedrich Froebel in Germany, Bertrand Russell in England, John Dewey in the United States, Celestin Freinet in France, Anton Makarenko in the Soviet Union, Maria Montessori in Italy and dozens of other pioneers of educational reform. Nor should we forget all those philosophers whose first concern also was the education and development of man. Reading the writings of Hegel, Comte or Nietzsche we find reference to this same preoccupation - how can man, through his experiences, his thought processes and his relationship with others, develop his personality, strive constantly to improve himself and achieve real, untrammled, tangible self-liberation.