The Realm of Education in the Thought of Kurt Hahn
1966; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 3; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/03050068.1966.11771999
ISSN1360-0486
Autores Tópico(s)Educational Philosophies and Pedagogies
ResumoTIME AND AGAIN, the most powerful of stimuli to educational thinking and planning have come from great educational outsiders, who were not bound to any academic school of thought, and so were able to call into question all the more courageously and unconventionally what had seemed to be securely established. Such men went far beyond the usual questions about instruction in class, and treated education in an unorthodox fashion as a means to renewal of life. Views of varying importance and influence would need to be mentioned in this connection. If, however, we restrict the scope of our survey to the line of recent reformist educators, Kurt Hahn may justly claim a place alongside Grundtvig, Lichtwark, Lietz and Geheeb. Seen from this angle, Kurt Hahn appears as one of those important figures who warn and inspire, as a man who, fired by a deep sense of responsibility in face of spiritual and moral decline among large sections of the people, attempts to initiate an effective reform of its way of life. As is the case with all the programmes of the New Education movement in the decades preceding and following the turn of the century, Hahn starts from a critique of contemporary culture. Against the background of the bitter experience of the First World War his critique strikes one as close to reality and so more disquieting than the already familiar tones of the 'professional educationists', from which Hahn, from the beginning, tries to dissociate himself, as also from the practice of the State schools. Failure to set the child attractive tasks suited to his stage of development often brings on our state schools the stigma of being a mere teaching apparatus. In spite of many recognisable attempts to link them with sense and experience and bring them closer to life, the tasks set remain something cleverly imposed from without; they do not give expression to the spontaneous vital energy of youth. Here we observe one of the limitations of the state school as such. This limitation can be made more elastic but cannot in principle be removed. With this background in mind, Hahn has time and again expressed the insight that attractive and worthwhile tasks performed in an agreeable setting enhance young people's pleasure in learning. This, equally with his recognition that acceptance of responsibility makes the personality of the growing child selfless and capable of enthusiasm, are of the
Referência(s)