The theory of lifelong education, known as "Copernicus theory" in the history of education, has swept the world immediately since it came into being in the 1960s, triggering a wave of world education revolution. Our country has also accepted this educational idea in the form of legislation. Article 11 of the Education Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated and implemented by 1995 clearly stipulates: "The state adapts to the needs of the development of socialist market economy and social progress, promotes education reform, promotes the coordinated development of all kinds of education at all levels, and establishes and improves the lifelong education system." However, the main theoretical spirit of lifelong education thought has been produced in the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism more than 2500 years ago. Then, why did the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism fail to meet the needs of modern society and have a far-reaching impact on modern educational reform?
The author believes that although Confucius and his Confucian educational thoughts contain rich lifelong educational thoughts, they are ignored by the modern society that pursues the development concept of democracy, freedom and equality because of the lack of sincere humanistic care for ordinary people. At the arrival of the new century, the neo-Confucianists should rationally re-understand Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts, and at the same time, while persisting in carrying forward the lifelong education thoughts that meet the requirements of modern society, give them profound and strong humanistic care factors. Only in this way can Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts be further developed in the rapidly developing modern society.
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The educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism contain the scientific spirit that is connected with the modern lifelong education theory, and even there is some connection between them. It is this concept of lifelong education that constitutes the conceptual basis for the integration of Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts with modern civilized society.
Before discussing that Confucius and his educational thoughts have the characteristics of lifelong education, it is necessary for us to discuss the main connotation of modern lifelong education thoughts. The concept of lifelong education is an international educational concept advocated by UNESCO after the Second World War, which has brought profound changes to contemporary world education. 1956, the term "lifelong education" first appeared in the legislative document of the French parliament. 1965655438+In February, Paul Lungrande, the head of the lifelong education section of UNESCO and a famous French educator, gave a report entitled "The Outlook of Lifelong Education" at the third meeting of the International Committee for the Promotion of Adult Education held in Paris, France. The idea of "lifelong education" put forward in the report aroused strong repercussions, and the theory of lifelong education was born. 1970, Lungelan published his representative theory of lifelong education, Introduction to Lifelong Education. From 65438 to 0972, UNESCO published the book Learn to Live, which strongly advocated the theory of lifelong education. With the efforts of UNESCO, the theory of lifelong education has been accepted by more and more countries and entered the practical stage. The main content of lifelong education theory, in short, is that in modern society, human survival is facing more severe challenges. These challenges include the acceleration of the development and change of modern society, the rapid growth of population, the rapid progress of scientific knowledge and technology, the increasing influence of political factors on people's lives, the arrival of the information society, the increase of leisure time, the crisis of people's lifestyle and relationship, the serious impact on people's health, and the crisis of ideology. In order to meet this challenge, Lungrande once pointed out in the article "Prospects for Lifelong Education": "Education cannot stop at childhood and adolescence, as long as people are still alive, they should continue. Education must adapt to the continuity requirements of individuals and society in this way. " He believes that lifelong education is an education in a complete sense, including all aspects and contents of education, including the sum of one's education from birth to the end of life, including the organic connection between all stages of education development. In other words, lifelong education should be able to help a person master the structure and methods of continuous learning and training throughout his life, and provide everyone with the goals and tools to complete the highest and truest level of self-development through various forms of self-education. Generally speaking, after a person has received education from primary school to higher education, it does not mean that he has received education, but should run through his life. Under the banner of lifelong education, human society will form a learning society. The theory of lifelong education has adapted to the requirements of the rapidly developing and changing modern society, thus causing the wave of the world education revolution. Charles hummel, a famous western educator, once commented: "The development of the concept of lifelong education can be compared with the revolution brought by Gobaini theory, which is one of the most amazing events in the history of education." The concept of lifelong education represents the current and future direction and trend of world education development.
The educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism have many similarities with modern lifelong education theory.
On the relationship between personal education and lifelong development, the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism have a very consistent understanding with the theory of lifelong education, which is also one of the key factors for Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts to adapt to the requirements of modern education. Modern life-long education theory holds that a person should continue to receive education from the moment of birth to the end of life and seek his own development through education. People's development is lifelong, and people are constantly exploring and carrying out educational activities all their lives. Confucius, a sage more than 2,500 years ago, had the same profound proposition in this respect. Confucius said, "I am determined to learn five out of ten, stand at thirty, be puzzled at forty, know my destiny at fifty, be obedient at sixty, and be upright at seventy." (The Analects of Confucius is a government, and only the title of the article is quoted below) Confucius vividly shows that only by lifelong study and education can a person constantly improve himself and seek development. Confucius' assertion can be said to be the earliest sprout of lifelong education theory in the world.
Modern life-long education theory holds that education should break the traditional learning mode that school education pays attention to single abstract knowledge, give the educated a variety of education such as reason, emotion, aesthetics, politics and body, and seek concrete connections as a whole. At the same time, we should break the separation and isolation between vocational education and general education, formal education and informal education, school education and off-campus education, and educational activities and cultural activities, seek the integration of all kinds of education, and promote the comprehensive and harmonious personality of the educated. The educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism are equally concerned with the all-round development of human beings. The Analects of Confucius said: "Confucius taught four things: writing, action, loyalty and faith." "Writing, behavior, loyalty and faithfulness" can be said to be the syllabus formulated by Confucius, which embodies that Confucius not only teaches his disciples cultural knowledge, but also pays attention to the all-round development of students. On the training goal, Confucius thought: "quality is better than literature, and literature is better than quality." Gentleness is a gentleman. " (Yongye) Obviously, Confucius' training goal is to make students have both rich knowledge and external temperament, and to develop in an all-round and harmonious way. How to achieve this goal? Confucius believes that we should do this: "take Tao as the purpose, rely on morality, rely on benevolence and take art as the tour." ("Shu Er") "Xing,, becomes joy." (Taber) It can be seen that Zi also educates students in all directions. As we know, Confucius himself is a person who loves music and sports very much. Confucius was firmly opposed to applying what he had learned to death. He said: "Recite poems three hundred times and teach politics, but it is not up to standard;" Make it all-round, not exclusive. Although a lot, what do you think? " ("Lutz") "If you are not angry, you will not be angry. No three turns,no. " It can be seen that Confucius has very similar ideas with modern lifelong education theory in terms of educational content, training objectives, educational methods and teaching forms.
The theory of lifelong education opposes turning education into a tool for screening people, and holds that it is useless and harmful for people to make one-off choices at an immature stage, and people should be given opportunities to give full play to their inherent potential at all stages of their lives. This is in line with the concept of "teaching without discrimination" advocated by Confucius (Wei Linggong). More than 2,500 years ago, Confucius opened a private school, recruiting students regardless of industry and origin, and implementing "teaching without distinction". According to legend, Confucius had 3,000 disciples and 72 sages. It is Confucius' practice of "teaching without class" that has created a group of talents who have played a progressive role in history.
The theory of lifelong education opposes traditional education to make learners accept existing cultural values through internal restrictions and external coercion, advocates that education should respect everyone's personality and independent choice, and emphasizes self-development through independent learning. Confucius attached great importance to arranging teaching according to students' characteristics in educational practice. Zhu once commented on Confucius' educational methods: "Confucius teaches students in accordance with their aptitude." In many chapters of The Analects, we can see that Confucius guided and inspired his disciples according to their different personalities, ambitions and abilities.
A very important point of modern lifelong education is that education should not be confined to schools, but should be extended to various environments related to people's real life, such as family, friends and neighbors, professional posts, political parties, trade unions, mass organizations and so on. At the same time, lifelong education also believes that people who implement educational behavior should not only be implemented by some people (teachers) in society, but should be provided with opportunities by the whole society according to time and situation. Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts also have the same ideas and practices. Confucius said: "In a threesome, there must be a teacher: choose good and follow it, and change evil and follow it." This can be said to be the earliest source of socialization of teachers and educational behavior in modern lifelong education theory. Confucius and Confucian disciples practiced in this way. Confucius taught students to be "sensitive and eager to learn, not ashamed to ask questions" (Gongye Chang) and "never tire of learning, never tire of teaching" (Shure), both of which shone with the brilliance of modern lifelong education thought.
The educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism conform to the viewpoint of modern lifelong education in many aspects, which shows that the thoughts of Confucius, a great thinker and educator, are beyond the times and all mankind, and are a universal law of education summarized by Confucius more than 2,500 years ago. This is also one of the entry points for the integration of Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts with modern civilized society.
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Although the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism are related and integrated with the modern lifelong education theory, they have encountered an out-and-out dilemma in the face of the rapid development of modern society and education. Why is this? The fundamental reason is that the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism lack the social concepts of democracy, equality and freedom in modern lifelong education theory, the social cognitive attitude from the perspective of ordinary people, and the sincere humanistic care for ordinary people.
In fact, not only the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism have encountered challenges, but also the whole Confucianism has encountered difficulties. Some scholars pointed out: "It is an indisputable fact that Confucianism encountered difficulties in modern times. The reason is that although Confucianism is far from the requirements of modern economic, political and cultural construction, it is mainly because Confucianism cannot keep pace with the times and meet the needs of modern people's spiritual life. The reason why Confucianism is difficult to adapt to the spiritual needs of modern people is that the value orientation of Confucianism deviates from the spiritual pursuit of modern people. The value orientation of Confucianism deviates from the spiritual pursuit of modern people. The root is that the spiritual development of Confucianism has embarked on the road of rejecting secularization and advocating aristocratization after the primitive Confucianism. " Since the whole Confucianism is in trouble, it is not surprising that the educational thought as an important part of it has not been favored by modern society and modern education. But the reason should really cause us to reflect calmly.
Why can Confucius' lifelong education theory and Confucian educational thought be widely accepted? Comparatively speaking, this is because it not only has rich scientific spirit, but also contains sincere humanistic care for ordinary people to the greatest extent.
We know that after the second half of the 20th century, with the rapid development of economy and the rapid development of science and technology, the development of human society has encountered unprecedented challenges, especially in the face of the rapid development of modern politics, economy and technology, individuals in society have experienced a crisis of survival. The theory and practice of lifelong education is to help people meet this challenge. In essence, this theory embodies sincere humanistic care for ordinary people. 1972, UNESCO published a report "learn to survive-today and tomorrow in education" aimed at popularizing the theory of lifelong education and building a learning society. From the name "Learn to Live", we can appreciate the humanistic care. In a letter to René Maher, Director-General of UNESCO, Edgar faure, Chairman of the Commission for the Development of International Education, wrote affectionately: "Only comprehensive lifelong education can cultivate perfect people, and this need is gradually increasing with the increasingly serious tension that divides individuals. We can no longer acquire knowledge once and for all, but need lifelong learning how to build an evolving knowledge system-'learn to survive' ". It is by changing the current education that this report shows great concern for all people and has aroused strong repercussions all over the world.
The history of human social development is a process of continuous pursuit of progress. Realizing democracy, equality and freedom is the common pursuit of modern human beings, and it is also a political challenge faced by modern people. The theory of lifelong education contains profound ideas to help people improve their political quality in order to achieve democracy and equality. Lengrand once said: "Due to the change of political foundation and structure, society demands citizens, and will increasingly demand them to undertake tasks and responsibilities that only properly trained people can undertake. Only when a country has more and more leaders at all levels who can give life and concrete content to the theoretical social structure and do their duty can modern democracy in politics, society, economy and culture be established on a solid foundation. " The report "Learn to Live" clearly declares: "We must vigorously support democracy, because this is the only way to avoid becoming a machine slave and the only condition for human beings to gain dignity in intellectual achievements. ..... Democracy must also meet people's educational requirements, because there can be no democratic and equal relationship between classes divided by educational inequality; We must redefine the purpose and content of education so that it has both new social characteristics and new democratic characteristics. " The theory of lifelong education is designed from the perspective of ordinary people, pursuing democracy and equality through education, because under the conditions of modern society, there are still many ordinary people who cannot enjoy democracy and equality because of lack of education. It can be said that the theory of lifelong education is based on helping ordinary people pursue democracy and equality.
However, this is not enough. The education system advocated by the theory of lifelong education has two more important meanings: one is to help people master modern science and technology, improve their ability to understand nature and society, and "make science and technology a basic and consistent factor in any education"; Science and technology should be an integral part of all educational activities designed for children, young people and adults, so as to help individuals control not only natural forces and productivity, but also social forces, thus controlling themselves, their choices and their actions; Finally, science and technology should help mankind to establish a scientific world outlook, so as to promote the development of science without being enslaved by science "; The second is to establish an education system that meets the needs of the broad masses of the people, so as to "ensure full employment economically and administratively."
It is the concept of lifelong education theory that conforms to the development direction of modern society, expresses sincere humanistic care for ordinary people and wins the recognition of modern people who pursue progress and civilization.
On the other hand, the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism lack sincere humanistic care for ordinary people. Due to the lack of humanistic care, Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts are from the perspective of officials or rulers, which runs counter to the development direction of modern civilized society.
The political theoretical basis of Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts is the theory of benevolence. What is benevolence? What is its essence? Confucius said, "Self-denial and self-courtesy are benevolence. A day of self-denial and self-denial, the world will return to benevolence. For benevolence, for yourself, for people? " (Yan Yuan) Confucius said that "benevolence" is the ruling idea of the ruling class, and its essence is to serve the rulers and ensure that the society of "Jun Jun, ministers, father and son" can be maintained. Confucius' political thought is a theory of serving the ruling class. Although Confucius also had the idea of "people-oriented", he advocated "the benevolent loves the people", "giving to the people can help the people" (Yongye) and "paying attention to the people, food, mourning and sacrifice". Be lenient with others, trust the people to do whatever they want, be quick to make contributions, and be fair (Yao Yue), "A gentleman benefits without pains, a villain benefits without resentment" (Yao Yue). Obviously, this idea of "loving the people" is expressed to ordinary people from the perspective of rulers in a condescending manner. But it is such a condescending "poor" concern for ordinary people that has been lost in the development of feudal society and the gradual improvement of Confucianism. Especially after Dong Zhongshu successfully persuaded Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to "oust a hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone", Confucianism completely became an official culture, a ruling culture and an authoritarian culture. In this way, feudal autocratic rulers of past dynasties paid more and more attention to Confucian culture, while the general public kept away from it more and more.
From the political standpoint of serving the rulers, Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts naturally lack the concept of serving the people. Confucius also advocated educating the people. There is such a passage in the Analects of Confucius Lutz: "Zi, however, has a servant, and Zi said,' It is also plain!'" "You Ran said,' If you are an ordinary person, why bother?' Say, "rich." Say,' If you are rich, why bother?' Say,' Teach it. ",Confucius also believes that" killing without teaching is abuse "("Yao Yue "). However, the idea of "teaching the people" of Confucius and Confucianism is not from the perspective of ordinary people, nor is it based on taking care of their interests. Its purpose is to make ordinary people obey the ruling class and serve it better. Confucius said, "A good man can teach the people for seven years and make peace." (Luz) There is a saying in Yang Huo that clearly reflects the educational purpose and feelings of Confucius and Confucianism: "When you are a child, you can hear the voice of string songs. The master smiled and said,' Why do you want to cut the chicken with an ox knife? Ziyou said to him:' The ancients also heard masters say that a gentleman learns to love others, while a villain learns to love others easily. Confucius said:' Two or three sons, the words of the picture are also! Foreword, the ear of drama. "Confucius also said:" courtesy is not humiliating, forgive it for its popularity, be responsible by faith, be active by sensitivity, and benefit enough to make people. (Yang Huo) It can be seen that "tolerance", "sufficient envoy" and "sufficient envoy" are the starting point and destination of Confucius and Confucian political education thoughts.
Lack of equality, democracy and freedom in line with modern civilized society, lack of humanistic care for ordinary people and lack of ordinary people's understanding of social and historical development are the fundamental reasons why Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts are facing challenges. In today's increasingly democratic, equal and free society, if Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts, which have influenced China's education for more than 2,500 years, continue to play a useful role, they must overcome their shortcomings and give them sincere humanistic care for ordinary people.
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Since the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism are in harmony with modern society and education, and we have also seen its defects, can't they be accepted by the people as long as they are endowed with modern ideas? However, things are not that simple. It is neither meaningful nor possible to reform the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism according to the scientific spirit and modern concept of lifelong education theory. So, is the educational thought of Confucius and Confucianism powerless in the face of modern society?
The answer is no, of course. We know that the rapid development of modern society puts forward higher requirements for modern education. The theory and practice of lifelong education is the necessity of this development. To help ordinary people meet the challenges of modern society, especially the challenges of modern economy, has lifelong education really solved all the problems? In the United States, Japan, Europe and many other developed countries, the practice of lifelong education has been carried out in depth, but a series of problems brought about by it are confusing.
In some developed capitalist countries, the concepts of democracy, equality and freedom have been thoroughly integrated into educational behavior, and the pursuit of freedom, individuality and equality is the concept advocated by educators and educatees. However, anarchism appeared in the extreme development of democracy, and the infinite expansion of the concept of equality led to the vicious development of "taking me as the center", and the excessive pursuit of the concept of freedom made individualism go to extremes. As a result, the values of respecting the old and caring for the young and being responsible for the family in traditional society have disappeared, and politeness, responsibility, mutual concern and mutual benefit have been replaced by the spirit of mutual exclusion, snatch and self-centeredness. There are more and more intolerance, hatred and crimes in social life, and the relationship between people is becoming more and more alienated. In this way, the practice of modern lifelong education, which originally contained humanistic care for ordinary people, fell into a strange circle and paradox, that is, the relationship between people became more and more impersonal, the sincere care between people became less and less, and the relationship between people appeared a new crisis. This phenomenon is becoming more and more serious in some developed countries. How to overcome these new crises? Western thinkers are trying to find out. They put forward various solutions, but with little effect. For example, Japan, a developed country in East Asia, "the social division and social dissatisfaction caused by neoliberalism will make neoliberals demand a' strong political leader', that is, an authoritarian American-style president who is above social demands." In addition, with the economic globalization, the concepts of democracy and equality pursued by generations of human beings are threatened and controlled by some monopoly economic organizations and large companies.
With the development of economy and the progress of various social undertakings, China is rapidly moving towards a modern civilized society. In the process of modernization, we should not only absorb advanced foreign cultures, but also inherit the excellent traditions of our own nation. We should learn from others and try our best to avoid or reduce the problems that others have already had. On the issue of developing education, we should learn from the advanced lifelong education theory, but we can't copy it; We should choose and absorb the traditional educational thought represented by Confucius and the reasonable components of Confucian educational thought for today's use. To build a perfect lifelong education system with China characteristics, we must follow this principle.
From this perspective, it is not a question of whether Confucius and Confucian educational thoughts can be integrated into modern education, but a question of how to carry them forward.
The educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism contain many reasonable thoughts to overcome the crisis of modernity. The more modern economy develops, the more rules and order must be followed. Democracy, freedom and equality are behaviors under the principle of common interests. Confucius and Confucian political education thoughts have profound theories in this respect. Confucius said, "Self-denial and self-courtesy are benevolence. A day of self-denial and self-denial, the world is benevolent. " ("Yan Yuan") "Tao Te Ching, courtesy, integrity and shame, qualified." ("Politics") "A gentleman has knowledge and culture, and he can use it as a gift or as a husband." (Forever Night) "Being respectful and rude is hard work, being cautious and rude is thinking, and being brave and rude is chaos. Straight and rude are distorted. " (Taibo) "If you don't know the courtesy, you can't stand" (Yao Yue). The educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism attach great importance to observing statutes, and there are 75 references to "ceremony" in the Analects of Confucius alone. Confucius believes that "ceremony" is of great significance. He said: "When people hear it, the ceremony is great. If you are indecent, you can't be rude to the god of heaven and earth. The position of monarch and minister, regardless of age, cannot be distinguished; There is no indecent assault, and there are no relatives of men, women, fathers and brothers. " Paying attention to etiquette and obeying statutes is one of the basic contents of Confucius and Confucian political education thoughts. Of course, in modern society, the principle we follow should never be the feudal thought of "Jun Jun, minister, father and son", but the legal and moral principles of modern society.
On how to overcome the interpersonal crisis in modern society, westerners put forward many methods in the 20th century. Some people advocate the restoration of religion, some advocate degeneration, some advocate despair of the future, and so on. These views are undoubtedly a radical measure for human development. On how to overcome this serious crisis, Confucius and his Confucian ethical education thought bring us hope. The principles, ethics and moral norms of Confucius and Confucianism are of great significance to modern civilized society.
Confucius and Confucianism advocate that people should be benevolent, be a gentleman, "love", value virtue over profit, be filial, be trustworthy, respect each other and be polite. Although the ethical thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism are feudal, the principle of interpersonal relationship, which conforms to the general law of human social development, is undoubtedly a solid cornerstone for building a warm and harmonious fashion in modern society and establishing the principle of benign competition in modern economic life. Therefore, the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism need neither inferiority nor pride in the face of modern society and education.
Since the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism contain the scientific spirit that conforms to the general law of the development of human society, there is reason to continue to carry forward and contribute new strength to the new development of human society. Since the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism lack the concepts of democracy, equality and freedom in modern society and modern education, the attitude of understanding society from the perspective of ordinary people and sincere humanistic care for ordinary people, then we should conform to the trend of the development and progress of human society, transform old Confucianism with modern social concepts, and create new Confucianism with sincere humanistic care for ordinary people and ideas of democracy, equality and freedom. The theory of lifelong education, which has brought profound changes to education in today's world, still has irreparable defects. Therefore, the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism have contemporary value. However, in order to shoulder the heavy responsibility of serving the modern ordinary people, the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism are still facing very severe challenges.
We have reason to believe that the educational thoughts of Confucius and Confucianism will surely play their due role in building a lifelong education system with China characteristics.
It was first published in the sixth issue of Confucius Studies in 2000.