Implications for today's classroom teacher
For the reconstructionist teacher, the school should be used as an agency to change society in order to improve the quality of human life. Education should not be defined in exclusively academic terms, as is done by perennialists and essentialists, but should be used as an instrument of deliberate social change.
In order to proceed with the agenda of creating a new society, teachers would encourage students to identify and diagnose the major problems confronting human beings on planet Earth. Among the problems that threaten human survival are pollution of the environment, the threat of nuclear war, famine, and the spread of epidemic diseases such as AIDS. Reconstructionist teachers do not want to be neutral commentators about world problems. They want to be committed to solving these problems for the betterment of humankind. The reconstructionist classroom is thus a place where teachers and students are committed to actively work for deliberate social change.
A reconstructionist orientation is compatible with programs of compensatory education, school integration, and bilingual and bicultural education. Reconstructionists have encouraged international education as a means of reducing world conflict. Since they are interested in policy formulation, reconstructionists are interested in examining the ideas of the great Utopian thinkers and in conducting futuristic studies that serve to predict the course of things to come.
Texts existentialism
Rather than constituting a systematic philosophy existentialism is a way of examining life in a very personal manner. It became popular in the post-World War II period. In some ways, existentialism represents a feeling of desperation, but it also contains a spirit of hope. An education that follows the existentialist orientation will emphasize deep personal reflection on one's commitments and choices.
Key concepts
The existentialist author Jean-Paul Sartre stated, "Existence precedes Essence." This means that human beings are born and enter the world without being consulted. They simply are here in a world that they did not make or shape. However, they possess volition, or will, which gives them the freedom to make choices and to create their own purposes for existence. As people live, they are thrust into a number of choice-making situations. Some choices are minute and trivial. Other choices, however, deal with the purpose of life. These are decisions that lead to personal self-definition. A person creates his or her own definition and makes his or her own essence. You are what you choose to be.
The existentialist conception of a human being as the creator of his or her own essence differs substantially from that of the idealists and realists, who see the person as a universal categoiy. Whereas the idealist or realist sees the individual as an inhabitant of a meaningful and explainable world, the existentialist believes that the universe is indifferent to human wishes, desires, and plans. Human freedom is total, say the existentialists, who also hold that one's responsibility for choice is total.
Existentialism also focuses on the concept of Angst, or dread. Each person knows that his or her destiny is death and ultimate disappearance and that his or her presence in the world is only temporary. As a conscious being, the individual must carry the knowledge of ultimate demise every day. It is with this sense of philosophical dread that each person must make choices about freedom and slavery, love and hate, and peace and war. As one makes these choices, a question is always present: What difference does it make that J am here and that I have chosen to be what I am?
According to the existentialists, human beings are desperate creatures who realize that life is temporary. They live in a world where others — persons, institutions, and agencies — are constantly seeking to impinge upon and violate their choice-making freedom. But existentialism does see hope behind the desperation. Each person's response to life has to be based on an answer to the question. Do I choose to be a self- determined person or do I choose to be defined by others? Even though desperate, each person has the possibility of loving, creating, and being. Fach can choose to he an inner- directed, authentic person. An authentic person is one who is free and aware of his or her freedom. Such a person knows that every choice is really an act of personal value creation. The authentic person defines him- or herself and is aware that self-definition is a personal responsibility.
Since existentialists have deliberately avoided systematization of their philosophy, it is difficult to categorize its metaphysical, epistemological, axiological, and logical positions. However, some comments on these areas can serve to illustrate the existentialist point of view. Metaphysically, each person creates his or her own position through the being or essence created by individual choice. Epistemologically, the individual chooses the knowledge that he or she wishes to possess. It is axiology that is most important for existentialists, because human beings create their own values through the choices that they make. Finally, the logic to which a person subscribes is a matter of individual preference.
THE BASIC QUESTIONS
The educational implications of existentialism are many. The existentialist realizes that we live in a world of physical realities and that we have developed a useful and scientific knowledge about these realities. However, the most significant aspects of our lives are personal and nonscientific. So to the questions we have asked about knowledge and education, existentialists would say that the most important kind of knowledge is about the human condition and the choices that each person has to make. Existentialists would further say that education is a process of developing consciousness about the freedom to choose and about the meaning of and responsibility for choice. Education is designed to create in us a sense of self-awareness and to contribute to our authenticity as human beings.
An existentialist educator would encourage students to engage in philosophizing about the meaning of the human experiences of life, love, and death. An existentialist teachcr would also raise these questions and put them before the students. The questioning proccss would grow into a dialogue between the members of the learning groups. It should be remembered that the answers to these questions would be personal and subjective for each individual and could not be measured on standardized tests.
An existentialist curriculum would consist of the experiences and subjects that lend themselves to philosophic dialogue. They would be subjects that vividly portray individual men and women in the act of making choices. Since existentialist choice making is so personal and subjective, those subjects that are emotional, aesthetic, and poetic are appropriate to an existentialist curriculum. Literature and biography are important sources for revealing choice-making conditions. Drama and films that vividly portray the human condition and human decision making ought to be seen and discussed by students. In addition to literary, dramatic, and biographical subjects, students also need to find modes of self-expression. They should be free to experiment with artistic media, to dramatize or make concrete their emotions, feelings, and insights. The existentialist classroom should be rich in the materials that lend themselves to self- expression.
The school, for the existentialist educator, is a place where individuals can meet to pursue dialogue and discussion about their own lives and choices. Since every person is in the same predicament and has the same possibilities, every individual should have opportunities for schooling. In the school, both teachers and students should have the opportunity to ask questions, to suggest answers, and to engage in dialogue.