The aim of universities is not only to give students a profession, some general knowledge and skills on the chosen specialty. Higher educational institutions should form the philosophy of new generations which affects what our world is going to be like tomorrow. Therefore, we can talk about a huge role of education in promoting peace and humanism.
Upbringing should not depend on any unforeseen situations and views. It should be based on permanent, enduring ideas and values. The tendencies of humanization are being realized in modern education.
What the humanism is?
Humanism means the ideas that affirm the universal significance of human existence in general and of the individual in particular. It reflects one of the most important features of the personality – readiness and willingness to help other people, to show respect, care, implication, without which the existence of the human race and the preservation of peace are impossible.
The importance of peace education is largely connected with the need to create new, humane generations who will not want to get involved in military conflicts.
Humanization concept
Wellbeing of people is regarded as the highest goal of social development. In this process the creation of conditions for the achievement of harmony in the socio-economic and spiritual sphere of life, the highest blossoming of their personalities is ensured.
In the modern interpretation of humanism, the emphasis is made precisely on the integral universal understanding of the human being: the harmonious development of intellectual, spiritual, moral and aesthetic potential. Thus, from the standpoint of humanism, the ultimate goal of education is to provide every person with possibility to become a full-fledged subject of activities and communication, to obtain needed knowledge, to be a free, self-sufficient individual responsible for what is happening in the world.
This ideology is simply incompatible with war. Such concept differs from consumer values which proclaim material resources as the greatest goal of existence. Wars arise exactly on the basis of the material worldview (as a rule, religious and ideological disputes are just an excuse). The aims of peace education are concentrated on its replacement by right philosophy to prevent armed conflicts.
The measure and methods of the humanization are determined by the degree to which it creates the prerequisites for the self-realization, disclosure of the inherent inclinations, ability to freedom and peacekeeping.
Promotion of peacekeeping philosophy is an important social and pedagogical principle reflecting modern trends in the development of the educational system. The main meaning of education in this case the activation of its cognitive, spiritual potential, maintaining harmony in a civilized society where each individual can live safely.
Methods of humanization in the educational system
In the most general terms, humanization and peace promotion can be characterized as the construction of relations between participants of the educational process on the basis of mutual respect. At the same time, the essence of the educational process is the purposeful transformation of social experience into personal. Humanization implies the unity of general cultural, social, moral and professional development.
Aspects of humanization of educational process:
- Increase in the content of knowledge about humaneness, the identification of the humanitarian component in all disciplines (achieved in the process of constructing a curriculum and determining the content of subjects).
- Improving the quality of teaching humanitarian subjects, overcoming the scientific approach (for example, when teaching literature turns into literary criticism).
- One of the important tasks is the humanization of non-humanitarian subjects. It can be solved by isolating in each of them the parts of universal culture so that any training course will form the creative abilities of the students, their spiritual sphere, values, humanistic and peaceful orientations.
Without the humanitarian component, young people will turn into soulless machines that can solve economic tasks and properly perform their role as gears in the war machine. They will not care about maintaining peace if the educational system does not emphasize its value. The consumer society with bright media has already succeeded in diverting attention to material things.
Humanitarian disciplines should call students for reflection. Usually this is done through polls, essays. Even if the student does not have creative talents and can’t write a literary work himself, he will apply to article writing services and imbibe the information from the work ordered from specialists. The more universities will pay attention to peacekeeping topics, the more sound thoughts will stay in the minds of young people.
It is important that such education practices should be held on an international basis. Exchange of students between countries, acquaintance with the culture of unfamiliar nations blurs the boundaries between races and continents. Despite the fact that people painted borders on the map, we should not forget that we are all one family, live in peace and educate new generations in accordance with a humanistic philosophy.
