Education

The physical, intellectual, emotional and ethical integration of the individual into a complete man is a broad definition of the fundamental aim of education. Within this fundamental aim are the general, ultimate aims essentially laid down by society, and these aims dictate the specific ends. Every educational act is part of a process directed towards such an end. The objective reality of a given situation necessarily conditions present aims for education in each particular national context.

A free, self governing society would hope to be guided, strengthened and defended through the education of its citizens. However, a distinction has to be made between the initiation of the young into what the elders in a society feel to be true and what they feel to be useful, the latter being simply indoctrination. The alternative, giving no indication at all of what the educators feel, leaves the way open for an uncomprehending following of the latest (and not necessarily the best) philosophy, and possibly to a breakdown of that society.

Each society needs a certain number of educated citizens, more or less specifically qualified, at this or that level and with one or another prospect in view, including that of structural changes. Generally speaking, this need stems in the first place from the economy, but it may also be generated by a variety of other sources, including the State itself, which has to recruit administrative personnel and may also have manifold political motives for pushing educational development. The most positive among these is that of raising the people's cultural level and enhancing their consciousness, out of concern to create the conditions for greater mass participation in democratic processes.

Education is both a world in itself and a reflection of the world at large. It is subject to society, whilst contributing to its goals, and in particular it helps society to mobilize its productive energies by ensuring that required human resources are developed. Education also contributes to bringing about the objective conditions of its own transformation and progress. It has to prepare for changes, show people how to accept them and benefit from them, create a dynamic, non-conformist, non-conservative frame of mind. Concurrently it has to function as an antidote to the many distortions within man and society, and as such must be able to provide a remedy to frustration, to the depersonalization and anonymity in the modern world and, through lifelong education (described separately), reduce insecurity and enhance professional mobility.

Education can no longer be defined in relation to a fixed content which has to be assimilated, but must be conceived of as a process in the human being, who thereby learns to express himself, to communicate and to question the world, and increasingly to fulfil himself. It is not sufficient to balance technical skills (giving the individual sufficient factual knowledge to make a contribution to the material well-being of society) with emotional guidance (education in the humanities, to enrich the mind in order to appreciate the great visions of life). What is required is the nourishing of a critical, questioning spirit to discriminate in all fields of life, not simply to appreciate specific areas of knowledge and culture.