Before discussing the issue of education and life, let us first look at what is education? What is life?
What is the meaning of education? Many people believe that education is "mature" People use certain methods and purposes to help immature people become conscious." Although this statement cannot be said to be wrong, it is always somewhat vague. Another example is Dewey's saying that "education is life" and Shu Xincheng's saying that "education is an activity that initiates life. Its purpose is to create independent individuals for society and a mutually supportive society for individuals; its method is to use society's (natural environment and social environment) stimulation, enabling the educated to automatically solve problems and create life." (See "General Theory of Education") These theories are also sparse and do not really explain the specific meaning of education.
I think education should refer to school education. Therefore, education uses schools as a tool to impart the old knowledge system to the following young people, so that they can develop a personality suitable for the established society in order to maintain and develop this society. Therefore, education is a tool for human beings to obtain survival materials and manage their lives. Education is not an end in itself, but a tool. This kind of tool, in a large sense, can save the country and society. In a small sense, it can guide individuals, correct their mistakes, and realize their instincts. Its role is very great.
What is the meaning of life? The so-called "life" includes human material life and spiritual life. Everyone's view on life is the so-called "view on life." Thinking that life is happy is a happy outlook on life. The belief that life should be dedicated to the country and society is actually a responsible outlook on life. Everyone's environment is different and their focus is different, so everyone's outlook on life is also inconsistent. The purpose of school education is to enable students to develop a correct outlook on life, so we must pay attention to the relationship between education and life.
The relationship between education and life can be roughly divided into three points:
1. Understand yourself through education. The most pitiable thing in the world is that you don't know yourself. Some people go astray because they don't know their destiny, and everything goes bad. Their careers are not successful, and their lives are even endangered. What a danger this is.
There are two aspects to understanding yourself: one is your own subject, or "self"; the other is your own environment, or "external objects" or "objects". The self alone cannot have correct knowledge; the object being known alone cannot know itself. Only by understanding the relationship between subject and object and understanding the environment can we understand ourselves. So the first thing we need to understand is our environment. Our actions are closely related to the environment. The environment has the power to dominate or determine life, and at the same time, it has the power to lure people into a certain path. It is inevitable that we are controlled and tempted by various external objects, and it is not accidental. Therefore, we must understand our environment so that our actions will have goals and meanings, and will not become blind and improper behaviors.
After understanding the environment, you should understand yourself. The most important thing to know about yourself is your own status. Whether a person can fulfill his or her responsibilities depends on knowing one's own status. The status of each person is originally a reflection of the environment, but the way to deal with the environment is different from person to person, and it is not just a matter of mechanically being dominated by it. Therefore, there are differences in whether one can adapt to the environment. The so-called adaptation is neither submission nor resistance, but proper utilization. To make use of the environment, in addition to understanding the environment, you must first pay attention to your position, secondly your own abilities, and thirdly the role your abilities can play in your position. Therefore, both environmental understanding and self-understanding are necessary.
Understanding the environment of the object and the status of the self-subject is not an easy task. You must have considerable knowledge and academic ability to distinguish right from wrong and distinguish right from wrong. This is of course the responsibility of education. Education should not only increase students' knowledge and academic ability, but also guide students on the right track so that they can understand the general trend of the world, the situation of their own country, as well as the students' mission and personal status.
2. Innovate yourself through education. Now that you understand yourself and the environment, you should engage in innovating yourself. Innovation can be divided into two aspects:
On the one hand, it is to remove all obstacles, such as vanity, laziness, etc. Most people are easily controlled by these magic powers and cannot control themselves. This is a flaw in human nature. But human nature also has many advantages, such as benevolence, curiosity, and so on. We should develop our strengths and eliminate these weaknesses.
The other aspect is to revolutionize past misconceptions. Once we understand the environment and our own status, we should eradicate our past misconceptions and move towards a new path. A person always has his own outlook on life and the universe. More advanced people have a better understanding of society, and this understanding forms the basis of human behavior. After we understand the environment and ourselves, we will of course have a considerable understanding of these kinds of things. Although there is an element of eradicating the old and introducing the new in our instinct, there is also an element of obsession with the past, so it is very important to reform the misconceptions of the past.
To remove all obstacles and reform past misconceptions, we must work hard on education. Because how to eradicate vanity and laziness and how to reform misconceptions must use the power of education as the driving force.
3. Achieve yourself through education. It is a natural step to understand oneself and then innovate oneself, and to innovate oneself and achieve oneself.
How can we achieve our goal? Of course, this requires research. I believe that I should achieve myself according to my own strengths and hobbies. For example, if you like science, you can work hard in science; if you like literature or political economy, you can work hard in literature or political economy. It is easy to succeed if you do this. To enable people to achieve themselves in this way, they must rely on education. It can be seen that education plays a big role in life.
No matter which one of the above three things is missing, it is difficult to become a sound molecule. Future education should start from these three things, especially for middle school students, they should be specially trained. I hope those with educational responsibilities will take note.