el_197801_combs

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Humatjisnj

ducation nffthuturArthur W Combs

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Many people in and out of education reg

the humanist movement with varying degrees

acceptance. Some regard it with amused tole

tion; some see it as a fad, like progressive ed

cation, which will soon pass away. Others belie

it is dangerous, the product of fuzzy-mind

thinking out of touch with reality. Some acco

it a modicum of value, but reject humanist ide

as luxuries that we cannot afford. The human

movement is no frill or fad. It is an absolu

necessity for our times. If it did not exist,

would have to invent it

At least five reasons make the human

movement in our public schools an absolu

essential.

Since the dawn of history, man's primary prolem has been the control of environment ho

to wrest from the physical world the means

food, clothing, shelter, and the protection of on

self and those one cared for. The advances

science and industrial know-how have now plac

at our command the means to feed, clothe, a

house the entire world, only to find ourselv

faced with a new problem, the human one. W

have created the most complex, interdepend

society the world has ever known. Each of us

thoroughly dependent upon thousands of p

sons we have never seen or heard of for the p

vision of even the simplest necessities of life. W

have become in truth our brother's keeper

Side by side with this interdependence, we ha

immensely increased the power for good or e

in the hands of individuals. An Oswald or

terrorist gang can throw our world into cha

Any driver on the freeway has at his or her f

gertips a powerful projectile capable of wreaki

havoc and destruction.The primary problems of human beings are

longer physical, but human ones. In order

solve problems of ecology, starvation, overpop

lation, conservation, atom bombs, and nucl

power, responsible citizens are required, perso

of goodwill, c ersons willing and able

pull their full share in our complex society. T

Humanist Movement came into being very larg

in response to this fundamental change in hum

From a symposium on Humanistic Educat

Adelphi University, June 1977

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ems. If education is to prepare youth to live

this current and future world, our educational

m must adopt a humanistic orientation.

2 T

public education began, it was assumed

schools would teach the skills people must

or know to deal with the future. That goal

now a pipe dream. Two things have done us

information explosion and the extraordi

ary rate of change in modern society. These

wo have made it impossible any longer to fore

what people will need to know even a few

ahead.

Never again will education be able to offer

curriculum required of everyone. Closed system

and attempts to establish educational

behavioral terms are no

r enough. Indeed, preoccupation with such

will practically assure the failure of edu

to achieve its responsibilities to prepare

outh for the future. New goals for education

be holistic and human. Prime goals must be

ment of intelligent behavior, the proof self-propelled, autonomous, creative,

problem solving, humane, and caring citizen

Such objectives call for a humanisticallyorienteducational system.

fifty years, we have formulated our thinki

about human beings and education from a sta

concept of human personality. We have defin

psychology as the study of behavior, a

focused our attention on ways to control a

direct behavior through the manipulation

stimuli or the consequents of behavior. We ha

regarded motivation, not as a question of wh

people want or seek, but as a matter of how

get people to do what others wish them to W

have been hung up on too narrow a view of t

nature of persons.

Humanism offers a more comprehensi

view. It regards behavior only as symptom, t

external manifestation of what is going on i

side a human being. The humanist believes th

effective understanding of persons requires unde

standing, not only of behavior, but also the natu

of an individual's internal life. It holds that tprimary causes of behavior lie in people's fee

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t an fo rd Universi ty Schoo l o f Educat io n

The institute will provi e the opportunity for t imelyand intensive discussions ot to pics on which Schoolof Ed ucation faculty ha ve conducted extensive inquiryAmong these are included Paul DeHart Hurd n Sci

ence Curriculum Development

Eihoi W Eisner Aetlhetlc education Who

Wolfgang Kuhn M To day

Richard E Gross

' Alfredo CastanedaArnulfo G Ram irez

' Daniel DukeLyn Corno

New Direction* In Social Stud-

Curriculum nttructlon

Llngulltlc 4 ultural Diversity

In Education

Discipline n the C School-Wide

The 25 registrat ion fee includes lunch and sessionmaterials Attendance is lim ited to 15 Applications

for registration must be received by February 21 Fordetails and registrat ion write P

ings attitudes beliefs values hopes perceptions

and aspirations. These are the things that make

us human and these say the humanists are the

fundamental dynamics of behavior.An examination of any good dictionary

shows psychology defined in two w ys s the

study of mental states and processes and as the

study of human and animal behavior. For the

past 5 years American psychology has been al

most exclusively concerned with half that defi

nition the study of behavior. The Humanist

Movement calls for redress of this one-sided

balance and proper recognition of the vital role

of mental states and processes in human person

ality. It calls for new definition of psychologynot simply as the study of behavior but the

ncluding mental states and

processes as well as behavior.

Humanists call themselves by many names

transactionalists existentialists self-psycholo

gists phenomonologists. My personal preference

is perceptual psychology. Whatever the name

humanists demand readmission of mental states

and processes as necessary concepts for under

standing human personality. Once it was enough

to base educational thought on behavioral psy

chology. After all it was all we had. But

broader more accurate view of persons is no

at hand to provide more adequate solutions

traditional problems. Better still humanistic ps

chology is expressly designed to achieve t

human goals and objectives required for effecti

living in the new world we are entering.or sever

generations we have been preoccupied with co

cepts of learning concerned with the control a

direction of behavior through the manipulatio

of stimuli or behavioral consequents. Humanis

provides quite different view. It sees learnin

as an experiential personal matter the person

discovery of meaning. The humanist points o

that learning always has two aspects: exposu

to new information or experience on the o

hand and the personal discovery of the meanin

of such experience on the other. Schools are ge

erally expert at the provision of informatio

They have been far less effective in helping st

dents discover the personal meaning of inform

tion for them.

For the humanist the basic principle of lear

ing is this: A

ffective learning mu

be personally relevant. Affect is only an indic

tion of the degree to which any concept idea

perception has personal relevance. The closer t

event to the self the greater the degree of em

tion or affect. In this sense education must

affective or else there is none at ll

Learning understood from the humanis

point of view calls for concentration on process

more than behaviors. Such processes as facilit

tion encouragement helping aiding assistin

providing opportunities and creating needsknow are essential requirements for effecti

humanistic learning. This does not require t

sacrifice of excellence. I am not humanist sim

ply because I want to go around being nice

people. I am humanist because k hat t

utilization of humanistic principles of learni

will result in superior achievement no mat

what the subject or skill to be learned.

haps the most outstanding contribution of h

manistic thought is its concern with the se

302 E D U C T I O N L L E D E R S H I P

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ncept. The self-concept, we now know, s the

ost important aspect of any human interaction,

major determiner of every behavior. It is a vital

eterminant of intelligence, human adjustment,

nd success and self-realization in any aspect of

ife It is learned from experience, and, once

stablished, is often self-corroborative.

The self-concept is every person's most

cious possession. He or she brings it with him

her wherever he or she goes, including to

hool. And what happens to the self in the

ourse of schooling may be far more important

an whatever else schools think they are teach

. Self-concept is a vital part of the learning

rocess and truly effective education must be

umanistically oriented toward student self-con

epts or education will

defeatits own purposes.

aws of learning cannot be ignored because they

inconvenient. That is like saying, "I know

y car needs a carburetor, but I'm going to drive

ine without one "

Ever since the beginning of American public

education humanistic objectives have always been

ncluded among the goals of education. Such ob

ectives as a healthy mind in a healthy body, good

citizenship, responsibility, concern for democratic

values, lack of prejudice, worthy home member

ship, creativity, and intelligent behavior have

always been included in objectives for American

education right down to the last White House

Conference. Unfortunately, such general objec

tives have usually been ignored in the past as

schools have concentrated on subject matter and

skills that could be simply and easily measured.

Such objectives can no longer be ignored. If

education is to meet the current and future needs

of our society, humanistic objectives and human

ist thought must operate at the very heart of

every school and classroom in the nation. '/

th > rt of Groiring

insights into t t» Affoctirv

This book provides some insights into the

affective (the feeling and valuing] dimensions

of education. The need for such an explora

tion, as interpreted by the writers, grows out

of several alarming recent trends, such as:

undue censorship of educational materials;

reluctance of educators to examine any area

that migJit be controversial; and emphasis

upon narrowly defined programs that develop

a limited range of skills. Such developments

tend toward a "safe but bland" curriculum

that fails to capture the imagination and feel

ing of children and young people and does not

enlist the allegiance and enthusiasm of teach

ers and others responsible for instruction.

"Safeness"nnd "blandness" are the antith

esis of the intentions of he writers of this

volume. They turn to the affective domain as

a strong ally in freeing and extending the cur

riculum in order to strengthen education.

Writers who contributed to the volume are:

Louise M. Herman and Jessie A. Roderick, co-

chairpersons and co-editors: Kaoru Yamamoto

Rodman H YVVbli. Philip H. Phenix. Madeleine

L'Kngle, Kennelh R. Beilte], Charles M. Fair

Cecil H. Patlerson. Kli/.abeth Leonie Simpson

William D . Hedges. Marian1 . .

Martinelloand Cathy Pope Smith.

Order from:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Developmen

17 1 Street. N W Washington DC 20006

Orders totaling S10.00 or less must be prepaid by

cash, check, or mone\ order. Postage and handling

extra on all billed orders. Orders from institutions

and businesses must he on official purchase orde

form, niscoiinfs on orders of the same title to a single

address 10-49 copies. 10",,: iO or more copies 15 o

Slock number iiio-~"lci|

Price: S'l-r,:U2 pages

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