The humanistic approach to education

What to teach and how to teach has no greater meaning.

if we ignore the social structure in which that teaching takes place.
We must begin by clarifying to what extent what we teach
it serves to strengthen the system or helps to remove obstacles
that oppose the achievement of fairer structures.

Francisco Gutiérrez
Introduction

To understand the teaching role and the multiple dimensions that influence its actions
It is necessary to analyze the theoretical frameworks underlying the different approaches.
in education and its implications in curriculum proposals. The guidelines that derive from
the curriculum derives to configure the contents of the study plan, the
learning activities, the evaluation criteria, the school regulations and the
set of relationships that are established in daily activities, they are directly linked
with the activities that teachers carry out in their professional work, hence the importance
to reflect and question the role that education plays in the institution
school and the functions that the teacher assumes from it.

In this paper, we attempt to review some of the proposals regarding one of the
educational perspectives that, due to their importance and presence in many institutions of
country, we consider it necessary to begin your analysis: the humanistic approach to education

Some historical background

Humanism is an aspect of a literary and artistic movement that took place in

Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries: The Renaissance. This word has a religious origin; 'The
rebirth is the second birth of the new and spiritual man spoken of in the gospel
of Saint John and the Epistles of Saint Paul1and in a earthly and worldly sense: it is a
renewal of man in his capabilities and powers, in his religion, art, philosophy and
associated life. The path of rebirth is the return of man to his historical origins.

The term humanism derives from the utmost importance placed on spiritual education.
the cultured man was attributed to human letters, or the study of humanities, during the
Middle Ages. Humanism emerges as a process of struggle for an ideal of education.
full humanity, against immobilist structures and antihistorical conceptions of the
medieval culture. Philosophy, poetry, and the arts emerge as instruments of liberation.
and science.

The humanists 'fought against the scholastic manuals..., the convoluted collections
medieval words of whimsical etymologies and pseudoscientific news..., thus they fought
the same anthologies of 'excerpta' from classical and Christian authors, against the 'summae' and the
collections of 'questions', not to mention the endless comments and the
comments on the comments of isolated sentences or texts of ancient philosophy, ...2.

1
That is why they proclaimed the need to 'return to the original sources of culture and through
the direct and revitalizing contact with these to gain the necessary vigor for a cultural work
that it would be creative and not pure repetition3Therefore, the humanistic attitude is characterized by
study directly and carefully the original texts, moreover, a new awareness
historical, before which man is no longer a static expression of a species and unchangeable,
progressive historical construction that is fulfilled through progress and education.

Humanist education

One of the fundamental characteristics of humanistic education is its integrity, it is

to say, the tendency to cultivate in all its aspects the human personality. The subjects of
study, the liberal arts, were not studied for their own sake, but because they were
considered the most suitable for harmoniously developing the faculties of
individual, and generally integrated with sports and artistic activities such as the
equestrianism, swimming, and dance.

Another characteristic recognized in humanist education is its aristocratic nature.

This was an inevitable condition of fact in which humanists had to work. Not to be
I forgot that classical education was also aristocratic and that the demand for culture to which
the humanists responded it originated primarily from the new political elites and
economic.

However, even though the Christian message had not been in vain and the trend
Humanistic to trace back to the original evangelical sources acted as a profound
yeast to make human feeling richer and truer, the fact is that the
humanists did not engage at all in popular education, and they also neglected it.
artistic education in all the aspects where it had points of contact with the
craft activity: painters, sculptors, and architects were trained in the workshops through
direct learning, and although the new trend profoundly affected them
humanists, only in rare cases enjoyed a proper humanistic education
joy. Humanism, as a sociocultural movement, did not overcome the prejudice against the
manual activities undertaken to earn a living.

The humanistic approach to education

This approach sees education as the beginning and end of all that is human. The end of the
Education is about making the person aware of themselves; the issue is not learning.
many things but to get to know oneself. Gusdorf4it tells us that education has the purpose of
essential mission is the formation of personality and since this formation pertains to the
fundamental positions of man in front of the world and in front of himself, it is not a matter of
intellectual knowledge, of memory, but of moral options and of choice
values. And, it continues, if the purpose of education is to promote the coming of the
humanity in man, education should be organized based on this experience
fundamental spiritual.

2
Philosophy plays a very important role in this current, "the educational phenomenon is
strongly tied to the question of what man is5Kant6he said, man only arrives
to be a man through education through education. In the words of Octavio Fullat7,
being a man means having to educate oneself, a man is necessarily educating; it's not a matter of
you either want to educate yourself or remain uneducated; it's that we either educate ourselves and achieve the
human constitution, or we stop before and persist in an elementary animality. The
the nature of man demands the educational process.

The humanistic approach justifies and guides its educational activity through a theory.
educational: body of scientific doctrine (biology, psychology, sociology,...) and of a
philosophy of education: a set of non-scientific reflections that consider what it is
educate and what education is carried out with, however, it is the latter that '
underpins all educational practice and even the very use of the body of doctrine
scientific8This expresses their conception of the relationships between philosophy, theory, and praxis.

In this philosophy lies an anthropological interpretation of the educational process 'that is

produced in man, in favor of man and by virtue of a relationship between people. The
The educational process is specifically human.9The philosophical anthropology of the
education, says Paciano Fermoso10, it is so because one of its attempts is to design a model
the paradigm of man –the ideal man, the human type of the 'should be'– that is transformed into
Meta and aspiration of education. The educator transforms the individual and society.
because its action is generative: education is an anthropogenesis - the giving birth of a
man, who was only born radically capable of becoming one, but who achieves it
slowly throughout its development -; that is to say, educating is to engender psychologically and
spiritually a man.

In this educational trend, the good teacher belongs to a higher order; they enjoy their
profession in which one finds not only a way to earn a living, but a reason for being,
makes their educational work a life project. Their mere presence introduces a sense of
security in human domain. The true student is one who recognizes and accepts this
Direction of attention and intention. The teacher's expectation is intellectual nourishment.

From this humanist perspective, relying on Edgar Jiménez11the educational phenomenon

appears devoid of relationships with reality. The problems of education, according to
the proposed ideas originate and develop within the educational space. On the other hand, they
it assigns to education an exaggerated value marked by a clear
"educational mysticism" the "education as something metaphysical" - The teacher is an apostle, a
Modern Christ, a Second Father, etc.

On the other hand, the author continues, education is given an exaggerated value: it is not
strange that Fernando de Azevedo12He was the first to attempt to systematize budgets.
Durkheim's theories in Latin America) present education as an integral part of
a conception of the world and, therefore, of a philosophy of life. It is not uncommon either that
they pretend to Europeanize the Latin American population through education,
assigning it a key role in its relationship with global society and its development. As it is
It is possible to observe that the humanistic approach does not consider education as a social process.

3
Some final considerations

The review of these proposals serves as an example to show that education

Humanism is a theoretical perspective in education and, therefore, a way of approaching
educational problem. However, to achieve a knowledge closer to the
Educational reality is not enough to be positioned from a single point of view. There are other approaches.
that have enough theoretical wealth for the explanation of society as well as for
contribute to a more comprehensive understanding and explanation of the educational process.

In light of the doubts about the benefits offered by the adopted economic model for the
Mexican society, to which education is linked, we teachers must
to ask ourselves in favor of what and in favor of whom we are at service. Hence the need to
to have theoretical and methodological elements that allow us to interpret a program
schooling based on a theory and a conception of society, education, school and
curriculum.

Bibliographic References

4
1
Abbagnano, N. Y Visalberghi. History of Pedagogy. Mexico, F.C.E., 1984, p 202.
2
Ibid, p. 201.
3
Ibid, p. 202
4
Gusdorf, G. For what purpose teachers. Madrid, EDICUSA, 1969, pp 77-78.
5
Fullat, Octavio. Philosophies of Education. Barcelona, CEAC, 1979, p. 68.
6
Kant, E. Quoted by Fullat. Idem
7
Ibid, pp. 73-74.
8
Ibid, p. 70.
9
Fermoso, Paciano. Theory of education: An anthropological interpretation. Barcelona, CEAC, 1985, p. 32.
10
Ibid, p. 33.

Jiménez, Edgar. 'Latin American Perspectives on the Sociology of Education'; in Guillermo González and Carlos Torres
11

(Coord.) Sociology of education. Contemporary currents. Mexico, Center for Educational Studies A.C., 1981, pp.
33-34.
12
Ibid, cf. Footnote