Introduction:
Perennialism is the oldest philosophy. This philosophy is a fan of the past and the fond of the oldest educational thinkings and masterpiece of great philosophers of the past. It is generally known as Regressive. Perennial philosophers say that truth is something that never changes and these fundamental truths have already been discovered by great philosophers in the past.
We should take advantage of these great discoveries and build education on solid foundations and not raise the foundation of education on new immature ideas as the innovators think. This is why perenialists have deep devotion to the high intellectual of the thinkers of the past. They don’t like change. They support the specific thoughts rather than common thoughts. And use rational intellect and logical reasoning to access the truth. Then they prefer ideas over action. According to them, the objective of education is to high light the reason and debate and not to make it useful in practical terms.
They believe that if a person works with
rational and logical reasoning, then whatever problem he will face later in
practical life, he will find its solution easily. So there is no need to
include practical issues in education nor should time be wasted in solving
them. The reason is that the perennialists scholars are only concerned with
theoretical problems in the schools. Here, students and teachers keep
discussing imaginary and general issues and problems instead of the specific
problems of their environment.
Basic principles of perennialism:
If you understand the basic principles of perennialism, you can design perennial curriculum in the light of these principles. And teachers can also give specific instructions to students. The basic principles of this school of thought are as:
Human nature never changes, so there should be the same
type of education for every nation everywhere in the world. There should not
any interference of local environment and temporary needs in education.
The argument of
these people is that the basic elements of human nature are intellect and good
perceptions neither any change occurs in them and nor the chances of them being
changed.
Human nature has
constant characteristics and education should be based on these constant
characteristics. Humans have the same virtues in every region of the world and
are equally affected by joy and happiness. Therefore, there should be the same
system of education in the whole world. It is wrong to fix a specify a certain
system of education for any country. We should be concerned about creating a
global visionary person, so that the loyalties of this trained person transcend
national borders and extend to the whole world.
according to Robert M. Hutchins' argument for uniform
education: Education means teaching, teaching means learning, knowledge is
truth, and truth is the same everywhere. Therefore education should be uniform
everywhere.
Education is the name of preparation for life, not a mere copy of life:
The function of school is to prepare children for future life. Arrange such things that when the students enter the practical life, they can successfully manage their affairs, can solve issues and problems. But there is no need to show real life and its highlights during education. Therefore, the living and specific problems of the society and the individual should not be included in the curriculum. There is no need for vocational education or other practical occupations. Students and teachers should be concerned only with matters of theoretical and intellectual problems. Training for practical work is the duty of the society later, it is not the work of the school, the educational institutions have been brought into existence only to provide knowledge. As if school is a place of knowledge and not a place of action.
Imparting knowledge of eternal truths is the main duty of education:
Temporal and eternal realities are not of equal importance. It is the work of a wise man to fill his heart with permanent and eternal facts are found in the great books of great thinkers. These things are found in the great books of great writers like Plato, Aristotle, Ghazaly and Farabi. It is the task of the student to try to match them in whatever eternal realities are. Seeing the bitter facts, one should not try to change them. Here the student needs to be in touch with the reality and not the reality to the student. The task of education and learning is to create conformity with truth and righteousness, not psychological conformity so that students may not disturbed. Similarly, there is no need for economic compatibility. The goal is to find the right, not the search for employment or personal relevance.
Intellect and reason is the distinction of man and man should use it for his guidance:
Intellect decides what is right and wrong, legitimate and illegitimate. Intelligence is the highest thing. A person should use intellect in determining goals and not just make emotional and conventional decisions. He should choose his goals consciously. In no case should rational requirements be subordinated to psychological factors or environment. There is no question of children's likes or dislikes here.
Here, reality and realism are required. Instead of
addressing children's personal desires and their difficulties focus should be placed on
children's knowledge and reasoning. Good guidance in life can be gotten through
intellect and not possible in any other way.
The study of subjects that develop intellectual freedom (liberal arts) is necessary more:
The liberal arts are extremely important because these subjects train the human intellect to roam freely. That’s why they are called liberal arts. They must be included in the curriculum and the rest of the subjects can acquaint the students with great truths. Historically speaking, it is a seven-subject Liberal Arts whose modern form is National Language, Other Languages, History, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Fine Arts. Technical and professional subjects are not suitable for teaching. They are practical in nature and are mostly related to the hands and not the mind. If it is possible to make them intellectual and rational they can be included in curriculum to some extent.
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