Marxist Education: Concept of Man & Pedagogy
Educational Implications of Marxist Socialism: A New Philosophy of Human Being. A Pedagogy of Work. General Characteristics of His Teaching.
The Concept of Man
A Being of Nature
From nature comes the high point of man in a dialectic of evolution from matter, when all the forces of life converge to give that great leap to consciousness. Value originates with nature, without any reason for exaltation of nature and naturalism. Marx gives a more economical account of action on nature, transforming it to make it the product of human activity. In the Marxist context, settling on man in nature also means that there is no rational way for religion. Marx agrees with a practical critique of social and political conditions, which cause or maintain religious consciousness.
A Social Being
The real nature of man is the sum of his relations. Man manifests himself fully in his relations with nature, with other men, and in his integration into the historical future entrusted to him. All this set of tasks, which is opened by means of work, provides the social support for his definition. His wealth and poverty will also depend on the wealth or poverty of his work relations. He can also only be understood as productive in society.
A Being of Praxis
For Marx, human nature is conceived in constant growth, and in dialectical dialogue, always processing its natural environment and the human world. Man will always be the subject of his own praxis, because he is called to it, and in it he finds his reason for being and even for thinking. It is daily practice which serves as the ultimate criterion of all truth. It is in practice where man must prove the truth, namely, the reality and power, the earthliness of his thought. This practice, which Marx sees as the ultimate test, can only be fully understood within the social revolution that transforms the world, rather than merely interpreting it in various ways. The following, according to the Marxist system, presents the ideal of man and, at the same time, the possibility of its realization through practice. It is an ideal inscribed in the facts of history; it is the direction of history, the meaning that can and should be pursued through practice.
A Pedagogy of Work
Education can hardly be conceived except in the perspective of work, and productive work.
Work as Humanization
When a man works, he embodies his efforts in things, humanizing them, and at the same time, things affect him and the natural world. Man creates his own patterns of behavior and action, producing his own self through work. This means a revolutionary education, leading man, along the necessary historical process, to a new unity, where work again serves as a reflection of humanization for man.
The Union of Education and Work
Neither training without work nor work without training. A combined regimen of education with material production.
Unilateral Human Formation
The text mentions different forms of formation:
- Intellectual Training
- Physical Education (practiced gymnastics in schools and military academies)
- Polytechnic Instruction: Knowledge of the general scientific basis of any process of production, and the employment and management of the basic tools of each trade.
All these forms of training are found in Marx’s thought as an ideological lever for the revolutionary transformation of alienating teaching structures. The union of education and work manifests as a process of recovering the integrity of man.
General Characteristics of Teaching
The general characteristics are listed as:
- Lay
- State
- Joint
- Free
- Single
- Authoritarian