CHARACTER EDUCATION
to us . Indeed , for Heidegger , a human being ’ s most basic projects are formed through caring relationships and activities : ‘ producing something ’, ‘ attending to something ’, ‘ looking after it ’, ‘ making use of something ’, ‘ giving something up ’ and ‘ letting it go ’, ‘ undertaking ’, ‘ accomplishing ’, ‘ evincing ’, ‘ interrogating ’, ‘ considering ’, ‘ discussing ’, ‘ determining ’, are all facilitated by care ( Heidegger 1962 : p . 82 ). Thus , according to Heidegger , in as far as care motivates us to engage with the various projects that occupy us , it serves as the condition of possibility for the achievement of a sense of meaning in one ’ s life . It establishes the basis for one to live in accordance with this perceived meaning , thus facilitating the sense that one ’ s life is authentic .
‘ Education as relation ’: The philosophy of care and ‘ reflective critical thinking ’
James Beck , Head of Philosophy and CCT
‘ The aim of the IB is to create caring individuals ’, ‘ we strive to be a caring school ’, ‘ it is our duty to care for our students ’, are remarks that we hear often in our community . But seldom do we question what it means to care or why we should encourage our students to be caring people . Despite this , the centrality of care to the IB mission statement , and to our concerns as a school , means that this term demands a deep and defensible understanding , if only to aid us in defending our commitment to care or to reproach instances of a lack of care in the world around us . Philosophy ’ s commitment to the exploration of important questions to do with the meaning , value and authenticity of human life has often led philosophers to reflect on what it means to care . In this short article , I will explain some of their ideas about care and suggest some ways in which reflective , critical dialogue might serve as a means of deepening our students ’ capacity for care .
One philosopher who sought to make sense of what it means to care was Martin Heidegger . For Heidegger , as a result of the fact that we are mortal , vulnerable , temporal beings , our lives unfold amidst a messy milieu of concerns , worries , expectations , hopes about our futures and regrets about our pasts . He observed that what lies behind these facets of human life is the human capacity to care , for things to matter
Taken on its own , the suggestion that a capacity to care is essential to the possibility of living an authentic human life should make clear the need for school communities to gain a greater understanding of this concept ( Greene 1973 ) ( Greene 1978 ) ( Greene 1988 ). For if it is caring that directs and energises human life , then it is surely important for students to understand that what they care for , and how they care , will determine their capacity to feel their lives and the lives of others to be meaningful . But , as educators , we recognise that we do not want our students to care about just anything . Countless works of literature teach us that grounding one ’ s sense of meaning in flighty , ephemeral things , such as social standing or material wealth exposes one to the risk of personal and interpersonal ruin .
So how should we guide students on matters of caring and what methods can we employ in order to teach our students to care ? The response to this question offered by some philosophers of education might stem from a problem that has been observed in Heidegger ’ s work ; his construal of an authentic human life as one which has acknowledged its mortal nature . In contrast to this and , building on the work done by certain thinkers in the existential tradition and the educational philosophy of John Dewey , care theorists recognise that the major shaping force on our identity is our experience of our relationship to others . Whilst mortality certainly causes humans to think about their lives in certain ways , before a human being comes consciously aware of the limitation imposed on them by their mortality , they become aware of their limitation in the form of their dependence on other beings . For philosophers of care , because it is an essential fact of human life that all human beings need to care and be cared for , ‘ relation ’ is ‘ ontologically basic ’ and therefore a necessary feature of human existence ( Noddings 2003 ). Thus , for respected philosopher of education Nel Noddings , living authentically and contentedly demands acknowledgement and understanding of the role that others play in the unfolding of our own lives and the role that we can play in the unfolding of the lives of others .
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