教育群众:杜威、阿伦特的方案及当前的状况

Educating the Masses: Solutions from Dewey and Arendt and the Current Situation

群众素养的匮乏限制了民主制度的作用。基于这个认识,杜威和阿伦特分别提出了自己的群众教育模型,以防范在民主社会出现重大危机。其中,杜威希望通过教育来塑造"公众",把"伟大社会"转变为"伟大共同体",以此来避免民意完全被操弄的危险状况。阿伦特则重视公共空间的保存。个人在公共空间表达自己、理解他人,从不相信自己或者别的什么人有可能掌握唯一的、永远正确的终极答案。为此,她强调教师负有双重责任,以帮助学生满足人之为人的条件。在过去一百年内,杜威模式在中国社会的起起落落毋庸赘言。阿伦特的群众教育模型,对于中国社会的历史和现实也富有解释力。这两个模型在理论基础和具体措施上存在众多差异,但是二者是否适用于今天这个"喧闹时代"同样需要慎重考虑。

The lack of political literacy of the masses limits the development of democratic institutions. Based on this observation, Dewey and Arendt put forward their own models of mass education respectively to prevent major crises in democratic society. Among them, Dewey hopes to shape the "public" through education, to transform the "great society" into a "great community", in order to avoid the dangerous situation in which the public opinion is completely manipulated. Arendt stresses the need to preserve public spaces. Individuals express themselves in public spaces, understand others, and never believe in themselves or anyone else who has the only, absolutely correct, final answer. To this end, she emphasizes the twofold responsibility of educators to help students meet the human condition. Over the past hundred years, the Dewey’s solution has shown its ups and downs in Chinese society. Arendt’s solution of mass education is also inspirational to understanding the past and present quo of Chinese society. There are many differences in the theoretical basis and specific strategies between these two models, precaution need to be taken when applying these two models to today’s noisy times.