On Life Consciousness Education

According to Montaigne, what counts most for people in the world is to get knowledge of themselves. Human beings are different from animals, which lies in that they can not only survive but also be aware of their existence and self-consciousness of their being; which also lies in that they pursue significance of their existence in which different understandings may result in different existing manners. Ernst Cassirer holds that human being should be declared as a"being"exploring himself, as one that ought to, anywhere and anytime, question and look seriously into his own existence. However, the true meaning of man's life lies nowhere but in the serious look and critical attitude toward human life.By life consciousness, it means, from the perspective of philosophy, the consciousness-awareness of an individual toward the life being, the deep feelings of an individual about his existence and the serious look into terminal values of the life being. But, owing to value preferences in the traditional culture and the reinforcement of scientism and utilitarianism, the present education realm is in serious lack of life consciousness.Therefore, by analyzing how and why education lacks life consciousness, the study aims at the reflection of what the present education should be and how it awakens students'life consciousness. Life education should make an attempt to guide students to take a serious look at and question their life being so that they can get to know themselves, go beyond themselves, what's more, seek out the real ego of themselves. The whole thesis consists of four chapters. They are:Chapter One first reviews life consciousness in both Chinese and western cultures, and then analyzes its characteristics and inner structure to illustrate its connotations from various perspectives. Chapter Two comments on some should-be issues in education from a philosophic view, and steps further to explore the rationality of life education in the modern education realm. Thereafter, it illustrates that life consciousness education should go to the third lay------ concerning the terminal values caring.Chapter Three analyzes how and why education lacks life consciousness. It points out that except for the effects of Chinese education system and policy, the major causes for it is scientism-uppermost education values and malformed talents values imposed by examination-oriented education and value preferences in Chinese traditional culture. Chapter Four constructs a theoretical framework for life education based upon the causes mentioned in Chapter Three. It concludes that guided by the values tendency of"respecting, perfecting and transcending", life education ought to follow the principles of"experiencing, generating, and transcending", and imbue teenagers with them to inspire their life consciousness so that they may dig out true meanings and values to interpret their life fully.The realm of education may be of three stages, says Huang Kejian, to transform knowledge, enlighten wisdom, and enrich life. Unfortunately, education nowadays is too utilitarian, which has to still remain in the primary stage, yet what should have been focused on, i.e. to enlighten wisdom, and enrich life, are ignored. So it is high time that life consciousness education attempted to pay great attention to domains on the edge of the modern education to play the fundamental role to enlighten wisdom, and enrich life.