Existentialism

Existentialists have been quite consistent in their recommendation of educational aims which are in harmony with their philosophical views… Existentialism is concerned principally with liberal education, freeing man from his isolation and his anonymity, freeing his mind from the confusions that prevent him from seeing his situations and his powers.

According to existentialist, education should make a man subjective and should make him conscious for his individuality or ‘self’. Being self conscious he will recognize his ‘self’ and he will get an understanding of his ‘being’. Individuality lies on self-realization, a motivating force, from an existential perspective; a sense of self-identity is gained by how an individual relates to and values his or her relations. The purpose of education is to build character, to optimize potential and creativity and to enhance the quality of life through knowledge, and then from an existentialist perspective bureaucratization needs to be replaced by humanization.

Education should train men to make better choices and also give the man the idea that since his choices are never perfect, the consequences cannot be predicted.

The ultimate aim of education is to make man conscious of his destination, to give an understanding of his ‘being’ and ultimately lead him to his heavenly abode. So, it is clear that the existentialism accepts the principle of liberal education.

Maheshwari, V. K. (2011). Existentialism - As an Educational Philosophy.

High Standards, High Expectations

Commitment to the incrementalist belief can show up in teachers' behavior, classroom practices, school structures, and even conversations with one another.

Teachers set standards of performance they believe to be rigorous, important, and appropriate; find out where students are in relation to those standards; and adapt instruction to accommodate students' differences in readiness levels (current knowledge or skills), learning and processing styles, and motivation.

They don't pull back, give up, or dilute expectations and academic press for any of them.

They send positive expectation messages to all children regardless of their learning or language differences.

They seize every opportunity in regularly recurring classroom situations to reinforce the messages children get that their teacher believes they can do it and won't give up on them.

Teaching policies and practices are conscientiously geared toward instilling in children life-liberating beliefs.

Teachers teach students and parents about attribution theory and make effective effort an explicit agenda to combat the entity theory.

They don't expect all students to learn at the same rate or meet standards at the same time, especially when there are wide differences in their prior preparation.

But teachers take it as their responsibility to constantly examine and manage their biases for seeing current student performance through the lens of innate ability, teach children to believe in themselves, and explicitly teach them how to work not just harder but smarter with appropriate strategies.

All teachers can create the conditions where unmotivated children want to put forth the effort and this should be an integral part of all our work.

In classroom practices, teachers invest in discovering ways to build confidence in students (belief in themselves and their capacity to achieve) and in teaching them how to invest their effort effectively.

Saphier, J., Haley-Speca, M. A., & Gower, R. (2012). The Skillful Teacher. United States: Research for Better Teaching, Inc.

Skillful Teachers

• Skillful teachers are made, not born.
• Being skillful is not in competition with being a thinking, feeling being.
• Skillful teachers are aware of the complexity of their job and work to be conscious and deliberate about what they do.
• Skillful teachers are clear about what is to be learned, clear about what achievement means, and clear about what they are going to do to help students attain success.
• Skillful teachers are learners.
•  Skillful teachers constantly reach out to colleagues with an assertive curiosity that says:

        "I don't know it all. No one does or ever will, but I am always growing, adding to
         my knowledge and skills and effectiveness."

      Saphier, J., Haley-Speca, M., & Gower, R. (2012). The Skillful Teacher. United States: Research for Better Teaching, Inc.

Bridge Action Plan

This is a bridge action plan done by my friend Areej Yassine and I.

We introduced in it a solution for a problem that's happening in a school,

which is holding on to traditional and boring teaching methods.

And we suggested organized and concrete steps to work on.

Al Farabi

In al-Farabi’s philosophical system, education is one of the most important social
phenomena. Indeed, in al-Farabi’s view, the whole activity of education can be
briefed up as the acquisition of values, knowledge and practical skills in a particular
period and culture. The aim of education is to guide the individual towards perfection
because the human being was created for this purpose.

In al-Farabi’s view, education is the combination of learning with practical action.
If the speculative sciences are learned without applying them, this wisdom is
defective (Al-Farabi, 1983, p. 89).

Besides so many aims of education, one is to prepare the political leaders.
The social life integrates the individual, the family and the city. The politicians should
not restrict their work to the organization and management of cities. They should
encourage people to help one another in dispensing good things and over rooting evils.
They must use their political skills to protect the virtues and praiseworthy activities.

Rauf, Muhammad; Ahmad, Mushtaq; Iqbal, Zafar. (2013). Al-Farabi's Philosophy of Education. Educational Research International, 1(2), 4-5.

مُجتمعي

إنّ المُشكلة في مُجتمعنا نحن "العَرَب"

أنّنا نُحبّط من مَعنويات بعضنا البعض،

بدل أن نَشُدّ على أيدي بعضنا

لِنعلوَ ونُزهِرَ ونتألَّق..

لماذا لا أقول لأختي "ثيابكِ جميلة اليوم"

بدل "منظرك مثل النورية" أو "يُستر عليكِ"؟

لماذا لا تقول لصديقك "أعجبني تعامُلك مع والدتك"

عِوضًا عن "إسا صرت آدمي"؟

لماذا لا تقولين لأباكِ "إنّي أُحبك"

مع القُبلة التي تُعطيهِ إيّاها؟

لماذا لا تقول لتلميذك "أحببتُ الطريقة التي حلّيت بها هذا السؤال"

بدل "لازم تحلّ بالطريقة اللي أعطيتك اياها، بلا اختراعات"؟

لماذا لا تتكلّم مع ابنك بهدوء بدل الصُّراخ والصَّرامة؟

- فاطمة سليمان  

حُسن الظن بالله

وإن بانَ كُلُّ شيءٍ أسودًا

وإن تلبَّدتِ السَّماءُ بالغُيومِ ولم تُمطِر

وإن تغيَّر شكلُ العالم

وتجمَّعت حُشودٌ مُحتشدةٌ مِن حَولي

وارتفعت أصواتُهم وتَعالى صُراخُهم

 يُحاولون تغيير تَفكيري وتَيئيسي

وإن أمسَكوني بقُوّة وهَزّوني هَزًّا عنيفًا

ثُمَّ انكَبُّوا عليَّ ضّربًا ولَطمًا

فَلا، لا، لن أظُنَّ بكَ إلّا خَيرًا

ولا، لا، واللهِ لن تُخزيني

ورِضاكَ مِحوَرُ مَطالِبي

وبوصلةُ طَريقي!

- فاطمة سليمان -