“Only through education can man become a man. Man is nothing more than what education makes him.”
— Immanuel Kant
Etymologically, the term education comes from the Latin terms “educare” and “educere”, which could be interpreted as the development of the individual both intellectually and culturally.
That is, education can be seen as a great driver of changes in a society, a society made up of people. Through education, seen from a social perspective, processes can be developed that go beyond the classroom and impact lives and people that multiply this effect in their wake.
Through education, factors that we consider as those objectives can be shaped to achieve the society we seek and forge, through the educational process, individuals who correspond to and integrate this society. For Émile Durkheim, French sociologist, “common education is a function of the social state; since each society seeks to realize in its members, through education, an ideal that is its own” fn-1. That is to say, through education, we can shape the individuals we need, making education a much more complex and necessary social project.
The main problems facing our society must be faced through education and working closely with the individual, forging actions that allow us to attack these problems through the completely individualistic, integral and ultimately social development of the individual. All of this is based on a holistic approach to education, which indicates that a person finds their identity and the meaning of life through education, which subsequently allows them to create links with what surrounds them and make them part of a subsequent transformation.
To develop this in education, it is necessary that people and individuals, who are part of the educational process, can
- Create a relationship between everything they learn and the world and environment that surrounds them.
- That they can adapt, using said knowledge, to situations that arise.
- That allow them to combine the knowledge and practices acquired to solve real situations.
In this way, we can create links between the problems that our society suffers and the knowledge that we transmit in the classrooms, seeking to correct these problems in the medium or long term, by incorporating actions that manage to correct said behaviors. Social problems, such as corruption, alcoholism or family disintegration, can be addressed by developing connections between what is learned in the classroom and its applicability to the individual’s context. Education must be a particular and exhaustive process, through which man can achieve his development, as indicated by the etymology of the word education, but more importantly: that allows him to develop in the context and allow, in turn, to develop changes in society. This means that the education process must not only be carried out internally to the person, but must involve a restructuring of the person with his environment, affecting him not only internally, but allowing him to be an entity of positive change for the society that requires and needs him so much.
Just a few days ago, the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama, made public a series of advertisements in the midst of the corruption scandals in which we are being involved, in order to develop awareness at all levels and try to shape behaviors that go more in line with what we really need in our country. Thinking that the behaviors that our children can learn from all the events that surround us today is shocking, however it is comforting to know that we have the possibility today to impact them with this same force, but positively.
It is absolutely necessary to look for new educational models that give way to deeper and more innovative dialogues, that promote the incorporation of better social and sustainable panoramas, that allow society to be governed and its relationships between the individuals that make it up, with focus on elementary principles of fraternity, solidarity, democracy, freedom and equity fn-3, discourses that do not sound strange to us today and that require an individual and collective commitment, which demand a commitment to constantly ensure an education rich in values and reactive to problems that attack our society.
The creation over the years of individuals focused on themselves and not part of a society that they can serve, leaves us with a difficult but not impossible task. It is necessary to develop belonging of individuals towards society, of which they are already a physical part. It is necessary to develop a concept of education to transform man and transform him, it is to make education an “action of man on the world to transform it” fn-4, entirely remembering the thoughts of Piaget and Vygotsky in the relationship of the human as an entirely social being.Education is not enough to be a man; Education, in reality, makes the man, this paraphrasing Kant. The creation and development of the individual as part of a family, which in turn is part of a society, elevating principles to its peers and as a differentiating entity and spreader of the behavior that we seek as a society, is an elementary part to achieve the objectives that we want to achieve in a society that always asks for better men, better humans.
By way of conclusion, some elementary principles are highlighted to develop individuals aligned with the society to which they belong:
- It is appropriate to develop an education model, with a certain social focus, that promotes the creation of individuals who promote the fundamentals required in our society. Focus not only on science and literature, but on the human development of the individual.
- It is necessary to see education as a process of individual and social change. We must seek the transformation of man as a fundamental element to achieve social changes.
- It is required that all of us who are part of society can understand and actively get involved in the development of the societies we need.