Erich Fromm claimed that: "Just as modern mass production
requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process
requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called
"equality"."In contemporary capitalistic society the meaning of
equality has been transformed. By equality one refers to the equality of
automatons; of men who have lost their individuality." The Significant
Learning Model, according to the Anthropogogical approach, helps men to redefine
of their unique identity.
This significant learning model, which was
developed by Nir Golan, an educational and leadership expert, provides tools to
assimilate the Anthropogogy approach in order to guide the learner to search
for his individualized personality. That way it provides the answer to Fromm's
next statements: "Contemporary society preaches this ideal of un individualized
equality because it needs human atoms, each one the same, to make them function
in a mass aggregation smoothly, without friction; all obeying the same
commands, yet everybody being convinced that he is following his own desires."
"Education is identical with helping the
child realize his potentialities. The opposite of education is manipulation,
which is based on the absence of faith in the growth of potentialities and the
connection that a child will be right only if the adults put into him what is
desirable and suppress what seems to be undesirable."
The educational system had abandoned the humanist
outlook in exchange for the scientific. Instead of significant learning, education was
consequently vulgarized, its objective having become to form useful and
profitable men, not harmoniously matured and developed personalities.
Anthropogogy (human learning) is about creating unique identity for the
learner.
It is necessary that individuals learn
determined rules (norms), that they acquire habits and that they begin to
educate themselves against themselves, or better, against the education forced
upon them. That is the main reason for the creation of the significant learning model:
The six steps are:
1.
Action- needs identification and learner
performance
2.
Behavior- conceptualization of the action
3.
Norm- transformation of the behavior to a norm
4.
Value- defining the value in the behavior
5.
Identity redefined- redefinition of my unique
identity
6.
Teaching- Using the Anthropogogy model to teach
the other
Erich Fromm warned
us that: "Most people are not even aware of their need to conform. They
live under the illusion that they follow their own ideas and inclinations that
they are individualists, that they have arrived at their opinions as the result
of their own thinking- and that it just happens that their ideas are the same
as those of the majority." In step 4. Value-
defining the value in the behavior: The meaning of the behavior is defined to the learner
as well as the benefits that may be gained from the norm to the learner and to
his/her surroundings. The value then becomes the guiding principle to making
future decisions connected to the behavior; helping decide when and how to use
this behavior. In this manner, the behavior becomes more significant. The result of Step 4:
Defining the value of the behavior by making it significant. Fromm continued:
"The consensus of all serves as a proof for the correctness of
"their" ideas. Since there is still a need to feel some
individuality, such need is satisfied with regard to minor differences. The
advertising slogan of "it is different" shows up this pathetic need
for difference, when is reality there is hardly any left." In step 5. Redefinition of my unique identity-
self-identity redefined. The values are acknowledged by the learner and assist
in redefining his/her unique identity. The learner knows how to describe their
newly unique identity and explain what their unique contribution is to those
around them. Although the learning process affected one
behavior, it helped to redefine his/her whole identity to him/herself. The
result of Step 5: Reformulating a unique identity by the learner.
Conclusion
According to Erich Fromm: "This increasing
tendency for elimination of differences is closely related to the concept and
the experience of equality, as it is developing in most advanced industrial
societies. Equality had meant that the differences between individuals must be
respected, that while it is true that we are all one, it is also true that each
one of us is a unique entity, is a cosmos by itself."
Gerald Pine states that: “The teacher reveals
himself as an inquiring, questioning, and valuing person who conveys
spontaneity, curiosity, warmth, and empathy; who listens and attends to others;
who conveys acceptance and respect; who understands affective as well as
cognitive meanings and intents; who confronts in a genuine and caring way"
(Pine, 2005, p. 24). Anthropogogy will provide one with the opportunity to
accept change in an ever changing world. It will help one to appreciate life by
developing values on what is important to them according to what they see,
think, and feel and not by what society imposes on them. The significant
learning model provides tools for the teacher to assimilate the Anthropogogy
approach, throughout which the teacher uses dialogue in order to guide the
learner. Such conviction of uniqueness of the individual is expressed for
instance in the Talmudic statement: "Whosever saves a single life is as if
he had saved the whole world; whosoever destroys a single life is as if he had
destroyed the whole world". Fromm added that: "Equality as a
condition for the development of individuality was also the meaning of the
concept in the philosophy of the Western Enlightenment. It meant (most clearly
formulated by Kant) that no man must be the means for the end of another man.
That all men are equal in as much as they are ends, and only ends, and never means
to each other."
Summery
Erich Fromm claimed that: "Also in
contemporary Western society the union with the group is the prevalent way of
overcoming separateness. It is a union which the individual self disappears to
a large extent, and where the aim is to belong to the heard. If I am like
everybody else, if I have no feeling or thoughts which make me different, if I
conform in custom, dress, ideas, to the pattern of the group, I am saved: saved
from the frightening experience of aloneness."
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