Far Eastern Philosophy
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Eastern Philosophy 1 Running Head: Eastern Philosophy and Educational Reform Incorporating Eastern Philosophy into the Traditional Western Classroom to Effect Educational Reform Marlene A. Hoff Southeastern Louisiana University Eastern Philosophy 2 I had just graduated high school and entered my first year of college and was eagerly anticipating making new friends and broadening my horizons. Even though I stayed in a dorm only eighty miles from my hometown, it may as well have been across several state lines because everything was so new and different. I lived with three other roommates, one of whom was from Hong Kong. Never having met someone from such an exotic locale, I nevertheless had preconceived ideas about her and her homeland. When some visitors started asking about our Asian roommate, I pointed to a book on her shelf which had something to do with honor in the title and attributed her different mannerisms to her deep-seated dedication of her country’s teachings. So unfamiliar was I to eastern thought, besides what I saw of the nomadic and mysterious, half American, half Chinese character of Grasshopper on weekly episodes of “Kung Fu”, that I imagined she must study that book religiously to keep herself grounded. After all, she brought it all the way with her to the United States from Hong Kong. It wasn’t until later that I realized the book which I had mistakenly believed to help guide her moral compass, was nothing more than a dime-store James Bond novel. What I’ve since learned about eastern philosophy has opened up new paths of enlightenment with respect to what it has to offer to western education. Though it’s been years since my first misconception about the far east and its people, I’ve come to appreciate how much eastern philosophy has the potential to positively impact the lives of traditionally western educated students. Further, I propose that utilization of some eastern concepts is necessary for educational reform to succeed. Eastern philosophy comprises great thinkers from the Far Eastern countries of India, China, Japan, Korea, and the Middle Eastern countries of Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Israel, as well as the arab countries of Asia Minor. The gulf that separates eastern and western philosophies is Eastern Philosophy 3 more than geography. The west focuses on proven scientific methods, while eastern teachers focus more on the unsubstantiated mystical world. Westerners worry about external forces, such as career pressures, while easterners believe it’s more imperative to strive for inner peace. Western thinkers rely more on their senses, while eastern thinkers rely more on their intuition. Though these eastern concepts seem so exotic to most westerners, many western beliefs, such as Judaism and Christianity, stem from eastern teachings (Ozmon & Craver, 1990). These seemingly foreign concepts which eastern philosophers espouse, may hold the remedy for many of the problems facing western education today. One obvious issue we need to tackle and eradicate from our school system is school violence. Dr. Elliot Aronson is a social psychologist who wrote the book, Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion after Columbine (2000), and has studied the social atmosphere in classrooms across this country. In doing so, he believes he has identified the most probable indicators of violence erupting in schools, such as the multiple school shooting which occurred at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Dr. Aronson states that if we look beyond the obvious pathological nature of the school shooters, we will see that the perpetrators were, “...reacting to a general atmosphere of exclusion. This is a school atmosphere that most of the student body finds unpleasant, distasteful, difficult, and even humiliating” (p.13). Once we understand how important the social environment of a school is to its student body, then changes can be instituted which affect the social atmosphere of the classroom, “...making the school a safer place...This might also succeed in producing the kind of social environment that will make the school a more pleasant, more stimulating, more compassionate, and more humane place for all of the students” (p. 14). This goal can be accomplished if teachers include as part of their Eastern Philosophy 4 lesson plans, the oft neglected human values of compassion, empathy, and respect. To engineer such changes, western schools should look to eastern philosophies for guidance. Each of them has something worthwhile and promising to impart. One of the main principles of eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, is that of “attitude shaping”. This characteristic is believed to be the deciding factor of how someone’s life turns out. If students can be taught the virtues of compassion and empathy, for example, they will be more tolerant of those students labeled as outsiders and less likely to lash out due to mistrust, anger, or fear. Aronson makes the point that we can, “...teach students to appreciate these differences and to experience them as sources of joy and excitement, rather than as automatic triggers for aggression and rejection” (p. 72). The notion that compassion and empathy should be necessary components of western teachings is shared by an Australian educator, Hedley Beare, who writes about the connection among all living beings. Beare states that to have empathy is to step inside another’s skin and experience the, “...emotions and the perceptions that the other experiences” (p. 26). To feel compassion for another being is, “...to feel with, to have the same ‘passion’ as someone else” (p. 26). Another educator, France H. Conroy, insists that although students lack these essential qualities, teachers have the capability to reinstill such Confucian traits as “humaness” into the student body. He identifies the problem as: students are channeled toward concerns for their future careers and away from their humaness (p. 5). Accoring to Conroy, they have, ...sadly wasted their minds during their high school years, too many even after making the decision to go to college lack the attitudinal qualities appropriate for someone whose human potential – intellectually, morally, aesthetically and Eastern Philosophy 5 spiritually – is so strikingly underdeveloped...too many of our students lack humility, deference, respect...Too many are baldly and unquestioningly pragmatic, careerist, consumerist, success-seeking, with narrow conceptions of self-interest. (p. 6-7) Although he recognizes the challenge students must face to regain their humaness, he believes it can be overcome by re-vitalizing the faculty in various ways. One suggestion Conroy proposes is to offer faculty development which utilizes traditional far eastern philosophical texts. His other suggestions for improving student humaness, include improving the classroom setting which, “... make it more conducive to ‘the human’”(p. 26), holding outdoor classes and planning field trips. Nobuo Shimahara expounds on the Confucian philosophy of education in Japan and how trips and other excursions play an important role in character development. In a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (1988), Ms. Shimahara related the experience of a high school in Hiroshima, Japan. Every year, the school principal, teachers, and community volunteers organize a three-day camping trip for five hundred of its incoming student body. The annual event has become an integral part of the school experience because, “...it provides an opportunity for students to learn the basic premises and rules underlying disciplined behavior and the attitudes needed for group life and work at the school” (p. 31). Such “collective activities”, or shudan seikatsu, are a vital component of the educational process in Japan, which seek to build the humaness of students. As Conroy states, according to Confucious, “...we cannot become human all by ourselves” (p. 12), rather we must involve others and practice reciprocal obligation. Learning to be human does not come naturally, but must be learned. One must practice filial piety, a social Eastern Philosophy 6 obligation to parents, as well as learn to cooperate with other people. Aronson concurs in his book, Nobody Left to Hate, that emphasis should be placed on an atmosphere of cooperation in the classroom, rather than one of competitiveness. When cooperative strategies of learning are utilized, students learn that they can count on one another. Students can become friends instead of enemies and the classroom can become one with a positive social atmosphere. This enables respect to grow among the students instead of taunting or bullying. Aronson utilized such a cooperative strategy in an elementary classroom in previous years, and later received a letter from one of the students who was about to enter law school. The student wrote, “...I began to realize that I wasn’t really that stupid. And the kids I thought were cruel and hostile became my friends and the teacher acted friendly and nice to me and I actually began to love school” (p. 151). Buddhists, too, believe in the need for cooperation so that a natural, hierarchical, and social order be preserved (Matzen, 1996, p. 3). Richard Matzen, Jr. presented a paper to the Annual Pedagogy of the Oppressed Conference in 1996. In it, he noted how the Thai educational system was shaped by Buddhist monks who believed in equal opportunity for the people. The monks believed that every person should have a chance to create good karma for themselves with the ultimate goal of advancing to a higher consciousness. In order to achieve this goal, they instituted a mainstream system, as well as a non-formal system of learning (p. 4). These options are given to everyone because the Buddhist monks want people to improve their living conditions and their occupations. In fact, the educational system that the monks implemented allows each student, regardless of his or her chosen educational path, the chance to go to college.