Sárospataki Füzetek 13. (2009)
2009 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Peter Blokhuis: Keresztyén felsőoktatás és a diákok világa. Christian Higher Education and the World of the Students
Peter Blokhuis Summary Christian Higher Education and the World of the Student Many academics are complaining about the crisis in education. Modern education is too narrow; it is too much focused on its economic meaning. The so-called improvement of education is a change towards commercialization. The present study partly relies on the analysis of Frank Füredi confronting the modern idea of higher education. Furedi’s students are not used to reading books anymore and their knowledge of history consists of some small pieces of information. Having skills, for instance the skill of reading, is more valuable than reading literature. Education should be fun and relevant; its meaning has a functional character. The value is in the skill, not in the content. For Füredi education is meaningful in itself; it is meaningful for the student as a human person. But for the government, he says, this sounds as an old-fashioned approach of education. For academics like Füredi there is a gap between his world and the world of many of his students. This is not the student’s fault; it is the fault of the educational system. Because we cannot isolate the educational system from society, this means that we are confronted here with a tension in society between different ideas of being a human person. Against the background of the discussion on the crisis in education, the present study first presents some ideas on the world of students and the motives of society for education. After that it reflects on the problem of fragmentation in western societies. The next part is about the Christian comprehensive idea and its meaning for education. In the concluding part the study focuses on teaching, trying to bridge the gap between the world of students and the world of teachers.
