CHALLENGING YOUTHS TO BECOME ADULTS
Abstract
At the time of life when a man or woman is first aware of a capability for independent commitment to some purpose in life, society through its schools provides a little content in a few subjects traditionally reputed to prepare for entry into a guild of academics (whose own purposes in life are notoriously isolated from the mainstream). Gibbons postulates three life-long themes each with its own curiculum, that begin when we leave childhood: our unfolding as individuals, the development of our social ideas, and a search for knowledge by which we may live with the unknown. He finds in such practices as the Walkabout of an Australian aborigine a pattern of separation, initiation, and return that seems to hold for the management of all such transitions throughout life. On its basis he delineates a model of schooling that embodies two educational paradigms, that of tradition and that of "challenge;" and describes how such a scheme has indeed been put into effective practice. RÉSUMÉ Lorsqu'un homme ou une femme prend conscience pour la première fois de la possibilité que la vie lui offre de s'engager dans une voie quelconque, la société par l'entremise de ses écoles lui propose quelques disciplines censées le (la) préparer à toute une gamme d'études universitaires (dont les objectifs sont notoirement isolés du courant traditionnel). Gibbons pose en postulat trois thèmes dont chacun possède son propre programme et qui débutent au sortir de l'enfance: notre épanouissement en tant qu'êtres, le développement de nos idées sociales, et notre désir de savoir comment faire face à l'inconnu. Il voit dans la démarche d'un aborigène australien un modèle de séparation, d'initiation, et de retour qui semble confirmer que ces transitions peuvent être contrôlées tout au long de la vie. Dès lors, il délimite un modèle de scolarisation qui incarne deux paradigmes éducatifs, celui de la tradition et celui du "défi"; et il décrit comment un tel projet a effectivement été mis en pratique.Downloads
Published
1980-04-01
How to Cite
Gibbons, M. (1980). CHALLENGING YOUTHS TO BECOME ADULTS. McGill Journal of Education / Revue Des Sciences De l’éducation De McGill, 15(002). Retrieved from https://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/7332
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