Personalist Education For 21st Century Teens

Abstract

Personalism raises the possibility of reflecting on the urgent need to place the human being as the end of all action, to understand the fundamental dimensions of the person as a unique being and in relationship, as a possessor of transcendence, subjectivity, affectivity, animic corporeality, incarnated history, culture and intellect.

As a philosophical current, it originates around 1930 (20th century), in the period between wars, and arises as a reflection to face the crisis of the culture of modernity as well as the existential problems of man (planned in all times); influencing by its foundation, in the elaboration of the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as well as in the texts ofthe Second Vatican Council claiming the person as a "unique and unrepeatable" being.

Some of its essential characteristics refer to:

• The person as the center ofphilosophical reflection;
• Ithighlights,in man, the capacity to know a truth that at the same time transcends him, knowing, at the same time, that he is not capable of knowing "the whole" truth.
• Manasa free being with the capacity for self-determination, master of himself and with the potential to change the world.
• Thepersonas a substantial reality, and not a mere succession of experiences without an ontological support (empiricism, positivism).
• The importanceof affectivity,as an essential dimension of the person. It should be considered as part of philosophical reflection, as has been done with intelligence and will..
• The personessentially ordered to the interpersonal,family and social relationship that realizes itself in self-giving, dialogue and communion with others.

In order to achieve these characteristics, personalism incorporates, in teaching, human qualities such as the identity and unity of the educator and the learner. "These characteristics must be considered as a structural part of an educational project whose underlying essence is the emancipation of the person". (Cruz Herrera, Ana María).