Life Education and the Molding of Personality for Modern Humanity

Life Education and the Molding of Personality for Modern Humanity

Wai-yin CHOW & Kwok-keung YEUNG

Societies like Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland on the way to prosperity and openness face profound changes in social structure and values. Besides the explosion of information, images and consumer activities, there are greater respect and protection for individual rights and freedom. At the same time, the moral authority that used to transmit traditional values has lost its grip on society. As social rules and regulations keep changing, the old well-defined social order and cultural landscape have been in a state of flux. Drastic social changes sometimes can be manifested in palpable social problems, such as youth suicide and violence that have beset Taiwan and Hong Kong recently.

These fundamental changes once again confront educationists with the same old question: What kind of a person do we expect our youth to become? What qualities do we expect our next generation to possess so that they can take up the challenge of the new century and make contribution to human society? Perhaps, we may pose our question from the perspective of personality psychology: Into what kind of behavioral, thinking and emotionally-responsive pattern would we like to nurture the new generation so that they will become prosocial members?

There are people in Hong Kong and Taiwan who find that students in both societies lack a positive attitude toward life and are unable to cope with adversities. As such, they propose a wide range of activities to inspire the students to take good care of their lives and work hard for their goals. Educationists in both places also advocate different kinds of “life education” projects and programs in the hope of nurturing the students with a holistic approach, resulting in a balanced development in their intellect, as well as emotion and mind . One then can learn to reflect on and feel about the relationship one has with oneself, as well as others, with society as well as the natural environment, the world and even the universe. With this all-encompassing approach, students can search for the meaning and goal of life, and contribute to the community as well as humanity as a whole. In other words, through a holistic approach, life education tries to bring up a new generation endowed with a prosocial personality.

This article tries to outline the ideal personality traits of the 21st century, and the challenges posed by social realities. It also illuminates how life education, as an integration of emotional education, character education and spiritual education, can nurture students with a prosocial personality, hence fulfilling the ideal of holistic education.