Existentialism emphasizes individualism and the uniqueness of each person. People are born, live, choose their own course, and create the meaning of their own existence. Key themes include nothingness, anxiety, absurdity, death, and alienation. Major existentialist philosophers include Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Buber, Heidegger, Sartre, and Greene. Existentialism in education focuses on understanding each student as an individual and encouraging personal responsibility and choice. However, some argue existentialism is difficult to fully implement in modern public classrooms.

1. Mary Raymond
Kathy Jackson
1

2. What is Existentialism?
 When many people think of existentialism, they
think of the dark and lonely individual.
 A person is a conscious subject; not a thing to be
predicted or manipulated.
 Basic themes:
nothingness, anxiety, absurdity, death and
alienation.
2

3. INDIVIDUALISM!
 What we found in our research, however, is that it is a
philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness of the
individual.
 “In the existentialist world, each person is
born, lives, chooses his or her course, and creates the
meaning of his or her own existence.”
3

4. Make Your Own Choice
 Christianity says, “Look to God, who watches over
and takes charge of all.”
 Plato and Aristotle said, “Look to a rational system
of logical necessity.”
 Naturalism says, “Follow nature; let nature be
responsible.”
 The Experimentalists say, “Look to the scientific
method; look to the community.”
Wrong! Look to your own choice!
4

5. Philosophers of Existentialism
 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)
 Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
 Martin Buber (1878-1965)
 Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
 Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
 Maxine Greene (1917- )
5

6. Friedrich Nietzsche
 Nietzsche influenced the idea of individualism: he
thought traditional morality weakened
people, smothering their individuality.
 His philosophy centers around the idea of
“life-affirmation,”-question all of that which
“drain life’s energies” no matter how popular
those beliefs.
• “God is dead”.
6

7. Soren Kierkegaard
 Devout Christian – one should take a “leap of faith” in
their belief of God even though there is no proof.
 People should make their own choices and be held
completely responsible.
 “Education should be subjective and religious, devoted
to developing individuality and the individual’s
relationship with God.”
 Opposed vocational and technical schools because they
are too objective - even believed that the objectivity of
science leads people away from their Christian beliefs,
becoming more group-centered.
7

8. Martin Buber
 Promoted the “need for mutual respect and dignity
among all humans.”
 I And Thou - best-known book.
 “I - It” - objective relationship
 “I - Thou” - subjective relationship
 Teacher/Student relationship
8

9. Martin Heidegger
 “Being” and not the lonely, estranged individual.
 “Being-in-the-world” - Dasein analysis
Individual interprets a personal world of meaning.
1. Environment
2. Social
3. Individual - “Who Am I”
9

10. Jean-Paul Sartre
 Best-known leading philosopher of
existentialism.
 Student of Heidegger in the 1930’s.
 Atheist
 Being & Nothingness
 “being-for-itself”-consciousness of man
 “being-in-itself”-objects of consciousness
 “Existence precedes essence.”
 “Man is condemned to be free.”
10

11. Sartre con’t.
 Sartre saw “nature”, “law”, and “science” as human
creations.
 Rules and restrictions are absurd creations of
humans.
 “People try to be God” - he does not believe God
exists - further evidence of human absurdity.
 Who is responsible for existence today (war,
starvation, poverty)? People are! If they can create
war, they can create peace.
11

12. Maxine Greene
 Modern existentialism
 “Wide-awakeness”
 Open to possibilities, be wide awake
and be reasonable.
Reasonableness can be defined as
understanding and comprehending
your lived experience.
 Supports the arts and humanities
12

13. Are we “raising a nation of
sheep?”
13

14. Existentialism and Education
How do we create individualism in the classroom?
 Get to know your student.
 Greet your student at the door.
 Let your students get to know you.
Diversity in education
 Curriculum
 Different ways of teaching
 Every teacher a student and every student a teacher.
 They encourage Arts and Humanities, i.e. Charter
Schools
14

15. Schools
 Two schools that are built on the existentialist philosophy
1. Summerhill school in Suffolk, England
 Founded in 1921 by AS Neil
 Children should be themselves-if they want to lie around, let them,
they do not have to go to class.
 Referred to as a democratic society-children and adults have equal
votes, children even help create the rules of behavior and the
curriculum
 Subjects are the whole spectrum from chemistry to art
2. Sudbury Valley School, Framingham, MA
 “…freedom is essential to the development of personal
responsibility”
15

16. Pros and Cons
 Pros of existentialism  Cons of existentialism
 Encourages individuality-  Hard to implement totally in
acknowledges no two the 21st century public
children are alike-teach as classroom
individuals  It’s hard to choose your own
 Encourages responsibility existence when we are so
 Helps people answer the dependent on outside stimuli
question “Who am I?” like money and survival. We
 Mutual respect between the
are not totally ourselves when
student and the teacher we go on a job interview. We
have to be what we think the
interviewer wants us to be.
16

17. Our Thoughts
 We found this to be an interesting philosophy but also
a challenging one. It was a challenging thought
process because on one hand you have look to your
own choice, but philosophers such as Kirkegaard, who
is a devout Christian, is also looking to a higher power
than himself. But perhaps that is what individualism
is, this is his own choice.
 The quote that we feel captures this philosophy is one
we found in notes from Sartre’s “Being and
Nothingness”: “Freedom is humanity’s curse as well as
its blessing, and what we make of that freedom is our
own.”
17

18. 18

19. 19

20. References: September 7, 2009, from
 Slides 2 and 3: Retrieved
http://www.geocities.com/riceharvest/existentialism.htm
 Slide 4: Ivory, G. Noddings Chapter 4: Existentialism: Full. Retrieved
September 9, 2009, from New Mexico State University, History and
Philosophy of Education Web site:
http://education.nmsu.edu/emd/faculty/ivory/emd572/notes/nod04ex
full.pdf
 Slides 7-13: Ozmon, Howard A, Craver, Samuel M. , (2008).
Philosophical Foundations of Education
 Slide 12: Phillips, A. (2009 September). Maxine Greene, Master
Educator, Philosopher and Humanist. VOA News. Retrieved
September 25, 2009, from
http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2009-09-25-
voa22.cfm
 Slide 15: Sudbury Valley School. Independence. Retrieved September
9, 2009 from http://www.sudval.org/01_abou_01.html
 Slide 15: Summerhill School. FAQ. Retrieved September 9, 2009 from
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/QAs-2009.pdf
20