In the history of educational field, it is very important to reconsider their lives and thoughts of the educationalists' who carried on the greatest achievement. At the mid 18th century in Britain, Robert Owen was one of the representative persons who...
In the history of educational field, it is very important to reconsider their lives and thoughts of the educationalists' who carried on the greatest achievement. At the mid 18th century in Britain, Robert Owen was one of the representative persons who did every effort to prevent lower classes and their children from the moral corruption and the ignorance through the social refomation by the education in the rapid change in society resulted from the Industrial Revolution.
Owen is widely known as an Utopian socialist, Social reformer and Labor agitator. In the light of the reality of widely-spread contemporary materialism, intence competitive capitalism, and excessive individualism, we will consider his educational life according to the below subjects in this paper
Second, Owen's life and thought
Third, Owen's educational activity
Fourth, Owen's educational thought
Fifth, the meaning of Owen's educational activity
The core of his basic and educational thought is 'The Formation of Chracter'. His idea is that the ultimate object of life is happiness and we can realize it when one developes his ability harmoniously and his ability is unificated and harmonized individually. Besides, in his opinion, it is the frist consideration to crusade against illiteracy and form the right character by education for the social revolution. Especially, he thinks that the environment can influence on the individual character formation largely and it is possible by creating a proper atmosphere. His educational activity in the preschool education, labor education, cooperative education, national education practiced with his educational belief and the educational method which is persued by our contemporary education have something in common and that fact is thought-provoking. Though there are some criticism that Owen's educational idea has unrealistic parts, he should be highly evaluated as a socialistic educational thinker, who develope the peaceful, progressive social reformation through education.