Behavioral schools define a predetermined path and process for education, where all students are required to follow the same route without considering their individual differences. In these schools, students are compelled to follow a pre-designed curriculum, ignoring their own needs, interests, and talents.
Behavioral and cognitive approaches dominate a large portion of the world’s education systems. Behavioral schools define a predetermined path and process for education, where all students are required to follow the same route without considering their individual differences. In these schools, students are compelled to follow a pre-designed curriculum, ignoring their own needs, interests, and talents. Educational planners predetermine all content, topics, syllabi, resources, and textbooks, leaving students with no choice but to adhere to these set materials. A lack of attention to individual, social, and cultural differences, along with neglecting the students’ abilities, talents, and needs, are major problems in behaviorist schools. Meanwhile, cognitive schools, for decades, have reduced education to intelligence, organizing programs solely to enhance students’ cognitive intelligence. As a result, pure sciences take precedence, and other educational domains are ignored.
However, predetermined programs, disregard for individual differences, and limitation to cognitive fields are not the only shortcomings of official education systems. These educational models have raised more barriers and continue to impose restrictions on students.
Individuality vs. Individualism
Progressive and humanistic education systems strive to recognize individual differences, assess each student’s needs based on those differences, and plan accordingly for individual students or groups of students. Educational systems must respect the individuality of students so that they can strengthen their independence, identity, and unique qualities. However, behavioral and cognitive education systems push students toward individualism rather than nurturing individuality. Individualism means students focus solely on their personal interests, viewing their individuality as the basis for everything. The emphasis on personal growth in these schools has led students down an isolated path. Competition, comparison, rivalry, and deceptive titles like “genius” or “genetic intelligence” further encourage individualism. Unfortunately, even though the curriculum is the same for all students, the learning process is highly individualized. Each student must prepare for exams independently. Since high scores equate to special rewards, students are motivated to improve their skills and abilities compared to others, viewing their peers as competitors.
Students who prepare for exams in isolation are always in a competitive environment, making collaboration with classmates difficult. Naturally, these individuals, upon graduation, struggle to work as a team, think collectively, or consider the common good in their jobs and responsibilities. They have never learned to consider others’ interests, let alone practiced it. Individualism, rather than fostering independence and personal identity, is one of the most dangerous outcomes of behavioral and cognitive schools.
Narcissism vs. Self-Love
One of the principles of humanistic schools is teaching self-love and love for those around us. Leading psychologists and education experts like Erich Fromm, Rogers, Maslow, and Yalom advocate for teaching students to respect and love themselves so that they can, in turn, love others and even other living beings. However, when education systems center around individualism, the result is narcissism, not self-love or self-respect. In behavioral and cognitive schools, students cannot see beyond themselves, nor can they respect the needs and qualities of others. The foundation of behaviorist schools is individual success; each student must experience success independently. As a result, students who are caught in the cycle of competition either become narcissistic or experience self-destruction. Students who succeed in this competition develop a false sense of self, believing that success in exams equates to success in all aspects of life. External rewards linked to academic success unfortunately create a distorted self-perception. As a result, students emerging from these systems often exhibit narcissism. Conversely, students who fail in competition are left feeling worthless.
Narcissism is far removed from self-love. Erich Fromm describes narcissism as a manifestation of anger, fear, disrespect, and ingratitude towards oneself. Narcissism is part of a self-destructive process. Just as the student who loses in competition is at a disadvantage, so too is the narcissistic individual, as they have lost in life.
Standardization vs. Personalization
While behaviorist schools encourage individualism and isolation, they also promote conformity. These schools attempt to make all students alike through a process of standardization. When a single lesson is designed for all students, and everyone is required to study and be tested on it, the result is conformity. Behaviorist schools do not give students the opportunity to become familiar with their needs, express their interests, or speak about their desires. After some time, students become incapable of understanding or articulating their needs. When a school imparts the same information to all students and insists they learn it precisely, conformity naturally follows. Eventually, students begin to resemble one another. They wear similar clothes, listen to the same music, eat the same food, and share the same interests. This uniformity erases diversity in both content and expression.
In contrast, humanistic schools promote diversity, plurality, and differences. These schools are grounded in individual, social, and cultural diversity. Educational planners and teachers believe each student is unique, and educational planning should reflect that uniqueness. In humanistic schools, students’ voices are heard every day, their opinions are sought, and their interests, talents, and needs are continuously explored. We provide daily opportunities for students to share their thoughts, express what they want, and discuss what they are thinking about. While humanistic schools introduce common concepts as part of the curriculum, each student can approach those lessons according to their abilities and needs. Not all students in the same class or grade are required to follow the same path. Instead, we start with common topics and give students the opportunity to personalize and adapt those lessons to their own strengths. We encourage students to collaborate, seek help from others, and offer help in return. They are encouraged to think about how their learning can benefit both themselves and others. In humanistic schools, individual learning becomes a collective process through dialogue, interaction, and collaboration. Students are encouraged to share their learning with others, explain where they are in their educational journey, what they have learned, the challenges they face, and the areas where they might need assistance. When students talk about their learning, it creates an environment where others can learn from them, leading to a shared learning experience.
We help students regularly share their knowledge with others through presentations, exhibitions, discussions, and reports. In this way, we move from individual education to a collective, participatory process. In contrast, behaviorist schools move from a collective subject matter to an individualistic process.
Beyond this, humanistic schools teach students that each individual is unique and irreplaceable, though this does not make anyone superior. Others are equally unique, and no one is superior due to these differences. Just as we need others to understand and respect our differences and talents, we must also respect others and give them the opportunity to express themselves. This creates empathy, acceptance, and understanding.
The primary goal of humanistic education systems is to align learning with the abilities of each individual. Education becomes meaningful for every student, turning learning into an enjoyable and creative process. This is because students see the foundation and structure of education reflected in their own lives, making it relevant to them. In this way, education and curriculum content do not exist outside of students’ mental or life contexts. Students are always striving to explore the world, with teachers acting as facilitators, guiding and supporting them along the way.
As a result, schools become creative spaces for effective living for all. 