Better Business
October 2006
Banner photo: Partially Harvested Corn Field/corbis
Exploring Humanistic Education
Q & A session during the Columbia symposium
[©Seikyo Shimbun]
On June 16, Buddhism for Global Peace, a student group at New York's Columbia University, in collaboration with the SGI-USA education division, sponsored a symposium on "Humanistic Education: Theory into Practice--John Dewey and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi." The event commemorated the 10th anniversary of SGI President Ikeda's speech at Teachers College, "Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship." Some 120 Teachers College faculty and staff as well as others in the field of education attended.
Dr. Monte Joffee, founding principal of the Renaissance Charter School in New York, spoke about the continuing relevance and significance of Mr. Ikeda's speech in contemporary society. Professor David Hansen of Teachers College, former president of the John Dewey Society, said knowledge comes alive when it is translated into action. He stated that Dewey, through application of his theory in the real classroom setting, became an example of scholarship for his students. Professor Hansen is editor of a forthcoming book entitled Ideas and Action: Enduring Visions of the Philosophy of Education which features Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, John Dewey, Maria Montessori and Rabindranath Tagore.
Value-Creating Education
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi
[©Seikyo Shimbun]
On July 14, Mexico's Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (UADY) (Yucatan Autonomous University) hosted a forum entitled "Learning from Tsunesaburo Makiguchi's Educational Philosophy" attended by 100 educators and students.
Using as reference material a collection of theses about the Soka Gakkai founding president's philosophy of value creation published by Universidad Central de Venezuela (Central University of Venezuela), the group discussed "Makiguchi's Educational Philosophy and Views on Life" and "Soka Education and Its Significance in Contemporary Society."
