Arouse The Liberal Education And Independent Consciousness Of Female

This thesis mainly researches the Chinese women’s education from the perspectives of pedagogy、aesthetics and sociology, and tries to analyze the connections and sense among those words such as liberal education、female aesthetics and self-awareness by using constructivism theory. The thesis first laid on two perspectives:"liberal education is a self-aesthetic education of constructivism" and "independent consciousness is a strong return of female aesthetical consciousness". Then, thesis newly stated the specialized word liberal education which is from the higher education sector. The author believes that liberal education is about the free development of human’s education, which should not be confined to a particular period of time, a certain school or a particular crowd. The liberal education on which this thesis concerned is about the females, on other words, it mainly paid attention to the education of female’s free development. Freedom and beauty have always been closely linked. Without freedom, there is no beauty in the true sense.In this paper, the author takes the historical changes of Chinese women’s aesthetical consciousness as the main line to find an important role which the Chinese women’s education played in the female aesthetics. This thesis argues that beauty is the highest aim of education. In different historical periods, Chinese societies have different value orientation on female’s beauty. The ruling class instilled the standards of beauty in ancient Chinese women through education. However, is this kind of beauty the real beauty? Or it is just the means for the ruling class in patriarchal society to maintain their speaking rights. In ancient feudal society, patriarchal society determines the position of male’s discourse power, which entirely decided the aesthetic value standard of Chinese women. In this case, the aesthetic of ancient Chinese women were in the stage of "beauty imitation", that is to say, they imitated the aesthetic standard established by men to adapt to "beauty". They comply with the enlightenment of "the three obedience and four virtues" and regard humility and compliance as the beauty of female’s virtues. They did not take their dignity as individuals into account, and not to mention the individual development; this "beauty" is the aesthetic values compulsively input by male in dominance through the way of ancient female education and socio-cultural development, which ignored women’s inner heart. The education in this period has no relations to the liberal education which can promote the human’s full development. Also, the beauty of this period is mostly different from the real beauty which comes from female’s inner heart.In the end of Qing dynasty and the beginning of republic of China, with the dramatic social changes and the intrusion of western democratic thoughts, people began to introspect the country itself at the same time of salvation, including the introspection of political system, culture, education and so on. In this period, the evaluation criteria entered the chaotic, tearing and hesitating stage of "beauty reflection" and Chinese people has a fundamental suspicion to Chinese traditional culture. Progressive people and knowledgeable women conducted a thorough critique to traditional female aesthetic values. From the analysis with the mirror effect of psychology, Chinese women in this period were in the stage of "beauty reflection" and begun to examine "what is beauty". They start thinking that the evaluation criteria of beauty infused and given for a long time is the real beauty or not. In this period, the entrance of western liberal democracy and feminism made a new look for Chinese female education and produced a dramatic change. Female education in China undergone a fundamental change from the educational system to educational content, and begun to present diverse ways, not only took the female morality education as the sole content and aim, also not took the inner chambers as the only teaching form. Meanwhile, the church schools for girls had emerged. At this stage, liberal education begun to sprout. The voice of "national mother" became more and more intense. China’s advanced women start reflecting their own inner heart. Their self-awareness began to awake and they start aggressively rebuilding their aesthetic values.Then, the period of revolutionary war and cultural revolution were generated under the strained social situation, which is a period of twisty social ideology. At this stage, the women further "anti-aesthetics" and the road of women’s awakening under strange background is devious and winding. Women’s aesthetics turned into the abnormal stage about "iron lady". Especially in the era of idolatry, chairmen Mao said that times has changed; men and women are in the same, which ignited many females’ passion about taking the male’s power as the only standard of aesthetics. Education at this time produced in the request of era and society to encourage females to be members of revolution or the so-called economic development. Education and aesthetic in this stage is still far from women’s inner demands and the full cultivation of personality, even can be understood as a circuitous downward phase.When female education entered the modern society, with the further democracy and civilization, various values and aesthetic needs coexisted. At this stage, various voices from society telling their own stories. About what is Chinese women’s beauty, they maintained high degree of attention and enthusiasm with criticism, praise, induction, deduction and reconstruction. Overall, in today’s era which put increasing emphasis on individuality and personal independence, the purpose of education went towards the full development and the cultivation of human’s full personality. Liberal education gained more and more attention. Meanwhile, the aesthetic value orientation with strong personality gained more and more tolerance and respect. This various values represent that female has begun to enter the era of "establishing beauty" with the coexistence of subject and object from the ancient traditional identity of pure object. The awareness of Chinese women began to further awaken. They start constructing their own aesthetic criteria consciously or unconsciously with their education background, growing experience, social and cultural comprehension.By this time, girls’school returned after disappearing nearly one hundred years with the eager expectation on reconstruction of traditional female’s aesthetic and traditional values, which comes from the people in education sector and the society. The return of girls’school brought some traditional female curriculum, such as needlework, drama, housekeeping, dance and so on. However, those curriculums are mostly put emphasis on the development of female’s external beauty and some skills and techniques, which has little relations to female’s virtue. And both the awakening of female’s independent consciousness and cultivation of full development are temporarily in the primary stage. But the return of girls’ school can be understood as the efforts made by Chinese women’s education in the road of reconstructing female’s beauty. Such education can be thought as the practice about Huxley’s view of liberal education which is aims to developing civics’education and the quality of vocational education. This article is still more focused on the realization of liberal education which belongs to the mainstream of classical humanism. And to cultivate free man is a main content of classical humanism. So, this is just the beginning, and can also be understood as an accumulating stage that society constructed female’s beauty. Cultural feminism put forward by the end of last century is the developing direction of Chinese women’s aesthetic in future. The cultural feminism attaches great importance to feminine characteristics and thinks that concern, support, tolerance and linking which are represented by the most glorious virtue of women---"motherhood", are the sources of strength to make the development of society become more harmonious and are the valuable and indispensable qualities for the progress of social civilization. Perhaps just as our country is in the primary stage of socialism and will be in this stage for a long time, there is still a long way for this aesthetic era to come. This aesthetic era points to future and symbolizes that Chinese female would possess the real self-esteem and self-confidence which is beyond the beauty. Even though there is still a long time, we have been and certainly would have been on the road.