The feeling function and education: Differentiated relationships and ethics of the teacher

Abstract

There are two countering forces that have historically proven an anathema to the individuated personality as educator: First, the historical one-sided embrace of logos as all important in the learning process, and second, the tendency to systematize education into mass-minded institutions. The best intentions of educators are sorely tested by these two forces and need to be considered in any broad reclaiming of the feeling function. Responding to von Franz's challenge, this paper seeks to loosen up some of the cultural bedrock that pushes authentic relation to the sidelines of teacher training programs and to the institutional fringe of alternative education establishments. We need to move beyond the practice of education as a collective recapitulation of one-sided logos and allow eros its place. The pedagogic relationship needs to relate both meaning making and feeling evaluation if the academe is to foster ethical development. The paradox our mass educational institutions face is to support the value of the individual experience and personality collectively, in contrast to its homogenizing management through statistical standards. The balancing restorative is to engender our education communities with relationships that support a degree of autonomy and the individuation of personality.