Existentialism in Education

What is Existentialism? "Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the subjectivity of human experience" (123). In other words each person is a subject to their own reality and no two realities are ever the same. The key to existentialism is that each person uses their individual creativity and personal choice in their lives. The quote I liked from McNergney was, "We owe our existence to nature, but we define ourselves through our actions" (123). I really liked the last part of this quote: we define ourselves through out actions. Actions speak louder than words, and what we do, not what we say shows what type of character we have and what type of person we are. Choice is the key concept for existentialism. Everyone choses who they want to be, who they will be and what type of life they want. Those who allow others to choose for them even make a choice to do that. Existentialists believe that we make decisions based on what we believe is right for us and we need to take responsibility for our actions. We should never make a decision or do something because someone told us to. Lastly existentialists believe that by choosing the direction we take our lives in, we show that we value our freedom to chose and we want everyone to have that freedom.
I think that existentialism is a great philosophy to use in education. It teaches good morals to have and if you start teaching that at a young age, the students will grow up to have a good way of thinking. Students must learn that they should exercise our freedom to chose to make good choices for themselves and for the rest of their lives. Part of growing up is learning to take responsibility for your actions and for many people that is extremely difficult to do. We need to teach students at a young age that their actions define who they are as people and their character and their person is judged by what actions they make.