What is “Education”?

Two Large Schools of ThoughtTraditionalism

Looking to the past for content and for guidance

Can be intellectual (see Hutchins, Maritain, McCambridge): Essentialism

Can be religious or philosophical or political (see Moses): Perennialism

Two Large Schools of ThoughtProgressivism

Looking to the future Either to prepare for a predicted future, or To shape a desired future Child-Centered Curriculum Scientific Curriculum-Making Social Reconstructionism

EssentialismThere is a body of knowledge that everyone

should have:The best of

Literature History Mathematics Science The arts

EssentialismHutchins:The countries of the West appear determined

to become industrial, scientific, and democratic. There have never been countries that were industrial, democratic, and scientific before....(so) the experience of earlier societies would be of little use to us in solving the problems of education

EssentialismAnd yet there has always been an education

that has been regarded as the best for the best. It has been regarded as the education for those who were to rule the state and for those who had leisure.

In the West, this education has gone by the name of liberal education. It has consisted of the liberal arts, the arts of reading, writing, listening, speaking, and figuring, and of the intellectual and artistic tradition that we inherit.

Essentialismliberal education conformed to…the

conception of man as a rational animal, an animal who seeks and attains his highest felicity through the exercise and perfection of his reason

Liberal education was characteristically western, because it assumed that everything was to be discussed. Liberal education aimed at the continuation of the dialogue that was the heart of western civilization. Western civilization is the civilization of the dialogue.

EssentialismLiberal education was the education of

rulers. It was the education of those who had leisure. Democracy and industry, far from making liberal education irrelevant, make it indispensable and possible for all the people. Democracy makes every man a ruler, for the heart of democracy is universal suffrage.

EssentialismWhen I urge liberal education for all, I am not

suggesting that all the people must become great philosophers, historians, scientists, or artists. I am saying that they should know how to read, write, and figure and that they should understand the great philosophers, historians, scientists, and artists. This does not seem to me an unattainable goal.

EssentialismIf it is, unless some better kind of liberal

education can be invented than the one that I have described, we shall be forced to abandon universal suffrage; for I do not believe that men can solve the problems raised by their own aggregation unless they learn to think for themselves about the fundamental issues of human life and organized society.

Essentialism....it will be argued that a program of liberal

education for all ignores the most important thing about men, and that is that they are different. I do not ignore it; I deny it. I do not deny that fact of individual differences; I deny that it is the most important fact about men or the one on which an educational system should be erected.

Men are different. They are also the same. And at least in the present state of civilization the respects in which they are the same are more important than those in which they are different.

EssentialismNow, if ever, we need an education that is

designed to bring out our common humanity rather than to indulge our individuality....In a modern, industrial, scientific democracy every man has the responsibility of a ruler and every man has the leisure to make the most of himself. What the modern, industrial, scientific democracy requires is wisdom. The aim of liberal education is wisdom. Every man has the duty and every man must have the chance to become as wise as he can.

EssentialismIn a single simple sentence, what is the

purpose of liberal education/essentialism?

Perennialism1.    there is a body of moral and ethical

beliefs that everyone should have 2.    there is a set of virtues that everyone

should practice 3.    we know what these beliefs and virtues

are 4.    schools should inculcate these beliefs

and encourage these virtues

PerennialismMoses, e.g.I have taught you decrees and laws…. that

you may follow themObserve them carefully, for this will show

your wisdomwatch yourselves closely so that you do not

forgetThese commandments that I give you today

are to be upon your hearts.

PerennialismThese commandments that I give you today

are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and

when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

PerennialismIn a single simple sentence, what is the

purpose of Perennialism?

Child-Centered Curriculum1.    children are naturally good2.    children will naturally learn what they

need to learn, when they need to learn it3.    the role of the adult is to "stay out of

Nature's way" (G. Stanley Hall)

Child-Centered Curriculum1.    Do away with mandatory teaching. People

would get together if they wanted to learn.        2.    Do away with examinations, grades,

and credits.        3.    The use of self-discovered, self-

appropriated methods of learning.        4.    The removal of traditional teaching

methods, which cause the individual to distrust his own experiences, and to stifle learning.

Child-Centered CurriculumRogers....the task of the teacher is to create a facilitating

classroom climate in which significant learning can take place.

(The teacher's) basic reliance would be upon the self-actualizing tendency in his students. The hypothesis upon which he would build is that students who are in real contact with life problems wish to learn, want to grow, seek to find out, hope to master, desire to create. He would see his function as that of developing such a personal relationship with his students, and such a climate in his class room, that these natural tendencies would come to their fruition.

Child-Centered CurriculumKey words:

FacilitateNurture

Child-Centered CurriculumIn a single simple sentence, what is the

purpose of the Child-Centered Curriculum?

Scientific Curriculum-Making1.    school is preparation for adult life 2.   

school should be direct preparation for adult life

3.    scientific means should be used to determine the activities of adult life

4.    school curricula should be "made" on the basis of these scientific findings

Scientific Curriculum-MakingBobbitt"Education is primarily of interest to

adulthood, not to childhood. We simply utilize childhood as the time of preparing for the fifty years of adulthood.“

Dewey on SC-C: "the constant impression that nothing is worth doing in itself, but only as a preparation for something else, which in turn in only getting ready for some genuinely serious end beyond….

Scientific Curriculum-MakingMcCambridgethe real goal….was a modification of the state

of things only to the point that would preserve the status quo from the dangers posed by the oligarchy and the mob

Social Reconstructionism1.    capitalism is destructive, of the

individual and of the community2.    capitalism will eventually lead to the

domination of the many by the few3.    schools indoctrinate in something

anyway; therefore, schools should indoctrinate students into a belief in collectivism and cooperation,rather than a belief in capitalism and competition.

Social ReconstructionismLater versions of SR:

Social racial integration through integration of the schools

Various versions of multi-culturalism

Social ReconstructionismIn a single simple sentence, what is the

purpose of Social Reconstructionism?

Philosophy of Education and Educational Leadership“Leadership” necessarily implies taking a

group of people someplace specific“Management” means maintaining the status

quoIf you choose to lead, the question is, Where?For educators, the answer to that question

comes from a philosophy of education