EDUC 1002 Pioneers and Philosophies of Education Week 1 .docx

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education
Week 1
Classical Thinking in Education
We study the past to help us understand the present and,
hopefully, better the
future. By learning about different philosophies of education
and studying
epistemology, the study of the knowledge acquisition process,
we can improve our
understanding of how human beings learn and better our
chances at becoming
effective teachers both inside and outside the classroom.
To begin our study of the history and philosophy of education,
we first take a look
back on the classical influences of educational theory. The great
ancient Greek
philosophers Plato and Aristotle thought a great deal about
education and its
importance to individuals and society. As you read this week,
think about how our

present system of education has been influenced by the ideas
these seminal
philosophers set forth.
Objectives
By completing this week, you should be able to:
• Recognize the importance of studying the history and
philosophy of
education.
• Identify the major contributions of the targeted philosophers.
• Analyze the impact of targeted philosophers on modern
education.
You’ll know you have successfully completed this week when:
• You can discuss the importance of studying the history and
philosophy of
education.
• You can describe the major contributions of the targeted
philosophers.
Copyright © Laureate Education, Inc.

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• You can assess the impact of targeted philosophers on modern
education.
The Underlying Issues
Why study the history and philosophy of education? What do we
learn from the
past? How did two of the most important classic Greek
philosophers view education
and how have their philosophies impacted modern education?
This week we will
explore possible answers to these questions as we take a closer
look at the
educational philosophies of Plato (c. 427 – 347 BC) and
Aristotle (c. 384 – 322 BC).

As you read this week, keep the following issues in mind:
• Issue #1: Why study the history and philosophy of education?
What can we
learn from the past?
• Issue #2: What were the major contributions of Plato and
Aristotle to the
philosophy of education?
• Issue #3: What impact has each of these philosophers had on
modern
education?
Bust of Plato, Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican Museums,
Vatican State
Plato: Laying the Foundation
of Educational Philosophy
“The most important part of education is proper training in the
nursery.” --Plato
c. 427 BC - Born

c. 399 BC - Socrates executed; Plato began traveling and
writing Socratic dialogues
c. 347 BC - The “first university,” the Academy, opened
c. 360 BC - The Republic
c. 387 BC - Died
Brief Bio
Plato is recognized as one of the most influential figures of
Western philosophical
thought as well as one of the earliest writers on the philosophy
of education. Plato
was born around 427 BC in Athens, Greece, into a well-to-do
family. During his life,
Athens experienced great political and social turmoil. Plato
received a conventional
Athenian education that consisted of instruction in reading,
writing, and computation,
as well as gymnastics (i.e., physical education), music, dancing,
and singing, and
served his obligatory year of military service.
When Plato was 22 he began to study with the philosopher,
Socrates. Socrates
believed that teachers cannot pour knowledge into students but,
instead, lead
students to the knowledge they have within themselves; the task

of the teacher is to
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ask challenging questions that cause students to think critically
and reflectively (the
Socratic method) and the task of students is to critically
examine things and cast off
false beliefs. In 399 BC, Socrates was tried and executed for
impiety to the gods and
corrupting the youth of Athens.
Socrates teachings and death profoundly affected Plato. In fact,
it is likely that
Plato’s association with Socrates prompted Plato to leave

Athens to travel throughout
the lands of the Aegean and Mediterranean beginning in 399
BC. During these
travels Plato studied with Euclid, the great geometry scholar,
and the Pythagoreans,
a group of mathematics scholars. In Sicily he was arrested and
sold into slavery by
Dionysius, the strong city-state’s ruler. Luckily for Plato, his
freedom was purchased
by a friend. Upon his return to Athens around 387 BC, Plato
founded the Academy,
often referred to as the first university. Many of Plato’s works
are attributed to his
time at the Academy, which lasted until his death sometime
around 347 BC.
Major Contributions to Education
The Socratic Method and General vs. Technical Education
Plato’s epistemological theory centered on the existence of
innate ideas and that
the knowledge acquisition process consisted of “reminiscing” or
recalling the store of
knowledge that exists in all human beings. During his travels,
Plato began to write

about his search for knowledge and the truth through dialogues
that employed what
is known today as the Socratic method. The Socratic method
uses a question-and
answer format to discover the truth through the discovery of
that which is not true.
Key principles of the Socratic method are listed below:
• The teacher sets and the student agrees to the topic of
instruction.
• The reasoning process is more important than the student’s
answers.
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• The teacher's questions should expose errors in the student’s
reasoning and
lead the student to the correct reasoning.
In one of Plato’s later dialogues, Protagoras, he uses the voice
of Socrates to

successfully defend the view that a general liberal education is
superior to a technical
education. In the dialogue Socrates contends that while a
technically educated
person may learn useful skills, a generally educated person is
likely to be a more
ethical, and therefore better, human being. The debate between
technical and
general education continues today and Plato’s views reflect the
contemporary
arguments for general education that assert that those who
possess general
knowledge and critical thinking skills are better able to make
informed choices and
decisions.
The First Organized Institute of Learning: The Academy
Upon his return to Athens around 387 BC, Plato founded the
first organized
institute of learning, the Academy. While it is not known if
students were required to
pass an entrance examination, they did undergo a probationary
period during which
they had to demonstrate their intellectual abilities as well as

their dedication to the
pursuit of knowledge. Students at the Academy studied
arithmetic, geometry,
astronomy, and music as a prelude to the study of metaphysics
(the fundamental
nature of reality), epistemology (the origin, nature, and limits of
knowledge), and
axiology (the examination of values). Students were all males,
although Plato would
argue in The Republic, one of his most famous philosophical
works, that women
should have the same educational opportunities.
Education in Plato’s Republic
In his best-known dialogue, The Republic, Plato outlines the
ideal society and
suggests the social, political, and education infrastructure
needed to construct it. In
this treatise, he defines the intimate connection between
education and citizenship,

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by demonstrating the common purpose sociopolitical and
educational institutions
have in maintaining and enhancing the republic. In Plato’s
utopia, people were
divided into three classes depending not on wealth but on
intellectual ability: the
guardians or philosopher-kings, the policy makers consisting of
the most
intellectually advanced; the defenders, members of the armed
forces consisting of
the strongest and the bravest; and the workers, the lowest class
consisting of those
best suited to the production of goods and services.
In Plato’s view, the education process would begin at a young
age. Early
education was crucial since the attitudes of later life were
formed in the early years.
State nurseries would provide a pure environment that would
serve the following
functions:

• Cultivate habits and dispositions supportive of life in the
republic.
• Provide a curriculum of stories, music, games, and drama that
would be
models of the good life.
• Begin to identify those with superior intellectual talents.
From the state nurseries, children would go on to attend schools
where the
curriculum consisted of music to help create the proper moral
spirit; literature to
help inspire desired character formation; mathematics to
develop abstract reasoning
abilities; and gymnastics to promote healthy physical and
emotional development.
After this primary schooling, most students would enter the
economic sector and aid
in the production of goods and services. Those with higher
intellectual and physical
strength would continue with two years of military training.
Some would then
become defenders and others, the most promising group
intellectually, would
continue their education in preparation for their roles as
guardians or philosopher-

kings. These guardians would study for 10 more years,
combining the pursuit of
mathematical and philosophical knowledge, after which some
would assume state
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administrative and educational responsibilities. The cream of
the crop would study
metaphysics, or the fundamental concepts, beliefs, and nature of
reality, for five
more years before beginning to minister and supervise state
affairs. After 15 years of
service, members of this elite group would be eligible, at the
age of 50, to become
part of the highest policy and decision makers.
In His Own Words
In Book VII of The Republic, Plato drew a distinction between

knowledge and
opinion and showed the difficulty and the rewards of
recognizing this distinction. As
you read the Allegory of the Cave, think about what other
points Plato makes in this
dialogue.
Sculpture of Artistotle, Rome, Thermenmusuem
Aristotle: Building on the Foundations
of Educational Philosophy
“Education is the best provision for old age.” --Aristotle
c. 384 BC - Born
c. 367 BC - Opened his school, the Lyceum
c. 343 BC - Began tutoring Alexander the Great
c. 336 BC - Began studies at the Academy with Plato
c. 322 BC - Died
Brief Bio
Aristotle was a student of Plato’s and the third in a successive

line of great Greek
philosophers that began with Socrates. Aristotle was born
around 384 BC, the son of
the court physician in Macedonia, a kingdom in northern
Greece. He was intrigued by
his father’s collection of scientific specimens and sought to
catalogue and categorize
items from the natural world at a young age.
When he was 17, Aristotle left for Athens to study with Plato.
During the nearly
20 years that Aristotle spent at the Academy, he developed his
own views of reality
and knowledge. Whereas Plato saw reality as nonmaterial and
knowledge inbred,
Aristotle viewed reality as composed of matter and form and
knowledge founded in
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experience. After Plato’s death around 347 BC, Aristotle began
an educational tour of
Asia minor (roughly modern-day Turkey) during which he
studied political
institutions, social customs, and plant and animal life.
Around 343 BC, Aristotle returned to Macedonia to tutor King
Philip’s son, the
future conquerer Alexander the Great. When Alexander became
king seven years
later, Aristotle returned to Athens and opened his own school,
the Lyceum, where he
taught and continued his research. Although relations with
Alexander eventually
became strained, Aristotle enjoyed a prestigious reputation until
the year before his
death when he was charged, like Socrates, with impiety. Soon
after, he left Athens
and spent the last year of his life on the Greek island of Euboea.

Major Contributions to Education
Aristotle’s School: the Lyceum
As we have mentioned, when Alexander became king around
336 BC, Aristotle
returned to Athens and opened a school of higher education, the
Lyceum. Alexander
endowed the Lyceum with plant and animal specimens from his
travels as well as a
great deal of money. This endowment enabled Aristotle to
establish the world’s first
zoo and first botanical garden. The Lyceum also became the site
of a great library.
Students at the Lyceum organized and ruled themselves and
administrative
duties rotated among students. They pursued the study of the
natural sciences,
politics, metaphysics, and ethics and were assigned tasks
involving historical or
scientific research. This research, as well as Aristotle’s own
scientific observations,
would constitute a large part of the world’s core of scientific
knowledge for centuries
to come.

Philosophy of Education in Aristotle’s Works
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Because only fragments remain of Aristotle’s treatise on
education, we must turn
to his other works to get an idea of his views. In Aristotle’s
philosophy, the point of
life is the pursuit of happiness. In one of his most famous
works, Nichomachean
Ethics, Aristotle states that virtuous activities are what
constitute happiness and that
there are two categories of virtue: intellectual and moral.
Intellectual virtue is
acquired through reason and requires experience and time, while
moral virtue comes
about as a result of habit. In other words, he promotes what
today we call active

learning, or learning by doing. “For the things we have to learn
before we can do
them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by
building and lyre
players by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just
acts, temperate by
doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”1
In another of his famous works, Politics, Aristotle emphasizes
the importance of
education to the stability of the state, “But of all the things
which I have mentioned
that which most contributes to the permanence of constitutions
is the adaptation of
education . . . The best laws, though sanctioned by every citizen
of the state, will be
of no avail unless the young are trained by habit and education
in the spirit of the
constitution . . .”2 Although Aristotle believed in a system of
public education, it
appears that he believed this system should mainly serve male
children of the higher
classes.
The Education System According to Aristotle

According to Aristotle, education should avoid extremes and
excesses and should
be limited to what is appropriate for the student, taking into
account his age,
character, and abilities. In Aristotle’s system, education would
be supervised by the
1 Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, by Aristotle as translated by
W.D. Ross
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.2.ii.html
2 Politics, Book V, by Aristotle as translated by Benjamin
Jowett
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.5.five.html
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state and divided into three stages: primary schooling,
secondary schooling, and
higher education.
• Primary school: Children ages 7 to 14 would receive
instruction in

gymnastics to develop coordination, grace, and courage; literacy
to provide
the skills needed for further study; music, including poetry,
literature, and
drama; arithmetic; and drawing.
• Secondary school: Young men from the ages of 14 to 21 would
continue
the study of music as described above; be instructed in the
sources of Greek
culture and civics; and be trained in military drill, tactics, and
strategy.
• Higher education: Higher education would begin at age 21 and
continue for
as long as a student is interested and capable of pursuing
abstract study;
would stress the liberal arts and sciences which promote critical
thinking
skills that lead to the support of rational choices; and, thus,
would serve as a
training ground for the future leaders of the state.
In His Own Words
In Book VIII of Politics, Aristotle defines his views on the

necessity for state
sponsored education. As you read Chapters I-III, think about
what other points
Aristotle makes regarding education.

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