Two Large Schools of Thought
 Traditionalism
 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 Thought
 Progressivism
 Looking to the future
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Either to prepare for a predicted future, or
To shape a desired future
Child-Centered Curriculum
Scientific Curriculum-Making
Social Reconstructionism
Essentialism
 There is a body of knowledge that everyone should
have:
 The best of
 Literature
 History
 Mathematics
 Science
 The arts
Essentialism
 Hutchins:
 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
Essentialism
 And 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.
Essentialism
 liberal 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.
Essentialism
 Liberal 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.
Essentialism
 When 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.
Essentialism
 If 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.
Essentialism
 Now, 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.
Essentialism
 In a single simple sentence, what is the purpose of
liberal education/essentialism?
Perennialism
 1.
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
Perennialism
 Moses, e.g.
 I have taught you decrees and laws…. that you may
follow them
 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom
 watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget
 These commandments that I give you today are to be
upon your hearts.
Perennialism
 These 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.
Perennialism
 In a single simple sentence, what is the purpose of
Perennialism?
Child-Centered Curriculum
 1.
children are naturally good
 2. children will naturally learn what they need to
learn, when they need to learn it
 3. the role of the adult is to "stay out of Nature's way"
(G. Stanley Hall)
Child-Centered Curriculum
1. Do away with mandatory teaching. People would get
together if they wanted to learn.
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2. Do away with examinations, grades, and
credits.
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3. The use of self-discovered, self-appropriated
methods of learning.
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4. The removal of traditional teaching methods,
which cause the individual to distrust his own
experiences, and to stifle learning.
Child-Centered Curriculum
 Rogers
 ....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 selfactualizing 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 Curriculum
 Key words:
 Facilitate
 Nurture
Child-Centered Curriculum
 In a single simple sentence, what is the purpose of the
Child-Centered Curriculum?
Scientific Curriculum-Making
 1.
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-Making
 Bobbitt
 "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-Making
 McCambridge
 the 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 Reconstructionism
 1.
capitalism is destructive, of the individual and of
the community
 2. capitalism will eventually lead to the domination
of the many by the few
 3. 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 Reconstructionism
 Later versions of SR:
 Social racial integration through integration of the
schools
 Various versions of multi-culturalism
Social Reconstructionism
 In 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 quo
 If you choose to lead, the question is, Where?
 For educators, the answer to that question comes from
a philosophy of education