EDUCATION: when teachers are left swinging gently in the wind

What do we want from our schools? An educated populace, to be sure, But, the trouble is, we don't agree on what that amounts to. What one person thinks is a good education, another thinks is a bad one. But how much do people disagree? Let's look at some  definitions. See what you think about their compatibility.

 

"Education in virtue ... which makes a man eagerly pursue the ideal perfection of citizenship and teaches how to rightly rule and obey, this is the only education ... which deserves the name." 

Plato (c. 427-347 B.C.) Athenian philosopher and seminal thinker.

"There can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man's last and ... there can be no ideally perfect education which is not Christian education." 

Pius XI (1857-1939) Roman Catholic Pope from 1922 to 1939)

"The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things — the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and genuine rather than the bad and counterfeit." 

Samual Johnson (1709-1784) British lexicographer, essayist and critic.

"Education, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men — the balance wheel of the social machinery." 

Horace Mann (1796-1859) American public education pioneer.

"Education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of nature."  

Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) British naturalist who pioneered evolution theory.

"There is only one subject-matter for education, and that is life in all its manifestations." Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) British philosopher and theoretical mathematician.

"Education is a weapon whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and who is struck with it." 

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) Soviet tyrant and mass murderer.

"Education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race. This begins unconsciously at birth, and is continually shaping the individual's powers, saturating his accomplishments, forming his habits, training his ideas, and arousing his feelings and emotions. ... The most formal and technical education in the world cannot safely depart from this, ...  it can only organize it in some particular direction." John Dewey (1859-1952) American philosopher and educator.

These quotations, a small sampling of the available opinions. And they certainly illustrate the fundamental disagreement that exists concerning what an "education" should amount to. There is an amazing diversity of opinion. And that readily transitions into a similarly wide range of conflicts and controversies. Sure, there is wide agreement that education involves the acquisition of basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic. But even here there is very little agreement regarding how they should be taught — much less the ends these basic skills should serve. 

It is evident that whatever education policy choices we make, they will generate controversy. That is why school officials typically formulate policies that readily reduce to vague generalizations. But even then trouble arises when we attempt to execute any details. Of course this is precisely what classroom teachers inevitably end up doing. The buck stops with them. And whatever the teacher chooses, if it involves anything significant, it will generate significant controversy. And then that happens school higher ups typically scurry for cover and let the teacher swing gently in the wind. 

This is why teachers are prone to water down whatever they teach. They attempt to render it as unobjectionable as possible for self-defense. But then they end up teaching harmless humbug that has little lasting impact on the learner. That's how we end up with graduates untouched by little they "learned" and largely devoid of any critical thinking skills.

What is to be done about any of this? Not much. That's just the way it is. Although smart kids do sometimes learn to think anyway in spite of their formal instruction.