What do we want from our schools? The most obvious answer is to produce an educated populace. The trouble is, we don't agree on what a good education amounts to. For instance, one person's education is another's indoctrination.
Consider the recent kerfuffle over the signage at George Washington's Philadelphia house. The Trump administration objects to the present signage saying it overemphasizes the role of slaves. The present signage's defenders respond by saying it is an accurate representation that tells the whole story. Take your pick.
To illustrate how much we differ on defining education, here are some competitors:
"Education in virtue ... which makes a man eagerly pursue the ideal perfection of citizenship and teachers how to rightly rule and obey, this is the only education ... which deserves the name." Plato (c. 427-347 B.C.) Greek philosopher and seminal thinker.
"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 is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of nature." Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) British naturalist who helped pioneer evolutionary knowledge.
"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) Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1922 to 1939)
"Education is the acquisition of the art and utilization of knowledge ... . 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 of millions as the dictator of the U.S.S.R.
"Education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race. This process 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 general process, it can only organize it or differentiate it in some particular direction." John Dewey (1859-1952) American philosopher and educator.
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