A Comparison of Classic And Contemporary Philosophers
Why is it so important that young children in our society receive a good
education? The answer to that question is very simple; because they are our
future. The old saying “the youth of today are the leaders off tomorrow” holds
more truth than many people realize. By giving children a good start at an
early age we are only helping ourselves as well as the children. A good example
of this is can be seen in our society. By the time a teacher in our society
retires from his or her position their students will have made it out into the
real world and taken jobs. This new generation will be the ones to make the
decisions about laws such as Social Security, and Medicaid. The students will
be able to turn these programs around and make them more beneficial to their
recipients. These teachers who are now retired will be the ones who are
collecting Social Security and reaping the benefits of the children’s solid
education. The idea of educating the youth is not even close to a new idea.
Philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau in the seventeen hundreds and even
farther back than that to the time of Plato in three hundred eighty six B.C.
and after. Both of these great men shared similar ideas on how children should
be taught so that they can get the most out of their education. Though
educational philosophy dates back thousands of years, there are still many
great thinkers who are revolutionizing teaching with their philosophies today.
In the later part of the twentieth century there was also Paulo Friere who is
considered by some to be the greatest thinker of his time and also Maxine
Greene who has also greatly changed education in today’s society. Thanks to
these great minds along with many others, modern day education was
revolutionized. Many of the teaching techniques and ideals that are practiced
in the classroom today originated from these philosophers. These four
philosophers though from two very different time periods had some very similar
ideas about education.
Jean Jacques Rousseau said that children are born innocent and pure, and become
contaminated by the world, as they grow older. “Everything is good as it comes
from the hands of the Maker of the world but degenerates once it gets into the
hands of man”. (Cahn 163) This quote shows that Rousseau saw the world as an
imperfect place that corrupted the youth. It was Rousseau’s thinking that it is
imperative to teach children what they need at an early age before they become
corrupted. He said that children are like plants; they need to be nourished and
for them to flourish and thrive. “ Plants are fashioned by cultivation, men by
education”. (Cahn 163) The idea behind this is that children are given a good
foundation from which to start and then there is nothing left that we can do.
Rousseau said that aside from a human teacher people are also taught by nature
and by things. “ The internal development of our faculties and organs is the
education of nature”. (Cahn 163) He said that nature can teach us through
internal growth and development and things teach through how they affect us.
Something else that Rousseau strongly believed in was that the development of a
child couldn’t be rushed in the slightest. He said “let them be children when
they are children, playing games and the like.” Trying to force things on
children would be bad for their development. Rousseau said that children should
be left alone so that they can become more self-reliant, the more that they can
achieve on their own the less they will have to come to others for help with.
This is important because it will promote children to keep on educating
themselves once they are out of school. If children or young adults rely on
themselves they will go out and figure things out on their own instead of
coming back to someone else for help. One other theory that Rousseau had was to
let children learn from experience. He said to avoid verbal lessons if possible
and let children follow what they feel is natural.
One other classic philosopher whose teachings are still used in modern day
classrooms was Plato. Plato’s views on education were centered around an idea
of a perfect society and ideal citizens. Plato felt that children have an
innate desire to learn. He said that people naturally want to find things out
and discover things in the world. “The power and capacity of learning exists in
the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to
light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by
the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that
of being and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being...” (Educational
Philosophy 1) Plato also felt that it was very important to teach mathematics
to his students. He said that mathematics were the best way to train a person
mind. “Let no one unversed in geometry enter here.” (Plato 1) This quote was
written above the entrance to Plato’s school called the Academy. This shows how
strongly Plato felt about math being incorporated into education. Virtue was
also extremely important to Plato’s way of educating his students. He felt that
virtue must be instilled at a very early age so that students will not wander
around but instead act upon their virtue and dedicate themselves to learning. Throughout
Plato’s Meno Socrates and Meno discuss the meaning of virtue and whether it can
or cannot be taught. They come up with several definitions for virtue; each
propose by Meno and rejected by Socrates. “For I shall esteem myself truly
fortunate if I find that I have been mistaken, and that you and Gorgias do
really have this knowledge, when I have been just saying that I have never met
anybody who had.” (Cahn 5)
On the other hand, there are more contemporary philosophers who also have very
interesting views on education. One of those being Paulo Friere whose views has
greatly changed modern pedagogy. One of the main points that Friere makes in
his philosophy is that of the student teacher relationship. Friere says that it
is imperative for students and their teachers to develop a dialogue in the
classroom. It is Paulo Friere’s thinking that students and their teachers must
communicate with each other. He says that teachers must never just talk at
their students. He says that it must be a give and take situation where the
students are given information that makes them think about things and makes
their mind work. “Through dialogue, the teacher-of-students and the
students-of-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with
student-teachers.” (Cahn 466) This shows how Friere thinks that the student
teacher relationship must work in the classroom. The quote also shows that
education never ends and is an ongoing process throughout life. The teacher is
able to learn from the student as well as vice versa because through dialogue
you can share opinions and interpretations, which will vary from person to
person. In this manner you can learn so much more about one particular subject
because every student will have a different opinion or perspective on any given
topic. “Here no one teaches another, nor is anyone self taught. People teach
each other, mediated by the world, by cognizable objects which in banking
education are “owned” by the teacher.” (Cahn 466) One other point that Friere
makes in this excerpt is the way people are treated. He makes the observation
that of “banking”. In this ideal, knowledge is given to students from a teacher
and they receive it and store it as a bank would. Friere says that education
becomes the cat of depositing which only allows students to go as far as the
teacher will take them. “In which the scope of action allowed to the students
extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing deposits.” (Cahn 461)
This shows that this way of teaching is very unfulfilling to students and
doesn’t give much room for dialogue or conversation between the teachers and
the students.
One other contemporary philosopher whose views on education are very
significant is Michael Walzer. Walzer believes that the entire school system
should shut down and started up again in a very different way. In Walzer’s
opinion the school system should be ran on a specialized basis. Walzer says
that there should be specialty schools for individuals that wish to pursue
certain fields. Walzer states that students should feel the desire to go after
what they want in education. “After that, education must be shaped to the
interests and capacities of individual students.” (Cahn 394) Once the core
subjects are taught to students, Walzer says that the particular needs of
students have to be met. “And the schools themselves must be more receptive to
the particular requirements of the workday world.” (Cahn 394) this shows that
Walzer thinks that there needs to be specific schools for certain individuals. It
is important to start education at an early age so that children can begin to
see where their interests lie and what they wish to do with their lives.
Another theory that Walzer had about education was school vouchers. He said
that more schools should be opened so that less fortunate families in the inner
cities can have an opportunity to get a good education. Walzer says that the
vouchers should be distributed to families that cannot afford to pay for
tuition. “A voucher plan for specialized schooling and on-the-job training
would make a lot of sense. But this would not serve to associate children in
accordance with parental preference; it would allow them to follow their own
preferences.” (Cahn 404) This supports Chan’s theory that it is important for children
to make their own decisions about education.
In my opinion all four of these philosophers have very good points towards
education. If what these men stated were applied on a greater scale I think
that teachers would begin to see great improvements in their classrooms. I
fully agree with the main point of what these four philosophers; it is
essential that we reach out to children while they are still very young and
turn them on to learning. Whether you look at it from Rousseau’s point of view
where you have to reach children before they are corrupted; or Walzers point of
view where the children need to begin schooling early so that they can choose
where they want to go in education its all the same. Children must begin their
education early so that they can fully develop. I feel that if learning is
enjoyable to children and it is something that they want to participate in,
that attitude will stick with them throughout their lives and as Plato says
learning will be a continuous growth pattern. One other point that Rousseau
made that I very strongly agree with is that children need to try and figure
things out on their own. Take the example of a child attempting to put a puzzle
together. The child tries to put a square block into a round hole, and obviously
it will not fit. If you simply take the block away from the child and place it
where it belongs then he or she will learn nothing from that experience. If the
child eventually comes to the right conclusion on his or her own they will
learn something and walk away from the experience with valuable knowledge. One
other point that Plato and Friere made was that of conversation in the
classroom. Though Friere called it dialogue and Plato the Socratic method the
point is the same. Having a discussion with the students in class with giving
and taking going on from both parties will be infinitely more beneficial. One
point that Rousseau made that I really don’t agree with is that you are born
with innately good human nature. I think that as you are born and grow from
infancy, you will develop into the person that you are going to be from your
experiences and from what you learn from others. In this manner your education
begins at birth, and continues on throughout your life with every experience
shaping and molding who you are. This is why I agree that is so important to
begin teaching children at an early age and to continue their education until
they have become mature adults. By doing this I think that there is less of a
chance for children to stray off the right path and pick up a different one
that will lead them into trouble.
Overall, I felt that all four of these philosophers had some very interesting
things to say about education. In my opinion many of the ideas that these men
expressed should be incorporated into modern day pedagogy. I think that all of
the philosophers showed that they had a firm grasp on what it takes to give
children a proper education, and to prepare them for the real world. The
approaches that they proposed would give students more of a drive or desire to
learn. In toady’s society school is just a hassle that kids have to put up
with. I think that if children were taught in the way that Plato, Rousseau,
Friere, and Walzer said they should be, our society would be very different.
One other thing that I found interesting about these philosophers is the fact
that they all had very similar philosophies about education even though one
live around 300 B.C. and another in the seventeen hundreds while the other two
in the later part of the twentieth century. I guess that no matter the time
period, its like they always say; “great minds think alike.”
Works Cited
Cahn, Steven M. Classic And Contemporary Readings In The Philosophy of
Education. Apr 20, 2002. McGraw Hill Co. 1997.
“Educational Philosophy”. http://home.pacbell.net/altsch/Philosophy.html. Aug
11, 1999. HotBot.com. Accessed Apr 20,2002.
“Plato”. http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Plato.html
. Jan 1999. Google.com. Accessed Apr 20,2002.