Tag: Aristotle

Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 2: A Pedagogy of Craft

In my previous article in this series on Aristotle’s intellectual virtues, I discussed the general nature of artistry or craftsmanship under the heading of apprenticeship. Aristotle’s virtue of techne, often translated ‘art’, points to our human capacity to make things, to produce things in the world. Words like ‘artistry’ or ‘craftsmanship’ help to convey in English the focus on a person’s trained ability to produce something. We noted that such abilities are trained through an apprenticeship process, rather than a simple knowledge-transfer approach. If a person desires to cultivate their ability to sing or paint beautifully, they rarely do so

Continue reading
Discussion Group at the Educational Renaissance Symposium August 4, 2021

The Educational Renaissance Symposium 2021: A Digest

On Wednesday, August 4th we had our first annual Educational Renaissance Symposium hosted by Coram Deo Academy in Carmel, Indiana. It was exciting to welcome over sixty participants who heard keynote addresses from Educational Renaissance authors as well as attended great workshops by a variety of guests. The Symposium is a different kind of convention, intentionally small and focused on pedagogical practices. This means our keynote addresses, for instance, while aiming to be inspirational emphasize pedagogy. Breakout session then aim to apply ideas, which then lead to small group discussions during which participants can consider practices within their particular school

Continue reading

The Value of Objective Value: C. S. Lewis on Renewing Education

No matter what age you or your children are, I highly recommend The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis for summer reading. They are lighthearted yet full of depth. I am reading aloud The Silver Chair, the fourth book in the seven-book series. For those who know the general contours of the series, this book sees Eustace Scrubb return to Narnia accompanied by his classmate Jill Pole. It is a rescue mission, attempting to free Prince Rilian from the clutches of the Emerald Witch. I am reading it aloud with my son this summer. I was struck on this

Continue reading

Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 1: Traditions and Divisions

The previous two articles have paved the way both for our discussion of Aristotle’s intellectual virtue of techne, artistry or craftsmanship, as well as the intellectual virtue of phronesis, practical wisdom or prudence. In a strict sense, the analogy between artistry and morality is aside from our central argument, which consists in working out the implications of each of Aristotle’s five intellectual virtues as educational goals for school, curriculum, classroom, and pedagogy. The moral virtues are therefore outside the purview of our main purpose, even if they are organically connected to phronesis or practical wisdom. In addition, the moral virtues’

Continue reading

Practicing in the Dark or the Day: Well-worn Paths or Bushwalking, Artistry and Moral Virtue Continued

In my last article we explored the analogy between Aristotle’s intellectual virtue of artistry or craftsmanship (Greek: techne) and moral virtue, taking our cue from the Nicomachean Ethics book II. Along the way we discovered the foundation for these two types of excellence in habit development or the neural networks of the brain. Excellence, according to Aristotle, comes by the type of practice or exercise that works along the lines of nature. The modern Copernican revolution of neurobiology confirms this thesis by revealing the role of myelin, a white fatty substance that is wrapped around neural circuits that fire together.

Continue reading

Moral Virtue and the Intellectual Virtue of Artistry or Craftsmanship

It might seem strange after the paradigm delineated above to focus our attention back on intellectual virtues alone, just after arguing for the holistic Christian purpose of education: the cultivation of moral, intellectual and spiritual virtues. But it is impossible to do everything in a single series or book. The cultivation of moral virtues requires a book of its own, at the very least, and the same can be said of spiritual virtues. And there have in fact been many authors that have treated these subjects admirably, even if they have not always traced their practical implications for teaching methods,

Continue reading
Aristotle close-up as famously portrayed by Raphael with arm stretched forward indicating his engagement in the human world of moral excellence, virtue and habits

Aristotle’s Virtue Theory and a Christian Purpose of Education

Up till now in this series I have evaluated Bloom’s taxonomy and mostly used Aristotle’s intellectual virtues as a foil in my critique. And so while I have, to a certain extent, defined and described Aristotle’s five intellectual virtues, alongside offering an outline snapshot of a classical Christian educational paradigm based on them, my explanations have been mostly ad hoc, more to tantalize than to contextualize and fully explain.  This has been a deliberate rhetorical and pedagogical move: an attempt to begin with what is near at hand and understood by modern educators, before exposing its weaknesses and proposing a

Continue reading

What Bloom’s Left Out: A Comparison with Aristotle’s Intellectual Virtues

In the last three articles in this series, I laid out the good, the bad and the ugly of Bloom’s Taxonomy. After the last two posts it is perhaps worth reaffirming the value of Bloom’s project. While I ultimately believe that Bloom and his colleagues may have done more harm than good, I do affirm the importance of clear objectives in education. The clarity and focus of their project, which raised the issue of teaching objectives in a unique way in the history of education, leaves a real and positive inheritance to the discipline. Moreover, I am convinced that where

Continue reading

Human Development, Part 1: What Do You Have in Mind?

A sound pedagogy requires a good understanding of anthropology (the study of human beings including our nature, our biology, our behavior and our social patterns) and of epistemology (the study of the nature of knowledge and how humans experience and acquire knowledge). One way these key areas of study (anthropology and epistemology) converge pertains to the development of children. We have a general understanding of the child as a small and vulnerable human being that undergoes tremendous transformations from birth to adulthood. Considerable philosophical, psychological and scientific work has been done to help us gain a clear understanding of the

Continue reading