Tag: moral education

Exploring Our Educational Ideals: Following along Gulliver’s Travels

Since its publication in 1726, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift has been a popular read both for its initial audience as well as for generations of readers since. In my most recent reading of this travelog with our Enlightenment Humanities class at Clapham School, I was struck by Swift’s thoughts on education. Excavating the claim he is making about education can be difficult as the book is an overt satire of English literature and society. Yet, the point he is making can stimulate our thinking about education today, particularly as we think about the values inherent in our educational renewal

Continue reading

Educating to Transform Society: The Washington-DuBois Debate

The year was 1895. Two momentous events occurred that year that would lead to a heated rivalry between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. The first event was the death of Frederick Douglass on February 20th of that year. He was the leading black figure of the time, speaking and writing with a level of rhetorical polish that revealed a great mind. Douglass was a towering figure in the social and political environment during the close of the 19th century. As such, his death called forth a new voice that would champion the cause of black suffrage. The

Continue reading
Bloom's Taxonomy

Breaking Down the Bad of Bloom’s: The False Objectivity of Education as a Modern Social Science

In the first two posts of this series (which I am reviving after a 6 months long hiatus) I proposed replacing Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives with Aristotle’s intellectual virtues. The major flaw in Bloom’s taxonomy, which is a hierarchical categorization of educational goals in the cognitive domain, is that it privileges the bare intellect over the heart, like so much of modern education. Even if Bloom and his university examiner colleagues proposed an affective and psychomotor domain as well, and had the modest goal of improving clarity and communication among teachers, curriculum planners and educational researchers, still they codified

Continue reading

“Teach Like a Champion” for the Classical Classroom, Part 1: An Introduction

As classical educators look for tools and resources to strengthen their teaching practices, it can often be difficult to know where to turn. While the classical education renewal movement has led to a resurgence in a fresh vision for the purpose of education and even suggestions toward an ideal curriculum, the movement has not always been clear regarding method. We have the “why” and even the “what,” but the “how” remains uncertain. Some, no doubt, will respond to this critique with raised eyebrows. After all, the movement has unlocked a rich treasure chest full of wisdom and insight from master

Continue reading