Educational Theorists
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Along with the development of educational institutions, there have appeared from time to time educational philosophers and theorists who have had an influence upon the course of education, through their criticisms of existing practices and their suggestions of new types of organization which should be set up. Different philosophies predispose educational theorists to structure or restructure education in specific directions, and the ebb and flow of educational philosophy continues. A discussion of the underpinnings of modern educational thinking in relation to philosophies such as idealism, realism, Thomism, and pragmatism will be discussed, beginning with Aristotle's (384-322 B.C.) and Plato's (429-347 B.C.) views on the educated citizen, and ending with John Dewey's (1859-1952) progressive reforms of the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries.Plato wrote on philosophy, on social subjects, and on government, developing a general theory of the state. This theory distinguished between the different classes of society, and defended the general position, borrowed from Socrates (469-399 B.C.), that knowledge and clear thinking are the only possible bases of good conduct (essential to the state). The fact that an individual might think clearly about social matters and yet still remain unjust provides a flaw in Plato's system. Even so, Plato emphasized very explicitly the relation between logic (gained by studying four essential subjects) and action (being a good citizen o
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ents of philosophical thinking in the U.S., partly because it is religious rather than secular in nature, and partly because "Catholic scholars have had to turn to Europe in order to get into contact with their intellectual traditions" (Ferm, 1950, p. 467). One other comment on Thomism is in order. As Anthony Kenny (1994) notes, "Since the state is natural, in Aquinas' sense of being a part of God's purposes for man, it is independent of the church, and the church should not interfere with the exercise of temporal power" (p. 301). What if a tyrant should choose to govern, or set up a system of church-state schools which seek to indoctrinate all in the one true belief--that of Christianity? What education will Jewish people receive, then? What education will Buddhist people receive? The list could go on in the same fashion. Thomism as an educational philosophy is not compatible with the separation of church and state (despite Saint Thomas' assertion that the church should not interfere with the temporal authority of the state), and for this reason is largely irrelevant to current educational debate.
Realism, or the doctrine that the objects of our senses exist independently of their being experienced, is a philosophical orie
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Approximate Word count = 3102
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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