The Paideia Proposal: Rediscovering the Essence of Education

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The Paideia Proposal
Rediscovering the Essence of Education
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Intro

• Paideia Proposal- is the principal of equal
  educational opportunities, which includes the
  suggestion that inequalities due to environmental
  factors must be overcome by some form of
  preschool preparation.
• Meaning- the compulsory schooling of 12 years may
  be 13, 14, or 15 years.

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The Essentials of Basic Schooling

• On all tracks in our current multi-track system,
  we fail to cultivate proficiency in the common
  tasks of learning and fail to develop
  sufficiently the indispensable skills of learning
• The uniform objectives of basic schooling should
  be threefold that correspond to the children of
  the future.

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Which are

• (1) Our society provides all children ample
  opportunity for personal development.
• Meaning- basic schooling must help each
  individual make the most of himself/herself and
  his/her life.

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• (2) All the children will become, when of age,
  full-fledged citizens with suffrage and other
  political responsibilities.
• Meaning- basic schooling must do every thing to
  make them good citizens.

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• (3) When they are grown, all of the children will
  engage in some form of work to earn a living.
• Meaning- basic schooling must prepare them for
  earning a living.

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• In its final form, the Paideia Proposal will
  detail a required course of study, which consists
  of three main columns of teaching and learning,
  running through the 12 years and progressing from
  simple to more complex, from less difficult to
  more difficult, as the students grow older.

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Column One

• The first column is devoted to acquiring
  knowledge in three subject areas (A) language,
  literature, and the fine arts (B) natural
  science and mathematics (C) history, geography,
  and social studies.

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Column Two

• The second column is devoted to developing the
  intellectual skills of learning. These include
  language skills, scientific and mathematical
  skills, and liberal art skills.

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Column Three

• The third column is devoted to enlarging the
  understanding of ideas and values, which include
  books of every variety- historical, scientific,
  and philosophical.

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The Quintessential Element

• The matter is the quality of learning and the
  quality of teaching that occupies the school day,
  not to mention the quality of the homework after
  school.

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• Learning must be active
• Meaning- it must use the whole mind and learn by
  discovery
• Teachers come in- as aids in the students
  process of learning discovery

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Alder raised 2 questions

• (1) How and where will we get the teachers who
  can perform as teachers should?
• (2) How will we be able to staff the program with
  teachers so trained that they will be competent
  to provide the quality of instruction required
  for the quality of learning desired?

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Answers.

• (1) We cannot get the teachers we need for the
  Paideia program from schools of education as they
  are now constituted. The ideal would be to ask
  for teachers who are, themselves, truly educated
  human beings.
• (2)They should have the same kind of basic
  schooling, have an additional schooling at the
  college level, have experience in the training of
  physicians, and must know how to teach well by
  being exposed to the performances of those who
  are masters of the arts involved in teaching.

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• The Paideia Proposal recognizes the need for
  three different kinds of institutions at the
  collegiate level
• two-year community or junior college
• four-year college
• four-year college- in which general, liberal
  learning at a higher level constitutes a required
  course of study that is to be taken by all
  students.

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The Future of Our Free Institutions

• Safeguard the future of our free institutions
• they may not survive, unless we do something to
  rescue our schools from their current deplorable
  deterioration.
• we face urgent problems the threat of nuclear
  war, the exhaustion of essential resources and of
  supplies of energy, and employment
• to solve these problems, we need resourceful and
  innovative leadership. Those who are not schooled
  to enjoy society can only despoil its
  institutions and corrupt themselves.

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• Thank You for your time.