The Paideia Proposal: Rediscovering the Essence of Education

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The Paideia Proposal Rediscovering the Essence
of Education
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Moritmer Adler

• Philosopher and educator
• Founder of the Paideia Proposal (the great
  books seminar and curricula)
• Believes in a universal education for grades K-12
• Prepares students to be critical thinkers and
  life-long learners

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Objectives

• 3 Universal Objectives for Basic Schooling
• Basic schooling needs to provide students with
  the opportunity to fully develop.
• Basic schooling must do everything it can to make
  children good citizens.
• Basic schooling must prepare children to earn a
  living later in life.

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Curriculum of Paideia Proposal

• Basic schooling should involve a 12 year required
  course of study
• The only elective offered to students is a
  foreign language
• Curriculum is organized into 3 columns of
  teaching and learning
• Columns move from the simple to the most complex

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3 Columns

• First Column
• Students are taught using textbooks and manuals
• Students learn information about mature, man, and
  human society
• Second Column
• Teachers coach students
• Students develop habits of performance acquire
  linguistic, mathematical, scientific, and
  historical knowledge
• Third Column
• Teachers use a Socratic method of teaching
• Students gain a better understanding of what they
  already know

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The Quintessential Element

• Quality of Learning
• Active learning, by aided discovery
• Quality of Teaching
• Teachers aid discovery
• Impossible to get enough truly educated human
  beings to be teachers
• Solution?

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Today!

• The National Paideia Center (NPC) was founded in
  1988 at University of North Carolina at
  Greensboro.
• The Guilford County School District in North
  Carolina, 70 out of 97 schools apply the Paideia
  method to their teaching as of 7 years ago.
• Results are mostly positive

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Movie

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vxBMTAJ-1X5U
• The title of the movie on youtube is
  Southwestern University Paideia Program (incase
  the link doesnt work you can search for it)

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Bibliography

• Mortimer, A. (1982). The paideia proposal
  Rediscovering the essence of education. The
  American School Board Journal.
• http//www.unctv.org/paideia/resources.html
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vxBMTAJ-1X5U