Philosophy of Education

Dr. Childs   Spring 2008 EPhl601     3 credit hours Office: Soc Sci 387  Phone 442-5080 email darthur@albany.edu  Online TEXTS RESOURCES OBJECTIVES READING 'RITING 'RITHMETIC

The School of Athens Raphael Man's mind stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Texts:

Plato - A Guided Tour of Five Works (edited by Christopher Biffle)
Aristotle - A Guided Tour of Selections from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (Biffle)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Emile, or Education (Foxley translation)
John Dewey - The School and Society and The Child and the Curriculum
Nel Noddings -  Philosophy of Education

[plus occasional A-V and handouts )

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Other Useful Resources:

Clarke College hosts this remarkable site, The Last Days of Socrates.
(Portland State has a Plato Site for middle schoolers.)

The Aristotle and Virtue Ethics page at Lawrence Hinman's Ethics Updates is a starting place.

Take a tour of the online home of the Rousseau Association.

Why start at the periphery?  You could begin right at The Center for Dewey Studies .

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Objectives:

Acquaintance with several representative texts in the western philosophical
tradition which have influenced or exemplified major trends in educational thought
Clearer thinking through close study of philosophical writings on education.

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Essays:

The Mid-term essay will a brief (750-1000 word) exercise in simple thesis defense.   Choose a disputable topic you care about and identify a philosophical issue in it.  Clearly state your position and then defend it against the strongest possible objections.

The final essay will be a brief  (750 - 1000 word) treatment of your favorite slogan from Rousseau;  how it illuminates your own work and what our other authors would think of it (and why).

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Evaluation:

Mid-term essay 30%
Final  essay 40%
Active and informed participation in discussions in class and online, 
as well as quizzes or group presentations 30%

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Sequence of Readings
	Unit 1 Introduction Unit 2 Plato  Euthyphro Unit 3 Plato  Apology  & Cave Unit 4 (Noddings Philosophy of Education Chap 1 Aristotle  Ethics I  Unit 5 Aristotle  Ethics  II-III Unit 6 Aristotle   Ethics  VIII-X	Unit 7 Aristotle   Transition to Rousseau Unit 8 Rousseau  Emile Intro &  Books 1 & 2 Unit 9   Rousseau  Emile Books 3 & 4 Unit 10  Rousseau  Emile  Book 5- Conclusion Unit 11 Dewey The School & Society  Unit 12 Dewey The Child & the Curriculum

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