Word: adler
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Adler's Paideia...
...breath of hope comes from Mortimer Adler [Sept. 6]! What currently passes for an educational system in the United States more nearly resembles a glorified baby-sitting service...
ONLY TWO RESPONSES have shaken free of the admissions mindset: a painstaking program of "expected learning outcomes" developed by schools and colleges through the College Board, and a self-styled "educational manifesto" by the Paideta Group, master-minded by philosopher and Encyclopedia Britannica scholar Mortimer Adler. Neither, though, is likely to get at the roots of the decline of high-school preparation--college or otherwise...
...extreme, Adler's The Paideia Proposal offers an impassioned but simplistic reminder of What Education Is For, Proposing that all high school curricula be revamped into a three-column, 12-year approach, Adler advocates attentive teaching of "acquisition of organized knowledge" (history, languages, science, taught by rote); "development of intellectual skills" (reading, speaking, problem-solving, taught by drill); and "enlarged understanding of ideas and values" (works of art and aesthetic appreciation, taught by Socratic discussion...
...blithe clarion for what he calls the crucial link in education--"highly gifted, strongly motivated teachers"--Adler points up exactly the stumbling block on which previous reform efforts have tumbled. Unfortunately, his scenario is so far in the clouds that it loses all relevance to education's current state. Notes sociologist David Riesman '31, who has taken exception publicly to Paideia's generally positive reception: "Hitching your wagon to a star is one thing, but if the wagon is mired in the mud and the star looks too remote, no one will make the effort to move...