Philosophy 249

Philosophy of Education

Block 2 (2005-2006)

Jonathan Lee

 

 

Texts

 

 

Plato.  Five Dialogues.  Translated by G. M. A. Grube; revised by John M. Cooper.  2d ed.  Indianapolis:  Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2002.

 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  Emile, or On Education.  Introduction, translation, and notes by Allan Bloom.  New York:  Basic Books, Inc., 1979.

 

Amos Bronson Alcott.  How Like An Angel Came I Down:  Conversations with Children on the Gospels.  Recorded by Elizabeth Peabody; edited and introduced by Alice O. Howell; foreword by Stephen Mitchell.  Hudson, NY:  Lindisfarne Books, 1991.

 

John Dewey.  Experience and Education.  New York:  Touchstone, 1997.

 

Bell Hooks.  Teaching to Transgress:  Education as the Practice of Freedom.  New York:  Routledge, 1994.

 

Krishnamurti.  Education and the Significance of Life.  New York:  Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1953.

 

 

           

 

Graded Work

 

 

Each day for which there is an assigned reading, I would like you to hand in a paragraph in which you ask the single question that seems most important to you in the reading.  These paragraphs should not only articulate your question but should show why this is an interesting and important question.  These fourteen question-paragraphs will count 30% of the final grade for the course.

 

Twice each week for the first three weeks of the course, I would like you to write a two-to-three page paper in which you begin with your question-paragraph for the day and then develop a creative, critical answer to this question, taking into account both the readings for the course and your own life-experience.  Explore your own philosophical voice, and try not to be afraid of intellectual experimentation.  If reading an author inspires you to write about things or texts with which we are not working together in class, please donŐt hesitate to go ahead and do this:  a central goal of the course is to nurture ways of philosophical thinking and writing that go beyond the confines of the classroom.  These six creative, critical essays will count as 30% of the final grade for the course.

 

I would like each of you to be responsible for teaching two half-hours in the course of the block, once in the first two weeks and again in the final week-and-a-half.  This is an opportunity to experiment with a variety of teaching styles and approaches, and it should guarantee that everyoneŐs voice helps shape the form and the content of our course.  On the day you teach, you should hand in a brief outline of what you hope to accomplish in class that day; on the day after you teach, you should hand in a one-to-two page, informal essay in which you evaluate the success of your teaching day.  These two teaching experiences will count as 20% of the final grade for the course, and we will decide as a class how best to grade them.

 

Finally, I would like you to write a more formal essay of no more than five pages in which you articulate your own philosophy of education and situate your ideas in the intellectual context of our course.  This final essay will be due at noon on Wednesday, 26 October, and will count 20% of the final grade for the course.

 

Class participation is essential for the success of a philosophy course.  Active participation in class discussion can only raise your final grade; unexcused absence from class will lower your final grade.

 

           

 

 

Office Hours

 

 

            Monday through Thursday                             1:30-3:00

 

            Armstrong Hall 138.

            Office phone:  6860.

            Home phone:  686-9630 (before 9:00 p.m., please).

            e-mail:  jlee@ColoradoCollege.edu

 

            In addition to these regular hours, I will be glad to make special appointments for almost any time, any day of the week.  Please do not hesitate to come see me for any reason at all:  if you have any problems, questions, or difficulties, or if you just want to talk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readings

 

 

October          3          Introduction to the course.

4               Plato, Apology (pp. 21-44).

5               Meno (pp. 58-92).

6               Rousseau, Emile, Preface and Book I (pp. 33-74).

7               Emile, Book II (pp. 77-124).

 

 

10            Emile, Book II (pp. 124-163).

11            Emile, Book III (pp. 165-208).

12            Alcott, How Like An Angel Came I Down,  General Maxims, Original EditorŐs Preface, and Conversations I-IX (pp. 317-323 and 1-80).

13            How Like An Angel, any five conversations from X on.

14            No class.

 

 

 

17            Dewey, Experience and Education, Preface and Chapters 1-3 (pp. 5-6 and 17-50).

18            Experience and Education, Chapters 4-8 (pp. 51-91).

19            Hooks, Teaching to Transgress, Introduction, Chapters 1-2, and 4 (pp. 1-34 and 45-58).

20            Teaching to Transgress, Chapters 7-8 and 11-14 (pp. 93-118 and 167-207).

21            Jorgen Leth and Lars Von Trier, The Five Obstructions.  Film and class discussion.

 

 

24            Krishnamurti, Education and the Significance of Life, Chapters I-III (pp. 9-66)

25            Education and the Significance of Life, Chapters IV-VIII (pp. 67-125)

26            Final meeting.