Customer Reviews

The Aims of Education and Other Essays

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Although most of these essay were written over eight decades ago, I found them to be extremely timely, especially the title essay. Whitehead shoots straight. He begins by stating that most teachers transmit "inert" ideas in their practice--they teach material that has to practicable bearing on providing any meaningful help to students.

He identifies three different stages or rhythms in educational methodology that happen in tandem and in rotation (I visualize a geocentric universe filled with epicycles of rotating moons and planets to illustrate the layers and rings of motion in teaching). He bases these stages on Hegel's Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis, but he adapts them to the classroom and human learning. He calls these rhythms Romance, Precision, and Generalization. In Romance, the teacher needs to awake the sense of wonder and curiosity in a student's mind. This will provide the impetus to pursue the learning to the next stage: Precision. In the second stage, the student studies by drill and repetition the formulae, rules, and grammars that build upon a thorough knowledge of a filed. In the third stage, Whitehead declares that the student needs to move into a realm of Generaliztion. In this rhythm, the student makes connections, applications, and full, mature usage of the material and ideas.

I wish more teachers and teachers interested in developing their pedagogical methodolgy would take the time to read this short masterful book.

The university that accepted me into its six-year medicine program required that I read this (and other) book(s) during the summer before entering their program.

It changed my life! It helped me to think about what I wanted to get out of formal education, how I wanted to develop my own mind through the rest of my life, and how to choose education that serves my objectives. This book made me a more knowledegeable consumer and user of education.

Whitehead's essays are timeless. For the reader who instinctively feels that learning must be meaningful to be of value, Whitehead is a must read. This book is well suited to curriculum designers and/or instructors who feel strongly about including experiential activities. Whitehead's insights would be especially useful for decision-makers/sponsors of learning who must demonstrate a positive return on their investment. The first-time reader will have to overcome a sense of frustration that Whitehead's keen observations are as applicable today as when they were written nearly seventy years ago.

The highlight of this book is chapter 9 as he discusses ontology, i.e., the nature of what truly exists. He talks about the present as always changing into the past and the future. In other words, the present isn't really present. To illustrate how change occurs he mentions a piece of meat as it is cooking. If left unattended, when will the meat cease to be meat?

In places he gets bogged down in jargon and complexity. He starts by discussing education in general, noting that in addition to English, a student should study French and Latin, that certain things can only be known though the original tongue of the author. Overall this is an insightful collection of essays.

This book is as fresh and usefull as it was 50 years ago when I first read it. The summary of this book, that is Whitehead's concept of the message to be received from the writing, is the first line of the book. Dr. Whitehead assures us the purpose of education is to enrich life and "scraps of information have nothing to do with it." This magnificent book belongs on the shelf of every person who is interested in education of mankind throughout life. We are fortunate to have been blessed by this scholar and humanist.

Whitehead makes some good general points, then a few more specific remarks including a quite interesting defence of the study of classics and a sketchy outline of a mathematics curricula (sensible but rather boring and far from revolutionary: de-emphasise technicalities, skip addition formulae in intro. trig., etc.), then there are three chapters on various aspects of logic and science that have nothing to do with education. Now I quote some highlights. "The fading of ideals is sad evidence of the defeat of human endeavour. In the schools of antiquity philosophers aspired to impart wisdom, in modern colleges our humbler aim is to teach subjects. ... I am not maintaining that in the practice of education the ancients were more successful than ourselves. ... But when ideals have sunk to the level of practice, the result is stagnation." (p. 29). "The mind is never passive ... You cannot postpone its life until you have sharpened it. Whatever interest attaches to your subject-matter must be evoked here and now; whatever powers you are strengthening in the pupil, must be exercised here and now; whatever possibilities of mental life your teaching should impart, must be exhibited here and now. That is the golden rule of education, and a very difficult rule to follow." (p. 6). "The love of a subject in itself and for itself ... is the love of style as manifested in that study. ... Style, in its finest sense, is the last acquirement of the educated mind; it is also the most useful. It pervades the whole being. The administrator with a sense for style hates waste; the engineer with a sense for style economises his material; the artisan with a sense for style prefers good work. Style is the ultimate morality of mind." (p. 12). This last point is relevant for Whitehead's justification for the study of classics, along with "the vision of Rome" (p. 69).