Being &Hellip; A Philosophy of Education
by Propelling the need an intellectual system of education are the increasingly integrated world community and the social breakdowns occurring within it. I propose an education system that promotes an understanding of who we are and why we are here, a system that affirms human identity and gives meaning to learning. To translate philosophy into reality, I further propose areas of endeavor that would involve everyone in this system.
Propelling the need an intellectual system of education are the increasingly integrated world community and the social breakdowns occurring within it. I propose an education system that promotes an understanding of who we are and why we are here, a system that affirms human identity and gives meaning to learning. To translate philosophy into reality, I further propose areas of endeavor that would involve everyone in this system.
Symptoms a system in disarray
The current problems of education I describe are within the United States, but the rest of the world contemplating following the US should take heed. If we argue that education should engender a core of social values directed to shape a future for those wishing to know more about themselves and their place in the universe, then the current disorder illustrates how far we have strayed from that goal. For example, we saw the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has experienced repeated failures, such as with the late-1999 Mars probes and the February 2000 earth-mapping project. It is almost comical that NASA’s failure to coordinate measurement systems caused its first 1999 Mars probe to crash. Low funding and the current focus on “cheaper and faster” have compromised the higher goals of the NASA programs, making space exploration just another industry, rather than an exciting way of satisfying a natural curiosity about our universe. Now, we do not have the means to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.
Cultural cues belie the prevailing values. Instead of sharing the results of genomic research that would benefit humankind, individuals are seeking patents on DNA. School shootings, such as at Columbine High School, Colorado, showed that the capacity for youthful violence seems to have no limit. Policy makers and communications media divert everyone’s attention from sources of the problem, such as an extremely alienated youth who see little meaning in their lives, to the instruments of actions, exemplified by guns and law enforcement. To the major media, sports, business, and “entertainment” are the important values. CNN, USA Today, and even the once staid New York Times all have these categories on their front web pages and coverage is extensive in these areas. However, general science and education do not have these front-page categories. The New York Times seems compelled to feature sports on its front page just about daily, the central photograph being some athlete.
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