Philosophy Now Forum

Education
1 - If we live in a world in Chaos, it is partly defined by having no rational education system.
2 – If we live in one of three general forms of organised society or community then there must be some form of education for children and others.
3 - An authoritarian society, even tyranny, will undoubtedly provide education designed to convince the populace of its duty to obey those in authority. Creating the impression that this is for their own benefit as an obvious tool for maintaining peace.
4 - A society based on the autonomous individual will have minimal government. Such education as is provided being from parents to children, or from the head of some wider household, as in the past a household included all its servants. Such a society is based only on individual freedom and rights.
5 - Society and state that is responsibly altruistic, will have a general system of education as in the authoritarian state. Education of the young being their right, the simple obverse of which is the duty to provide that education. But the consequent duty of those educated being to use their skills to improve society for the benefit of everyone as a community. Society in holistic terms would include the natural world and environment for its own benefit.

RWStanding wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 8:20 am Education

Well, I've got some questions, RW.

1 - If we live in a world in Chaos,

We don't, obviously. "Chaos" means "total disorder." I think what's apparent is that we have plenty of "order" around; it's just (arguably) the wrong sort of order. So why would we think the word "chaos" applies?

it is partly defined by having no rational education system.

Well, "chaos" literally means "no rational anything." In fact, it means "no systems at all." So again, I have to ask what you mean by "chaos."

2 – If we live in one of three general forms of organised society or community then there must be some form of education for children and others.

Why can't this education be at home, or in local groups, or in different kinds of systems, or focused on different priorities, or vocational as well as academic? What's the necessity of thinking we have to have only one such education procedure? Why not as many are are useful and necessary to our purposes?

3 - An authoritarian society, even tyranny, will undoubtedly provide education designed to convince the populace of its duty to obey those in authority. Creating the impression that this is for their own benefit as an obvious tool for maintaining peace.

Okay.

4 - A society based on the autonomous individual will have minimal government. Such education as is provided being from parents to children, or from the head of some wider household, as in the past a household included all its servants. Such a society is based only on individual freedom and rights.

So there isn't a need for a single, monolithic, government-run system, after all? We can maximize individual freedom and rights in other ways? Sounds good...

5 - Society and state that is responsibly altruistic, will have a general system of education as in the authoritarian state.

Well, if you'll pardon me, the opposite seems obviously true.

Why should we, as individuals, surrender our children to the tutelage of the bloated State apparatus? How does that stand to serve our good, or the good of our children? And does having such a monolithic bureaucracy not destroy "individual freedom and rights," as you have said in #4? Then why should we accept this claim? How does it seem "responsible" or "altruistic" for a parent to yield up his children to be bludgeoned into tools of the massive State?

That surely needs some justification, because it looks obviously lunatic at the moment.

Education of the young being their right,

Perhaps. But you'd need to prove this, not just assert it. What's wrong with a parent education his/her own child? Who else owes this 'right" to the child?

...the consequent duty of those educated being to use their skills to improve society for the benefit of everyone as a community.

Well, this presupposes that only a monolithic State school can "educate," and that those forced into it are not receiving a "right" at all, but rather a privilege. You can see this because you are now saying they owe something back to the State. But the State deserves no credit for merely assenting to that which is already your right, and you don't owe them anything afterward. You don't thank somebody for giving you something they had no right to withhold from you in the first place, do you?

It might be nice if children decided to "use their skills to improve society." I would certainly like it if they did. But on what basis can we say they owe that to us? Why is the State the entity that must be served?

What if they use their skills to improve their families' status, or to improve their local area or community, or even just to enhance their own lives reach their personal potential, and then to provide their own needs, so as not to be some sort of drain on others or a social parasite on the resources of the State? What is evil about any of that? Aren't all those things obviously good? On what basis could we insist they owe anything else but that? Those seem noble enough goals for education, do they not?

I had somewhat similar questions to Immanuel Can. I dont know what you are trying to say here but Aristotle viewed education e.g.: https://mytutorsource.com/blog/educational-quotes/ as “the creation of a sound mind in a sound body”. To him, the aim of education was the welfare of the individuals so as to bring happiness to their lives. And yes education is the right of every soul present on this planet earth. And they don't own anything to anyone for that it is for their own benefit and happiness. But with education comes responsibility. It is so hard to put education in one definition or all scenarios.

If we take "education" literally, as being "drawn out" or "led into" something, to "educate" needs further information: it needs us to specify what is being "drawn out" of the individual, and into what discipline, lifestyle or skills the educant is being inducted.

The monolithic state tends to take for granted that a comprehensive education system is for making "citizens" useful to its own purposes. But this is not the ideal of liberal education, which is to free up the individual and equip him/her with the mental skills to be able to make his or her own choices. So today, the state tries to combine the two, indoctrinating citizens by telling them what is in their "best interests" to think, so the state can use their managed "choices" for its own purposes.

Best option: get out of the state schools. Use charter schools, vouchers, homeschooling and local-community schooling to break the monopoly of the self-serving state over childhood education.