The Aims of Education and Other Essays

by Alfred North Whitehead

Presents the texts of a series of lectures delivered between 1912 & 1928 on the purposes & practice of education.
Preface
The aims of education
The rhythm of education
The rhythmic claims of freedom & discipline
Technical education & its relation to science & literature
The place of classics in education
The mathematical curriculum
Universities & their function
The organisation of thought
The anatomy of some scientific ideas
Space, time & relativity

Genres: Philosophy, Education, Nonfiction, Essays, Classics, Science, Teaching

165 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found application to a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology, among other areas.

In his early career Whitehead wrote primarily on mathematics, logic, and physics. His most notable work in these fields is the three-volume Principia Mathematica (1910–13), which he co-wrote with former student Bertrand Russell. Principia Mathematica is considered one of the twentieth century's most important works in mathematical logic, and placed 23rd in a list of the top 100 English-language nonfiction books of the twentieth century by Modern Library.

Beginning in the late 1910s and early 1920s, Whitehead gradually turned his attention from mathematics to philosophy of science, and finally to metaphysics. He developed a comprehensive metaphysical system which radically departed from most of western philosophy. Whitehead argued that reality was fundamentally constructed by events rather than substances, and that these events cannot be defined apart from their relations to other events, thus rejecting the theory of independently existing substances. Today Whitehead's philosophical works – particularly Process and Reality – are regarded as the foundational texts of process philosophy.

Whitehead's process philosophy argues that "there is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have consequences for the world around us." For this reason, one of the most promising applications of Whitehead's thought in recent years has been in the area of ecological civilization and environmental ethics pioneered by John B. Cobb, Jr.

Isabelle Stengers wrote that "Whiteheadians are recruited among both philosophers and theologians, and the palette has been enriched by practitioners from the most diverse horizons, from ecology to feminism, practices that unite political struggle and spirituality with the sciences of education." Indeed, in recent decades attention to Whitehead's work has become more widespread, with interest extending to intellectuals in Europe and China, and coming from such diverse fields as ecology, physics, biology, education, economics, and psychology. However, it was not until the 1970s and 1980s that Whitehead's thought drew much attention outside of a small group of American philosophers and theologians, and even today he is not considered especially influential outside of relatively specialized circles.

In recent years, Whiteheadian thought has become a stimulating influence in scientific research.

In physics particularly, Whitehead's thought has been influential, articulating a rival doctrine to Albert Einstein's general relativity. Whitehead's theory of gravitation continues to be controversial. Even Yutaka Tanaka, who suggests that the gravitational constant disagrees with experimental findings, admits that Einstein's work does not actually refute Whitehead's formulation. Also, although Whitehead himself gave only secondary consideration to quantum theory, his metaphysics of events has proved attractive to physicists in that field. Henry Stapp and David Bohm are among those whose work has been influenced by Whitehead.

Whitehead is widely known for his influence in education theory. His philosophy inspired the formation of the Association for Process Philosophy of Education (APPE), which published eleven volumes of a journal titled Process Papers on process philosophy and education from 1996 to 2008. Whitehead's theories on education also led to the formation of new modes of learning and new models of teaching.

Reviews

[Eric Phetteplace · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Whitehead's conception of living knowledge and speaking to student's interests is refreshing and a great approach, elements of archaic, assumption-prone educational theory still pop up here and there. In the "Classics" chapter, he bloviates about the advantages of Latin (ironically, seeing as it is a dead language) and romance languages, completely ignoring other languages for no justifiable reason. Further, I don't think there's any substance to the "you must read an author in their original language" argument; translation is creative, and good translations are as much works of art as originals, they're just as likely to be superior as inferior. His idea of a mathematics education grounded in practice, eschewing esoteric theorems in favor of applications in carpentry/surveying, is much more well-thought-out.
Finally, the last three chapters were totally out of left field. They relate to epistemology, but not education, and admittedly I could not follow parts of the argument. My understanding is certainly limited, but to me space-time negates all this talk of spatial vs. temporal: the two are inextricable, and a more pertinent investigation would be into how we ever separated the two in the first place (Euclid? is that the source?) rather than trying to ground science in experience whilst constantly referring to a duality we never experience: when have you ever experienced something purely spatial or purely temporal and not both at once? But I digress. Interesting book, just not what I was expecting.

[Cam Netland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy to have finished this on Valentine’s Day. The first half of the book should be mandatory reading for educators because of the dangers of corrupting education at the sake of the expectations. I see it in my own practice and the practices of others around me. We lose ourselves in the details and in the process, we lose the students. Whitehead’s witty style and earnest call for a greater human intelligence would sound musical to any ear. Romanticization —> precision —> generalization is a delicious concept especially when paralleled with ones own education. That said, once you get to the Structure of Thought and Scientific Coefficient chapters the forest does seem to get lost for the trees which almost goes against his initial arguments. Anyway, even if I could not bear the precision of his mathematics what I took from his call to humanism I must remind myself to re read at the beginning of every school year.

[Hoàng Nguyễn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quả là nhức nhối khi những vấn đề của nền giáo dục được nêu ra gần 100 năm trước lại vẫn còn tồn tại đến tận giờ này. Không những thế, nó còn bị khuếch đại lên.

Thời đại ngày nay có không ít người, cả Tây lẫn ta, xem nhẹ việc học những môn mang tính nhân văn và triết học. Họ bảo rằng những môn đấy vô dụng và không cần thiết, ít ra thì cũng không áp dụng được gì trong đời. Nói chuyện gần lấy làm ví dụ: mấy ngày trước, bạn mình còn nói mình nghe về một bài đăng trên tờ BBC của một tác giả chỉ trích chương trình giáo dục năm đầu tiên của đại học Việt Nam vì dám cho sinh viên học những môn "thừa thãi" như Mác Lê-nin và Tư tưởng Hồ Chí Minh. Mình không đánh giá gì quan điểm của bài đăng đấy, vì ý kiến cá nhân là của cá nhân, nó đúng trong một phạm vi hẹp thuộc về suy nghĩ chủ quan, nhưng mình cũng muốn nói lên suy nghĩ của mình về bài đăng đấy. Như Whitehead đã viết, "Tầm quan trọng của tri thức nằm trong việc sử dụng nó, trong việc sử dụng thành thạo chủ động của ta đối với nó - nghĩa là, nó nằm trong sự hiền minh." Whitehead cật lực lên án hành vi nhồi nhét những kiến thức tiêu chuẩn và tư tưởng thực hành vào đầu học sinh mà không thông qua quá trình khơi gợi hứng thú nơi bọn trẻ để cho chúng tìm đến "tri thức đích thực". Biết cách vận hành một cỗ máy thì hay, nhưng chỉ biết mỗi cách vận hành cỗ máy ấy thôi thì không thể biết cỗ máy ấy sẽ hữu ích trong bối cảnh thế nào, người vận hành cũng sẽ không cảm thấy việc vận hành cỗ máy ấy hay ho đến mức được thúc đẩy, tìm tòi thêm kiến thức để phát triển bản thân. Những thứ đấy, muốn có, thì Whitehead bảo cần phải có sự "hiền minh". Whitehead cũng nhấn mạnh rằng, "Bạn không thể là người hiền minh mà không thể có nền tảng tri thức nào đó; nhưng bạn có thể dễ dàng sở đắc tri thức mà không có sự hiền minh."

Về việc giáo dục các môn học thuộc về ngành Nhân văn và Triết học, các môn đấy là những môn không có ảnh hưởng rõ rệt hay tức thời. Những tư tưởng của chúng rất tinh vi, len lỏi vào trí não của người học, đóng vai trò lèo lái suy nghĩ và hành vi của họ. Như Whitehead đã viết trong chương III, chương bàn về cái nhịp của giáo dục, sự hiền minh là cách thức mà ta nắm được tri thức, là công cụ để ta xử lý tri thức, là đòn bẩy để ta bổ sung thêm giá trị cho những kinh nghiệm sẵn có của ta. Từ đây, ta có thể rút ra được rằng, chỉ ôm khư khư một mớ tư tưởng chuẩn mực mà không cần tham khảo thêm bất kỳ luồng ý kiến nào nữa là sai lầm chí tử. Sự giáo dục các môn thuộc ngành Nhân văn và Triết học cốt là để khai tử cái sai lầm chí tử ấy.

Nói về Mác Lê-nin và Tư tưởng một chút. Mình học đủ hai quyển đấy để mình biết được rằng, cỗ máy chính quyền hiện tại đang vận hành đất nước này không xấu, dù nó cũng chưa được tốt. Rằng về bối cảnh lúc bấy giờ, tư tưởng của Karl Marx và của Lenin là phù hợp với xã hội Việt Nam. Rằng, nếu một bộ máy chính trị mà thật sự hư hỏng thối nát, nó đã tự sụp đổ mà không cần bất kỳ tác động nào quá lớn từ bên ngoài. Rằng, yêu nước không có nghĩa nhân dân phải yêu mến chính quyền. (Nực cười thay cho những người hay bảo sách Tư tưởng là sách "mị dân", câu này được viết hẳn trong đấy, và được yêu cầu học thuộc để biện chứng hồi mình còn đi học.)

Mình đọc bản dịch của Đại học Hoa Sen với nhan đề, "Những mục tiêu của giáo dục và các tiểu luận khác", được dịch bởi các vị Hoàng Phú Dương, Tiết Hùng Thái, Hà Dương Tường; được hiệu đính bởi Phạm Viêm Phương, Hà Dương Tường; giới thiệu bởi Bùi Trân Phương.

[Kelsey Grissom · Rating 3 out of 5]

These essays do not share a common theme, which makes it a difficult read. I loved the essays on education and found Whitehead’s humor and lightheartedness refreshing and his suggestions insightful. Unfortunately the latter essays, which dealt with mathematics and metaphysics, came to me at Christmas, where I could not devote as much focus to them as I would have liked. Whitehead can be opaque even when he is at his best and when I am at my most focused attention…these essays were not his best and I was not very focused. So these latter essays were ok but not completely accessible to my mind at this time.

[Kevin Fulton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of talks touching on education and it has the strengths and weaknesses of many of these collections.

Some of the chapters are very engaging and others are hyper specific and less relevant to the reader.

Overall, Whitehead is a good thinker and there are great quotes scattered throughout.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only the last three chapters of this book include any interesting or original philosophical ideas, and those ideas are probably just summaries of Whitehead's other work. However, this book does make me want to read Process and Reality.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of interesting ideas and quotes for my blog, but the second half of the book was too erudite for me. It therefore took me ages to read as I was looking for excuses not to pick it up. In the end (again), I had to force my self to complete it.

Today’s book review is: “The Aims Of Education” (1929 ©), by Alfred North Whitehead. The book is a collection of papers and presentations (speeches) given by the author on a number of topics: education, freedom and discipline, science, the function of universities and the nature of thought itself. Although a relatively small work, it is quite deep and scholastic / academic in tone, which will not be to everyone’s taste.

Whitehead was a mathematician who emigrated to America and became a philosopher in his later years. Apparently, Cambridge had a lecturer time limit of twenty-five years and he was forced into retirement. He lectured in London for another dozen years before moving to Harvard where he also spent a little over a dozen years.

The book is really in two parts for me: the parts I understood and agreed with wholeheartedly (the first half of the book) and the later part (mainly dealing with the “organization of thought” and “the anatomy of some scientific ideas“) which I believe I understood, but which I disagreed with. Metaphysically speaking, Whitehead poses that reality is what we (individually) perceive it to be and the normalization of perception is (what we agree on collectively) what we “scientifically” say is the “real” world. In a strange way, the only things which can be real are those which we perceive to be real and on which we can agree with others in their perceptions. This “relativism” of a perceived real world has consequences, but I’m not sure I have ever been able to get my head around them. (I went through this in a political theory class back in my own university days.)

While I feel I understood what Whitehead was trying to express, I found it extremely dry reading and in the end (after several weeks of having the book on my bedside table), I had to force myself to read the last 30-40 odd pages. My difficulty was less my “disagreement” with his proposition, as the general feeling of its irrelevance in “my” real world. I don’t really care if all the universe is really changing and even mountains are eventually reduced to sand. For my lifetime, they are mountains. I recognize that in a billion or so years, the Earth will no longer be here (or the mountain), but for now, I still need to climb it, ski it, or build a train tunnel through it and I (we) can still ascertain (agree) on it’s location, height, circumference, etc. It is as real as I need it to be.

If this review seems a bit negative, let me also high-light the books strengths (or at least the parts I agree with), too. The book’s title refers to the first lecture in the book and describes what we as a society should hope to gain by educating our youth. It describes the “rhythm” of education in a person’s life. It also relates Whitehead’s views on subjects to be taught and their order of learning. As mentioned above, he goes on to discuss the value of a liberal education, the use of classics in education, and the role of a university in developing the leaders society requires. Whitehead does not neglect the necessity of practical and technical training in the spectrum of education . He simply notes they will be sufficient for the masses and remain a minimum standard for the well developed (pre-) university graduate. This seems an extremely elitist view until one recognizes that education is a lifetime endeavor and returning to school (university) is not (or it should not be) prohibited for those who start their working lives as tradesmen and technicians.

Final recommendation: moderate to strong recommendation. This book is a definite “classic” and I feel I am “better” for having experienced it. But, and this is a rather large qualification for me, it isn’t a book I left feeling many others would be interested in. Primarily because of the nature of the subject matter, but also because of the way it’s expressed (extremely erudite language), this is not a book (I believe) many will force themselves to wade through. Very reminiscent of a description I once heard of the book “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking, this is a book you want people to see on your coffee table, but which nobody ever actually reads. Stick to the first bits on education, liberal arts and the purpose of a university, and leave the rest for when you tire of insomnia.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A BOOK OF ESSAYS AGAINST “DEAD KNOWLEDGE”

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) was an English mathematician [he is credited as co-writer with Bertrand Russell of Principia Mathematica] and philosopher, best known for developing Process Philosophy. He wrote many other books such as 'Process and Reality,' Modes of Thought,' 'Religion in the Making,' etc.

He wrote in the Preface to this 1929 book, “The general topic of this volume is education on its intellectual side. One main idea through the various chapters, and is illustrated in them from many points of view. It can be stated briefly thus: The students are alive, and the purpose for education is to stimulate and guide their self-development. It follows as corollary from this premiss, that the teachers also should be alive with living thoughts. The whole book is a protest against dead knowledge, that is to say, against inert ideas.”

He observes, “Life is essentially periodic. It comprises daily periods, with their alterations of work and play, of activity and of sleep, and seasonal periods, which dictate our terms and our holidays; and also it is composed of well-marked yearly periods. These are the gross obvious periods which no one can overlook. There are also subtler periods of mental growth, with their cyclic recurrences, yet always different as we pass from cycle to cycle, though the subordinate stages are reproduced in each cycle. That is why I have chosen the term ‘rhythmic,’ as meaning essentially the conveyance of difference within a framework of repetition.” (Pg. 17)

He notes, “Can we wonder that such an education, evoking and defeating cravings, leads to failure and discontent? The stupidity of the whole procedure is, that art in simple popular forms is just what we can give to the nation without undue strain on our resources. You may, perhaps, by some great reforms, obviate the worse kind of sweated labor and the insecurity of unemployment. But you can never greatly increase average incomes. On that side all hope of Utopia is closed to you. It would, however, require no very great effort to use our schools to produce a population with some love of music, some enjoyment of drama, and some joy in beauty of form and color.

"We could also provide means for the satisfaction of these emotions in the general life of the population. If you think of the simplest ways, you will see that the strain on material resources would be negligible; and when you have done that, and when your population widely appreciates what art can give---its joys and its terrors---do you not think that your prophets and your clergy and your statesmen will be in a stronger position when they speak to the population of the love of God, of the inexorableness of duty, and of the call of patriotism?” (Pg. 40-41)

He suggests, “The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. The atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a burden on the memory: it is energizing as the poet of our dreams, and as the architect of our purposes.” (Pg. 92)

He states, “But, for the purpose of science, what is the actual world? Has science to wait for the termination of the metaphysical debate till it can determine its own subject-matter? I suggest that science has a much more homely starting-ground. I suggest that science has a much more homely starting-ground. Its task is the discovery of the relations which exist within that flux of perceptions, sensations, and emotions which forms our experience of life. The panorama yielded by sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, and by more inchoate sensible feelings, is the sole field of activity. It is in this way that science is the thought organization of experience.” (Pg. 105)

Not one of Whitehead’s “major works,” but these essays touch areas that are not covered in his other books, and thus will be of interest to anyone studying Whitehead’s philosophy

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Selection of Whitehead's conference addresses, save one. Below are some of my highlights on certain chapters:

The Aims of Education (1917)
p2-"Let the main ideas which are introduced into a child's education be few and important, and let them be thrown into every combination possible."
p3-"The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. No more deadly harm can be done to young minds than by depreciation of the present....The communion of saints is a great and aspiring assemblage, but it has only one possible hall of meeting...the present; and the mere lapse of time through which any particular group of saints must travel to reach that meeting-place, makes very little difference."
p4-"Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilisation of knowledge."
p5-"keeping knowledge alive, of preventing it from becoming inert...is the central problem of all education."
p6-The belief that "the mind is an instrument, you first sharpen it, and then you use it...[is] one of the most fatal, erroneous, and dangerous conceptions every introduced into the theory of education."
-The "golden rule of education" is whatever you do, it must be relevant to the present.
-"The problem of education is to make the pupil see the wood by means of the trees."
-"There is only one subject-matter for education, and that is [p7] Life in all its manifestations."
p8-"The curves of history are more vivid are more informing than the dry catalogues of names and dates..."
p9-"a common external examination system is fatal to education." (p13 'educational waste')
-"The pupils have got to be made to feel that they [p10] are studying something, and are not merely executing intellectual minuets."
p11-"What education [p12] has to impart is an intimate sense for the power of ideas, for the beauty of ideas, and for the structure of ideas, together with a particularly body of knowledge which has peculiar reference to the life of the being possessing it."
p13-"The object of this address is to suggest how to produce the expert without loss of the essential virtues of the amateur." - by amateur he means 'generalist'
-"the school is the true educational unit" - advocates local control of schools (both in 'approved' curriculum and unique completion certificates).

The Rhythmic Claims of Freedom and Discipline (1923)
p30-"[Wisdom] concerns the handling of knowledge, its selection for the determination of relevant issues, its employment to add value to our immediate experience. This mastery of knowledge, which is wisdom, is the most intimate freedom available....The only avenue towards wisdom is by freedom in the presence of knowledge. But the only avenue towards knowledge is by discipline in the acquirement of ordered fact. Freedom and discipline are the two essentials of education"
p31-"There can be no mental development without interest"
p32-"The environment within which the mind is working must be carefully selected. It must, of course, be chosen to suit the child's stage of growth, and must be adapted to individual needs."
-Introduces his 3 stages: Romantic, Precision, Generalisation
p37-"education should begin in research and end in research."

The Place of Classics in Education (1923)
-classics are dying because 90% of pupils never read classics in the original again after finishing school, and by way of this classics teachers are also decreasing
p74-"the whole claim for the importance of classics rests on the basis that there is no substitute for first-hand knowledge."

Universities and their Function (1928)
p93-"The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience."
p97-"The whole art in the organization of a university is the provision of a faculty whose learning is lighted up with imagination. This is the problem of problems in university education"
p98-"Knowledge does not keep any better than fish....[Instead] it must come to the students...just drawn out of the sea and with the freshness of its immediate importance."
p99-A faculty should not be weighed based on its publications. Brilliant teachers often contribute in their teaching as much as researching contribute in their research. The best measure is the "contribution of thought", not words.

[Da Shahster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who has ever tried to teach anything knows the danger of losing the forest for the trees.

I’ve also heard a few lifelong educators reflect on the evolution of their style and drive; it gets emotionally harder over the years to remember what’s exciting about the syllabus!

This collection of essays, from probably one of the most celebrated and brilliant professors of the last century, responds to the hulking questions behind these anxieties: how should a teacher teach, and how does a learner grow?

The insight, coming out of, like, the first page, is that knowledge is alive and that it is something like a reflexive process between teacher and student. That you learn things to live a better, more full life. Maybe these are just boring words when I type them here (if you vibed w the above you can just stop reading the review and read the essays), but I found it ridiculously invigorating to hear Whitehead go through it all.

Whitehead has a few cool insights that come directly from the “knowledge is alive” bit too. I’ll put some here

1) math education is only good so far as it is useful. Every step of abstract reasoning should be motivated by something physical

2) there’s a rhythm to knowledge creation, mediated by the back and forth between the student and the teacher. Students have different rhythms, and rhythms can change, and the rhythm itself belies some trade offs between precision and storytelling. He gives some ideas on how the teacher can ride this rhythm. I found his exposition here very cool and helpful as a math student.

3) some people think his recommendations on language learning (teach classical languages like Latin, teach them very young, etc) are stupid and outdated. I actually used to mostly agree with these people until I read Whitehead's essay on it (Languages can be people’s first “scientific” foray, and it’s a really good one to start practicing ~learning~ with since we’re primed for languages! I’m sympathetic to this). I found this cool not because it motivated me to learn ancient Greek (if Percy Jackson could not, this could never), but because I thought it was a nice meta-example of what Whitehead means when he says abstract knowledge should be grounded in practice. We learn languages by jumping in and then exploring. That's what learning is, too. A good teacher guides but doesn't feed -- this book is about the how.

But reallly, the thing I liked the most about this book is how much it energized me. I’ve been in a little bit of a funk recently because i've been working more than i've been learning, and this book motivated me to approach it all again. The theory of learning and practice Whitehead offers, in which the pursuit of knowledge is a way of living life itself? It sits right in this nerd heart

Hopefully I can come back and make this coherent. But, I’d rec. Also, if you’re short on time, the first half was tighter than the second half (in particular, the last three chapters).
--
Last bit was more about the philosophy of the anatomy of ideas, and it really managed to bite its own tail. Weirdly formal epistemology that misses all the advice of the beginning of the book. Will probably piss you off. I'm ignoring these chapters for my review because I don't think they're necessary to enjoying the front half (just bad editing lumped those essays in with the rest of the book).

[Jordan Kinsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philosophy books are hard! It took me almost two months to finish this one.

For me, the most interesting and valuable section of this work was section 7: "Universities and Their Function." Should be yearly required reading for all those working in higher ed. It's material that is easily forgotten.

I also found his learning theory of "romance - precision - generalization" fascinating. I wish someone would write an update outlining how we might integrate this approach into the realities of 21st century teaching.

He also makes the best case for technical dedication I've ever read, and every piece of evidence he provides is still valid almost a century later.

A few noteworthy passages:

"You cannot put life into any schedule of general education unless you succeed in exhibiting its relation to some essential characteristic of all intelligent or emotional perception. It is a hard saying, but it is true; and I do not see how to make it any easier. In making these little formal alterations you are beaten by the very nature of things. You are pitted against too skillful an adversary, who will see to it that the pea is always under the other thimble."

"During the school period the student has been mentally bending over his desk; at the University he should stand up and look around."

[Nicolas Name · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better education books that I've come across, that actually deal with many of the philosophical concerns underneath, instead of presenting certain dogmas and uncritical thoughts.

With that said, as a philosophy book, it's wanting. On many instances, it's clear that he is merely presenting his own views of what education should be, while the appropriate response may have been to express doubt, present/address an opposing argument, or to, at the very minimum, note that the following is an opinion, instead of merely presenting the form as fact.

My favorite passages of the work was found in Chapter 5, On the Place of Classics in Education. In public schools, at least in the U.S., it's clear to me that a classical education, with a focus on philosophical issues, thinking, or training, is clearly lacking. There are political reasons for this phenomenon, but as a whole, it doesn't bode well on the stated aims of education most commonly professed by politicians, educators, administrators, and parents alike- the education of the whole person, the development of the individual self, vs. mere increases in output and productivity, as education is most commonly assessed, organized, and designed to produce.

Great chapter. However, many other parts of the book fall short. Would recommend.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a public school teacher with a recently acquired masters degree and multiple teaching licenses, it seems odd that my experience with higher eduction did not include Whitehead as a required reading. His name came up in a course on the history of higher education and I was intrigued by the thought of a foil to Dewey. Numerous courses taken at both the undergraduate and graduate level required reading/interpretation/application of Dewey, but not Whitehead. Given, his is a British perspective, and much more intellectual/philosophical, but many of his thoughts are as salient now as they were in the early 20th century. Particularly interesting was his discussion on "Universities and their Function." The ideas posited in this section of the book I thought would be good for application in the high schools of the 21st century, if only we could get administrators, business leaders, and politicians to look at education in the light of Whitehead's intellect.

[Thomas Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a teacher or homeschooler, who is interested in theories directly applicable to the ideal design and structure of a child’s education, then give this book a read. It will not be a leisurely one, and you will have to take some time whilst reading it to consider just exactly what Whitehead means in each instance, when he makes the many nebulous abstract statements that he does, without troubling himself to provide the reader with examples to illustrate his ideas.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whitehead's reference to Hegel is valuable yet forgotten: on thesis, antithesis, and synthesis as a paradigm for reaching into kid's minds.

He gets across the purpose of a liberal education and the role of Classics, math, and science in general education (K-12). All of the material is written before 1927, so his ideas on science are dated.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brief look at Alfred North Whitehead's philosophies on education and criticisms of the educational system (which are many). It's something I subjectively identified with having gone to a parochial schools with uniforms or a dress code. His criticism of the American educational system is harsh, but true. If you're fed up with the educational system then this is the book for you.

[Phillip Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

My undergraduate degree in philosophy focused on Whitehead. This was prior to my own conversion. While I now am quite critical of Whitehead, I acknowledge him as an import modern thinker.

[Iveta · Rating 4 out of 5]

my review

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only got part-way through. Starting losing it's impact.

[Nohea]

Read Whitehead's main essay for Philosophy and Education.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed the essays on education. The scientific essays, not so much.

[Krollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some odd opinions on RE and leaving certificates, but a lot of good ideas on creativity and individuality in the curriculum. Still incredibly relevant today.

[Galicius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts read: The Rhythm of Education, The Aims of Education - A Plea for Reform, Technical Education and Its Relationship to Science and Literature

[Yujing He · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short but thought-provoking book for education.

[John Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

An education which does not begin by evoking initiative and end by encouraging it must be wrong. For its whole aim is the production of active wisdom.

[Tanjua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes you think

[Jules]

battle of the pedgogues: Dewey vs. Whitehead

[Eric Black · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not as thought-provoking as I'd hoped for from Whitehead

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was part of the welcome packet for incoming students to Boston University’s School of Public Communication (as it was called then) a half-century ago. I recently reread it, and find it hard to reconstruct what I made of some of the more abstruse essays at the time. The ones that I got the most out of back then, to judge from my underlining, still speak directly to me. Some of the author’s proposals for education carried the day; I wish more of them had been adopted. Some of the other essays, such as “The Anatomy of Some Scientific Ideas,” are heavy going. Taken together, though, the lectures and articles collected here are evidence of a first-class mind at work. Of course, the oldest of these lectures were given more than a century ago. Whether you find his unexamined assumption that all scholars are male exasperating or merely quaint will depend on how tolerant you are of paragons of a bygone age. For others, the language may be off-putting; Whitehead writes as British dons did back then. Perhaps it’s inevitable that the scientific lectures seem more dated than those that deal with education. Taken however as texts that show a first-class mathematician and philosopher coming to terms with the then-new theory of relativity, they remain valuable.