Tag Archives: public education

The educated person: 1. is widely knowledgeable and 2. knows ‘something’ in depth

Posted on September 12, 2013 by backyardbooks

Kieran Egan asserts: “Nearly everyone who has tried to describe an image of the educated person, from Plato to the present, includes at least two criteria: first, that educated people must be widely knowledgeable and, second, that they must know something … Continue reading →

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School – that business of sitting at a desk among thirty or so others

Posted on September 4, 2013 by backyardbooks

Okay, so he wrote it some 15 years ago, but what Kieran Egan had to say in his The Educated Mind (1998) still seems relevant and readable! He wrote: “Education is one of the greatest consumers of public money in the Western … Continue reading →

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Herbert Spencer – according to Kieran Egan

Posted on August 24, 2013 by backyardbooks

“Men dress their children’s minds as they do their bodies, in the prevailing fashion” ~ Herbert Spencer, 1928 Explaining Herbert Spencer’s influence on education over the last century, Kieran Egan writes: “Although John Dewey’s educational ideas are widely known today, … Continue reading →

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“Why the school has been a largely unsatisfactory institution”

Posted on August 13, 2013 by backyardbooks

“If we want to improve our schools, it is with the abstract and awkward realm of ideas that we must begin.” ~ Kieran Egan (p.x) “Beginning with ‘the abstract and awkward realm of ideas’ might not sound so bad” Egan … Continue reading →

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Education, citizenship, knowledge economies and ‘The Disappearance of Adulthood’

Posted on April 21, 2013 by backyardbooks

I quite enjoyed this article… there were parts of it I wanted to question him further on, but lots of it that just made a pile of sense… these are those bits: Lawrence Quill writes: “In 1982, Neil Postman wrote The … Continue reading →

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Education … for democracy and non-violence…

Posted on February 5, 2013 by backyardbooks

I loved this essay – it should be a must-read for all educational leaders, and perhaps especially for those in English departments as we come up to 2014 and the anniversary of WWI, which will no doubt spark renewed interest … Continue reading →

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Freedom and education: some thoughts and discussion

Posted on January 4, 2013 by backyardbooks

I thoroughly enjoyed Nick Stevenson’s book, Freedom – enjoyed it too much to quote within legal or logical limits – but here are some points I took a particular liking to: “To become educated is to have access to a … Continue reading →

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Education and quality of life

Posted on December 25, 2012 by backyardbooks

“Education will vary with the quality of life that prevails in a group.” ~ John Dewey, Democracy and Education cited, p284 Mara Krechevsky and Ben Mardell, (2001) ‘Four features of Learning Groups’ pp.284-295, in Making learning Visible: Children as Individual and Group … Continue reading →

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ECE and the validation of ‘western’ views of childhood

Posted on November 2, 2012 by backyardbooks

Marilyn Fleer writes that: “…what has become valued within the profession of early childhood education is essentially a western view of childhood and development.”[1] She asserts that the institutional structure of western learning, heavily influenced by the organization of factories, … Continue reading →

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Ages, stages, and educational institutions

Posted on October 22, 2012 by backyardbooks

“Children are given different social roles and responsibilities based on their perceived level of social competence rather than their age. Yet in many industrialized nations the age of children underpins the way we organize preschool, childcare and schools. Before the … Continue reading →

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