The Hazard Called Education by Joseph Agassi : a Essays, Reviews, and Dialogues on Education from Forty-Five Years

Joseph Agassi is known primarily among fellow academics as an exemplary historian and philosopher of science; an ardent critic and disciple of Karl Popper; a critical admirer of the work of Michael Polanyi; and a Socratic fly with the “sting of a bee” for all those who wear the intellectual fashions of the day. To most of Agassi’s students he is known primarily as an exemplary model of the Socratic teacher. The question of most urgency for educators today who care about the intellectual development of students is: How do we make ready our educational institutions for more Socratic teachers? The philosophical or theoretical question is: Why do we want Socratic teachers? In outline, of the many of Agassi’s educational essays selected for this book, Agassi answers those questions: authoritarianism (or anti-democracy) blocks the democratic reform of educational institutions where Socratic teachers and students could find a safe haven; and, Socratic teaching is the main anti-dote to authoritarianism. The removal of authoritarianism from education also removes the hazard that education has become to students; to their happiness, creativity, and dignity as autonomous individuals. Front Matter....Pages i-xlvi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Training to Survive the Hazard Called Education....Pages 3-16 The Autonomous Student....Pages 17-23 The Myth of the Young Genius....Pages 25-35 To Reform Higher Education: Towards a Manifesto....Pages 37-40 The Preaching of John Holt....Pages 41-46 The Teaching of Critical Thinking....Pages 47-50 Rituals to Block the Reform of Education, Review of Jerome S. Bruner’s, the Process of Education....Pages 51-58 Top schools: Review of D. Reynolds, B. Creemers, S. Stringfield, C. Teddlie, and G. Schaffer, eds., World Class Schools....Pages 59-61 Educating Elites in Democratic Societies....Pages 63-71 Letter to Diane....Pages 73-80 Education for Survival....Pages 81-88 Front Matter....Pages 89-89 Science Education Without Pressure....Pages 91-105 Planning for Science and Science Education....Pages 107-130 On Mathematics Education....Pages 131-138 Mathematical Education as Training for Freedom....Pages 139-147 The Injury of Science Text Books: Review Essay of Michael Matthews, Science Teaching....Pages 149-156 The Master Relationship: Review of Warwick, Andrew, Masters of Theory....Pages 157-167 The Future of (Science) Higher Education....Pages 169-182 Front Matter....Pages 183-183 University President as Gun-Slinger 1: Academic Democracy Threatened....Pages 185-196 University President as Gun-Slinger 2: Review of Straight Shooting....Pages 197-199 Front Matter....Pages 183-183 Disseminating Education for the Democratic Way of Life Now....Pages 201-205 Afterword....Pages 207-214 Last Word....Pages 215-219 Back Matter....Pages 221-223