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The Philosophy Of Education Is Its Differing Aims

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Around 2,300 years ago, Aristotle raised many issues regarding the opposing perspectives about the practice of education. He affirmed that there is no universal accord about whether education should be directed more towards intellectual objectives or towards the character of the individual. He also proposed that there is doubt about whether education should be aimed at notion valuable for everyday life or at notions approving to virtues. As a matter of fact, modern day educators are still deliberating the concerns Aristotle raised. Ultimately, the most primitive dilemma the philosophy of education is its differing aims. Philosophers of education question, what are the proper aims and leading principles of education? What is the appropriate criterion for assessing academic attempts, educational institutions, procedures, and outcomes? In fact, diverse proposals to resolving these significant affairs have given rise to contrasting schools of thought in the philosophy of education. This exploratory paper will analyze and inquire three schools of thought: Essentialism, Critical Theory and Pragmatism. Each of these schools of thought considers their principles the best. The paper will conclude with my viewpoint as to where I situate my philosophy of education among these three schools of thought.
The term “Essentialism” as a scholarly philosophy was formerly disseminated in the 1930s by the American educator William Chandler Bagley (Gutek, 2004, p. 264). This approach seeks to

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