That, therefore, they all deserve the same quality of school, not just
the same quantity;
That the quality of schooling to which they are entitled is what the wisest
parents would wish for their own children, the best education for the best
being the best education for all;
That schooling at its best is preparation for becoming generally educated
in the course of a whole lifetime; and that schools should be judged on
how well they provide such preparation;
That the three callings for which schooling should prepare all Americans
are (a) to earn a decent livelihood, (b) to be a good citizen of the nation
and the world, and (c) to make a good life for oneself;
That the primary cause of genuine learning is the activity of the learner's
own mind, sometimes with the help of a teacher functioning as a secondary
and cooperative cause;
That the three kinds of teaching that should occur in our schools are
didactic teaching of subject matter, caching that produces the skills of
learning, and Socratic questioning in seminar discussion;
That the results of these three kinds of teaching should be (a) the acquisition
of organized knowledge, (b) the formation of habits of skill in the use
of language and mathematics, and (c) the growth of the mind's understanding
of basic ideas and issues;
That each student's achievement of these results should be evaluated in
terms of that student's capacities and not solely related to the achievements
of other students;
That the principal of a school should never be just an administrator,
but also a leading teacher who should cooperate with the faculty in planning,
reforming, and reorganizing the school as an educational community;
That the principal and faculty of school should themselves be actively
engaged in learning; and
That the desire to continue their own learning should be the prime motivation
of those who dedicate their lives to the profession of teaching.
The Paideia Group, Inc.
Copyright
2008. Augsburg College. All rights reserved.
