Taking Issue: Values in Education?

taking issue

Read the following brief introduction, as well as the Question and the pros and cons list that follows. then, answer the question using your own words and position.

valueS in educatiOn?

the ancient Greeks debated whether education should reflect universal values that were valid at all times and in all places or culturally relative values held by different peoples living at particular places and times. socrates and Plato, who argued that truth was unchanging, debated this issue with the sophists, who claimed that education was relative to time and circumstances. today, heated debates are ongoing in the united states between those who want schools to instill universal moral values and others who want students to clarify their own values.

Question

should we base moral education on universal values? (think about this question as you read the PRo and Con arguments listed here. What is your response to this issue?)

Arguments PRo

1. Values, like truth, are universal and timeless. What is valuable is valid in all places and at all times. Public opinion polls do not make, nor change, what is good and beautiful.

2. Although we are members of different races, ethnic groups, and language groups, we are all members of the same human family and have universal human rights. 3. Education should search for the answer to the enduring question raised by socrates and Plato: What is true, good, and beautiful? 4. schools should emphasize the universal truths and values found in religion, philosophy, mathematics, literature, and science that transcend cultural differences and political boundaries.

Arguments CoN

1. Values are tentative statements about what is right or wrong that are relative to various groups living in particular places at different times. What is valuable is determined by the culture of different groups in a particular society. 2. because society is relative and changing, education needs to be flexible to adapt to social, economic, political, and technological change. 3. Education is a pragmatic means of personal and social adaptation. It should emphasize new ways of learning to prepare people to be efficient users of new technologies. 4. schooling, based on people’s needs, will differ from culture to culture and from time to time. that is why the constructivist approach and multicultural education is so useful in today’s schools.

Question Reprise: What Is Your Stand?

Reflect again on the following question by explaining your stand about this issue. should we base moral education on universal values?

The Republic’s citizens were organized into three classes: (1) philosopher-kings, or intellectual rulers; (2) auxiliaries, or military defenders; and (3) workers, who produced goods and provided services. An individual’s placement in a particular class was determined by an assessment of her or his intellectual ability. Similar to those who want to use IQ and aptitude tests to determine the kind of education that a person should receive, Plato’s educators sorted people into ability groups and educated them on their perceived intellectual potentiality.

Once assigned to a class, individuals would be given the education or training needed to perform their specific functions. The philosopher-kings identified academically gifted children and prepared them to be the Republic’s future leaders. The second class, the warriors, considered more courageous than intellectual, would receive military training to defend the Republic against its enemies. The third and largest class, the workers, who had greater physical than intellectual or military potentialities, would be trained vocationally as farmers, fishermen, and craftsmen. Plato believed that this