The Hazard Called Education by Joseph Agassi

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.

Acknowledgments; Preface 1 by Joseph Agassi; Preface 2: Towards Creating a Curriculum for Autonomous Learners: An Email Dialogue; Foreword by Ian Winchester; Introduction to the Hazard Called Education: Towards a Socratic Educational Philosophy by Ronald Swartz; Part I: Theory; Chapter 1: Training to Survive the Hazard Called Education; Chapter 2: The Autonomous Student; Chapter 3: The Myth of the Young Genius; Chapter 4: To Reform Higher Education: Towards a Manifesto; Chapter 5: The Preaching of John Holt: Discussion of John Holt, The Underachieving School; Chapter 6: The Teaching of Critical Thinking: Review of Francis Schragg, Thinking in School and Society; Chapter 7: Rituals to Block the Reform of Education, Review of Jerome S. Bruner’s, The Process of Education; Chapter 8: Top Schools: Review of D. Reynolds, B. Creemers, S. Stringfield, C. Teddlie, and G. Schaffer, eds., World Class Schools; Chapter 9: Educating Elites in Democratic Societies: A Dialogue; Chapter 10: Letter to Diane: Popper on Learning from Experience; Chapter 11: Education for Survival; Part II: Application; Chapter 12: Science Education Without Pressure; Chapter 13: Planning for Science and Science Education; Chapter 14: On Mathematics Education: The Lakatosian Revolution; Chapter 15: Mathematical Education as Training for Freedom; Chapter 16: The Injury of Science Text Books: Review Essay of Michael Matthews, Science Teaching; Chapter 17: The Master Relationship: Review of Warwick, Andrew, Masters of Theory; Chapter 18: The Future of (Science) Higher Education; Part III: Social Criticism; Chapter 19: University President as Gun-Slinger 1: Academic Democracy Threatened; Chapter 20: University President as Gun-Slinger 2: Review of Straight Shooting; Chapter 21: Disseminating Education for the Democratic Way of life Now; Afterword: Is Agassi Out of Touch with Reality? by Sheldon Richmond; Last Word: Instruction by Joseph Agassi; Appendix;