One day in 1938, John Dewey addressed a room of professional educators and urged them to take up the task of "finding out just what education is." Reading this lecture in the late 1940s, Philip W. Jackson took Dewey's charge to heart and spent the next sixty years contemplating his words. The stimulating result of a lifetime of thinking about educating, "What Is Education?" is a profound philosophical exploration of how we transmit knowledge in human society and how we think about accomplishing that vital task. Most contemporary approaches to education follow a strictly empirical track, aiming to discover pragmatic solutions for teachers and school administrators. Jackson argues that we need to learn not just how to improve on current practices but also how to think about what education means - in short, we need to answer Dewey by constantly rethinking education from the ground up. Guiding us through the many facets of Dewey's comments, Jackson also calls on Hegel, Kant, and Paul Tillich to shed light on how a society does, can, and should transmit truth and knowledge to successive generations. Teasing out the implications in these thinkers' works ultimately leads Jackson to the conclusion that education is at root a moral enterprise. At a time when schools increasingly serve as a battleground for ideological contests, "What Is Education?" is a stirring call to refocus our minds on what is for Jackson the fundamental goal of education: making students as well as teachers - and therefore everyone-better people.

About the Author
Philip W. Jackson is the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Education and Psychology and in the College at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books, including Life in Classrooms, The Practice of Teaching, and John Dewey and the Philosopher's Task.

Reviews
"This is some of the very best educational-or philosophical-writing I have read. Bearing the hallmarks of a modern classic, What Is Education? is a remarkable book, sometimes personal, always scholarly, about the nature of reading and interpretation and about the aims of education as a truth-generating activity as well as a personal quest. Through his use of philosophy, pedagogy, and even in his innovative interpretations of poets such as Wallace Stevens, Jackson displays the qualities Dewey promoted, namely a truly engaged, inquiring mind." -Walter Feinberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"


Awards
Winner of PROSE (Education) 2012.



Book Information
ISBN 9780226389387
Author Philip W. Jackson
Format Hardback
Page Count 136
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 312g
Dimensions(mm) 22mm * 14mm * 2mm