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 (1929-2015) was 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 essay, sometimes personal, always scholarly, about Philip Jackson, about Jackson reading Dewey, about the nature of reading and interpretation, and about the aims of education as a cultural and truth-generating activity and as a personal quest. In the process, Jackson discusses different kinds of truth, from factual to conceptual to speculative, moral, and personal, and then uses this discussion to develop a vision for the renewal of education. Through his use of philosophy and 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
"'What Is Education?' is a personal reflection by an educational thinker of stature about important elements of education that teachers should think about to better ground their craft and to get full satisfaction from their work. Philip Jackson's engaging style mixes selective forays into the work of Dewey, Tillich, Kant, and Hegel with a rich understanding of how teachers do, can, and should work with students in their classrooms. Rather than presenting education already rethought, Jackson's book will stimulate and enable readers to rethink it for themselves – it has the potential to become a Strunk and White for the practicing teacher" – Robert O. McClintock, Teachers College, Columbia University
