Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Is Jefferson A Founding Father Of Democratic Education? A Response To "Jefferson And The Ideology Of Democratic Schooling", Johann Neem
Democracy and Education
This response argues that it is reasonable to consider Thomas Jefferson a proponent of democratic education. It suggests that Jefferson's education proposals sought to ensure the wide distribution of knowledge and that Jefferson's legacy remains important to us today.
“The Diffusion Of Light”: Jefferson’S Philosophy Of Education, M. Andrew Holowchak
“The Diffusion Of Light”: Jefferson’S Philosophy Of Education, M. Andrew Holowchak
Democracy and Education
Jefferson's republicanism—a people-first, mostly bottom-up political vision with a moral underpinning—was critically dependent on general education for the citizenry and higher education for those who would govern. This paper contains an analysis of Jefferson’s general philosophy of pedagogy by enumerating some of its most fundamental principles, applicable to both elementary and higher education.
Repair To The Lamps And Rake The Language, Daniel Malachuk
Repair To The Lamps And Rake The Language, Daniel Malachuk
Democracy and Education
Boatright and Faust rightly recommend Emerson’s active reading style, but they misrepresent him as pragmatist who believed readers to be “makers of meaning.” Emerson was a transcendentalist whose fundamental message was that moral “truth exists, though all men should deny it.” Especially in his antislavery writings, Emerson teaches two ways for readers to find (not make) these moral truths in the texts they read: by reading with their souls, or intuitively (“repairing to the lamps”), and by reading for the facts (“raking the language”) that will awaken moral sensibilities. Rather than continue to invent an Emerson who flatters our contemporary …
Emerson, Reading, And Democracy: Reading As Engaged Democratic Citizenship, Michael D. Boatright, Mark A. Faust
Emerson, Reading, And Democracy: Reading As Engaged Democratic Citizenship, Michael D. Boatright, Mark A. Faust
Democracy and Education
“What is the right use of books?” Responding to the question he famously raised, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “books are for nothing but to inspire,” which we take as endorsing a pragmatic and pluralistic view of reading literature and other kinds of texts in a manner that keeps books open to a flow of continual questioning and renewal. The purpose driving Emerson’s democratic conception of reading, we argue, is not to arrive at definitive readings but to engender new possibilities for thinking about oneself in relation to others and to society at large. As such, an Emersonian perspective on …