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© And Public Education
THE BEGINNINGS Aristotle was born in 384 BC His father was physician to the king of Macedonia. When he was 7, he went to study at Plato’s Academy. Began as a student, became a researcher and finally a teacher. Was considered one of Plato’s best students. Plato died and willed the Academy to his nephew. Aristotle left and founded the Lyceum. ARISTOTLE’S VIEWS Balance is the central concept to Aristotle’s views. Saw universe as being in a balanced and orderly fashion. Education was the means used to create a state of good citizens. MAN IS A RATIONAL ANIMAL Aristotle believed “man is a rational animal.” While animals express pleasure or pain with their cries, man and only man is able to speak. Ability to speak allows man to be able to determine the difference between what is right and what is wrong, what is beneficial and what is harmful. So, how are these skills and knowledge acquired? Through education. EDUCATION WAS CENTRAL A fulfilled person was an educated person. Education was essential for the self-realization of man. The supreme good to which all men aspire is happiness. LEARNING Students learned about something by practicing it over and over again until they learned it. This was done through the practice of habituation. Idea of learning was “Practice first, theory afterwards,” or “Do the deed and ye shall know the doctrine.” LEARNING, CONT. Work begun by nature and continued by habit or exercise was completed and crowned by instruction. This had two functions: To make action free by making it rational, and To make possible an advance to original action. Nature and habit make men slaves, gov’d by instincts and prescriptions. Instruction, or revelation of the grounds of action, set men free. Greeks thought of this as the realization of manhood – or the divine in man. WHO WAS TO BE EDUCATED? Men of noble nature. Only citizens of the state were to be educated. The role of women was to keep house and have children. Believed women were “intellectually inferior” to men. Marriage was simple an arrangement to procreate and rear offspring. Women were regarded as a means and not as an end. Slaves were not educated.