In his famous Allegory of the Cave, Plato inquires into “our nature as it concerns education.” These days, education is a hot-button issue, and with good reason: from concerns over “teaching to the test” in elementary school, to deficits in basic reading and writing skills, to skyrocketing tuition and crushing student loans, to the corporatizing of the university, to the rise of online education–education is in a state of dysfunction, disrepair, and decline. Indeed, the title of the most popular recent documentary on education is apt: “Waiting for Superman.”
These problems raise questions about precisely what education is for, what it means, and in what it consists. Why is education such a difficult problem in American life? In modern life? In life itself?
Please join us as we delve into these and other thorny questions!
Sign me up, D! Wish I could be there!