Aristotle and education

Aristotle and education. We only have scraps of his work, but

his influence on educational thinking has been of fundamental
importance.
Aristotle (384 – 322 BC). Aristotle’s work was wide-ranging – yet our
knowledge of him is necessarily fragmented. Only around 20 per cent of his
written work has survived – and much of that is in the form of lecture and other
notes. However, there can be no doubting his significance. He was:

A tireless scholar, whose scientific explorations were as wide-ranging as his

philosophical speculations were profound; a teacher who inspired – and who
continues to inspire – generations of pupils; a controversial public figure who
lived a turbulent life in a turbulent world. He bestrode antiquity like an
intellectual colossus. No man before him had contributed so much to
learning. No man after could hope to rival his achievement

Jonathan Barnes (1982) Aristotle, Oxford: OUP.

There are only scraps of his work On Education, however we can get a picture of
his ideas from surviving works. Aristotle believed that education was central –
the fulfilled person was an educated person. Here I want to focus on those
elements of his thought that continue to play a key part in theorizing informal
education.

First, his work is a testament to the belief that our thinking and practice as
educators must be infused with a clear philosophy of life. There has to be a deep
concern for the ethical and political. We have continually to ask what makes for
human flourishing? From this we should act to work for that which is good or
‘right’, rather than that which is merely ‘correct’.

Second, along with many others in his time, he placed a strong emphasis on all
round and ‘balanced’ development. Play, physical training, music, debate, and the
study of science and philosophy were to all have their place in the forming of
body, mind and soul. Like Plato before him, he saw such learning happening
through life – although with different emphases at different ages.
Third, he looked to both education through reason and education through habit.
By the latter he meant learning by doing – ‘Anything that we have to learn to do
we learn by the actual doing of it… We become just by doing just acts, temperate
by doing temperate ones, brave by doing brave ones.’ (Aristotle Niconachean
Ethics, Book II, p.91). Such learning is complemented by reason – and this
involves teaching ‘the causes of things’. We can see here a connection with more
recent theorists that have emphasized experience, reflection and connecting to
theories.

Fourth, and linked to the above, Aristotle bequeathed to us the long-standing

categorizing of disciplines into the theoretical, practical and technical. We have
suffered at different points from a continuing emphasis in education, after
Aristotle, on contemplation as the highest form of human activity. However,
many writers have picked up on his concern for the practical – and for practical
reasoning. We can this at work, for example, in the work of Carr and Kemmis
(1986), and Grundy (1987) when they argue for a concern with process and praxis
in education. It has also been a significant element in the reformulation of
informal education by writers such as Jeffs and Smith (1990; 1994, 1996).

Aristotle’s bequest is not an unproblematic one. There is much to dislike about

some of his ideas and the way in which subordinated groups are excluded from
the benefits of education in his thinking. However, the study of his thought
remains deeply rewarding for many educators.