Purpose of Education

I have always believed that the purpose of education from the teaching standpoint was to teach, and from the student standpoint was to learn. Taking that perspective, I wonder: why is it important to modern education what the Chinese did several thousand years ago, or the Indians, or the Egyptians? Also, given the historical and cultural distance between these ancient cultures and the modern classroom, can any valid lessons be drawn from them? What teaching methodologies were found there that have any relationship to modern practice?

Of the Chinese: "govern the empire according to Confucian." I assume that the writer meant Confucian principles.

"sounds like No Child Left Behind" [Gulp] A comparison between the classical mandarin system of education and the current "No Child Left Behind" program is comparable to a comparison of butterscotch pudding and NASCAR. The mandarin state examinations were extremely rigorous, requiring essentially memorization of a vast range of classical texts, to be faithfully regurgitated in examination answers. The volume of materials was so vast and the time required to prepare adequately for the examination so lengthy that only the wealthy were ever candidates, and there was no system of public education. The notion of universal education was not part of classical Chinese culture.

While the comments on India are interesting and well-worded, what do they have to do with the purpose of education?

Similarly, the Egyptian battery is interesting, but again, I question it's relevance. Further, Egyptian culture stands in stark contrast to modern western culture. The priestly class were master of esoteria and they maintained a rigid control over the knowledge of their many arts. In complete contrast to the American system, which seeks to make as many people as possible part of the social process, the Egyptian system assumed that a tiny elite of priests and bureaucrats would have control of any knowledge beyond that needed for daily life, while millions of slaves toiled at the Egyptian obsession: tombs for the kings.

I agree that the Greeks understood the importance in forming good citizens. However, their means of forming citizens has little to compare to a German model for training skilled workers. Most Greek training was done through tutors, many of them informally gathering groups of pupils about themselves. Further, much of this training was directed towards mastery of rhetoric – the skill of presenting arguments.

The Romans trained their generals through a class system. The officers were drawn almost exclusively from the cavalry, which was required to provide their own horses and equipment, so that the officers were wealthy. They were then trained and selected from within the army, but it was actually common for them to have little education. The bulk of Roman education was done along the Greek model, although the Romans disdained drama, considering it unseemly in its displays of emotion.

Of the Arabs, the essay describes the Arabic state of knowledge, not their educational system.

The "Medieval Times" are commonly known as the "dark ages" for the fact that the great bulk of the world was totally uneducated, and much of the classical knowledge of Greece and Rome was lost.

Of the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance, how are these relevant to modern education. (This is not say that they are not relevant, but to say the connection needs to be explained.

The Reformation was aided by the education of the masses as much as it caused it, but this essay does not clearly explain either what the Reformation tried to do, or how it shaped education.

This essay stops at 1600, a few years before the first American colonies were established. Surely there have been some development in education in the last 400 years, but why aren't they discussed?

Overall, I found this essay disappointing.

Well this is pretty good, it moves around a little keeping the reader on your toes. Good information from various sources. Good job