A Comparison of Classic and Contemporary Philosophers Essay -- essays

A Comparison of Classic And Contemporary Philosophers Why is it so important that young children in our society receive a good education? The answer to that question is very simple; because they are our future. The old saying â€Å"the youth of today are the leaders off tomorrow† holds more truth than many people realize. By giving children a good start at an early age we are only helping ourselves as well as the children. A good example of this is can be seen in our society. By the time a teacher in our society retires from his or her position their students will have made it out into the real world and taken jobs. This new generation will be the ones to make the decisions about laws such as Social Security, and Medicaid. The students will be able to turn these programs around and make them more beneficial to their recipients. These teachers who are now retired will be the ones who are collecting Social Security and reaping the benefits of the children’s solid education. The idea of educating the youth is not even close t o a new idea. Philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau in the seventeen hundreds and even farther back than that to the time of Plato in three hundred eighty six B.C. and after. Both of these great men shared similar ideas on how children should be taught so that they can get the most out of their education. Though educational philosophy dates back thousands of years, there are still many great thinkers who are revolutionizing teaching with their philosophies today. In the later part of the twentieth century there was also Paulo Friere who is considered by some to be the greatest thinker of his time and also Maxine Greene who has also greatly changed education in today’s society. Thanks to these great minds along with many others, modern day education was revolutionized. Many of the teaching techniques and ideals that are practiced in the classroom today originated from these philosophers. These four philosophers though from two very different time periods had some very sim ilar ideas about education. Jean Jacques Rousseau said that children are born innocent and pure, and become contaminated by the world, as they grow older. â€Å"Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man†. (Cahn 163) This quote shows that Rousseau saw the world as an imperfect place that corrupted ... ...that they had a firm grasp on what it takes to give children a proper education, and to prepare them for the real world. The approaches that they proposed would give students more of a drive or desire to learn. In toady’s society school is just a hassle that kids have to put up with. I think that if children were taught in the way that Plato, Rousseau, Friere, and Walzer said they should be, our society would be very different. One other thing that I found interesting about these philosophers is the fact that they all had very similar philosophies about education even though one live around 300 B.C. and another in the seventeen hundreds while the other two in the later part of the twentieth century. I guess that no matter the time period, its like they always say; â€Å"great minds think alike.† Works Cited Cahn, Steven M. Classic And Contemporary Readings In The Philosophy of Education. Apr 20, 2002. McGraw Hill Co. 1997. â€Å"Educational Philosophy†. http://home.pacbell.net/altsch/Philosophy.html. Aug 11, 1999. HotBot.com. Accessed Apr 20,2002. â€Å"Plato†. http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Plato.html . Jan 1999. Google.com. Accessed Apr 20,2002.