“No Guru, No Method, No Teacher”: Socrates and the Love of Wisdom in Education
Getting Back to Socrates[1] Genuine philosophy is not pretty. In fact, its public countenance is as ugly as Socrates’ face. It is most certainly unattractive to those…
Philosophizing among Refugee Students in the High School ELL Classroom
Introduction: Mythic Consciousness and Philosophy Philosophy is commonly misunderstood as one subject among many that you might take up in school; it is often confounded with whatever…
Katabasis in the Setting of Plato’s Symposium Revisited
Introduction In an earlier article (Steel 2004), I drew attention to the importance of descent imagery in the Symposium for building a more complete understanding of the…
Some Inflammatory Remarks about Philosophizing
All I had in all my classes were jocks trying to make up credit, you know? You know that feeling? They weren’t there to learn at all.…
Litter-Picking the Teacher’s Soul for Contemplative Pursuits
A number of years ago, I abandoned a secure, well-paying high school teaching position and took up a job picking litter for the city’s Roads Department. At…
Review of Flattering the Demos: Fiction and Democratic Education
Flattering the Demos: Fiction and Democratic Education. Marlene K. Sokolon and Travis D. Smith, eds. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2018. This edited compilation by Marlene Sokolon and…
Loving Sophia and Loving Nature: A Meditation
This short, informal bit of writing is inspired by a former high school student of mine who has, for the last number of years, devoted her working…
Oil and Water? Assessment and the Pursuit of Wisdom in Education
Stating the Problem Academic research in the field of assessment is replete with thoughtful analysis designed to offer us a multitude of ways to improve both our…
An Invitation to Philosophizing: On the Challenges of Philosophy of Education Instruction in B.Ed. Programs
The Trend towards Marginalizing Philosophy “Philosophy of Education” or “Education Foundations” is not regularly offered as a core course in most B. Ed. Programs today. The eradication…
B. F. Skinner: Gnostic Pneumopath or Educator Extraordinaire?
He knew in advance what O'Brien would say. That the Party did not seek power for its own ends, but only for the good of the majority.…