Educational Theory

The debate over the proper approach to educating our youth on the postsecondary level has never been more contentious than now. On one side are traditionalists who argue for preservation of the canon of timeless classics as the indispensable foundation for a good education. On the other side are reconstructionists who criticize the classics as the vestiges of a wealthy, powerful elite, which do not reflect the diversity of today's multicultural society. As a result the campus has become polarized in a sometimes heated power struggle that calls into question core educational values and academic freedom.

Unlike other works offered today in the philosophy of education, this anthology combines classic and contemporary approaches to educational theory. It thus takes a first step toward integrating the major contributions found in both traditional and nontraditional scholarship. The selections not only provide an introduction to some of the major trends of thought in contemporary educational theory, but also suggest provisional solutions to some of the problems that have fueled the quarrel between the two camps. These solutions, argues editor Edmund Wall, depend both on historical texts and on a broad range of contemporary contributions.

Divided into three main sections-classics, politics and education, and free speech on campus-the collection includes the famous names of history-Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and John Dewey, as well as contemporary contributors-Allan Bloom, Sidney Hook, Mortimer Adler, Paulo Freire, Michael W. Apple, Nobuo Shimahara, Robert L. Simon, Henry David Aiken, Amy Gutman, Thomas C. Grey, Alan L. Keyes, Charles R. Lawrence, III, and Nadine Strossen.

This timely collection of important essays on a conflict that deeply divides the academic community is a must for educators and students alike.

Edmund Wall, Ph.D. (Greenville, NC), is assistant professor of philosophy at East Carolina University and the editor of Sexual Harassment: Confrontations and Decisions, which was awarded the Gustavus Myers Center Award for Outstanding book on Human Rights.