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Posted
September 23, 2003
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Recalling Education
By Hugh Mercer Curtler
Wilmington, Delaware:ISI Books:2001
Reviewed by Lon
Woodbury
Recalling Education was written by Hugh Curtler, a professor
of philosophy at Southwest State University in Marshall,
Minnesota. He has written five other books, including Rediscovering
Values: Coming to Terms with Postmodernism. Although Recalling
Education focuses on college level education, the ideas Curtler
expresses here are also very relevant to secondary education,
especially emotional growth schools.
The purpose of his book is to study the interactions between
freedom, education and citizenship. Curtler believes that
producing properly educated and reasonable citizens is a
more important mission for schools than producing accountants,
schoolteachers, or Ph.D.’s. He asserts, “education is about
freedom: it is the systematic process of putting young people
into possession of their own minds. In the true sense of
the word, education is about empowerment, the freedom that
enables persons to act in accordance with their own self-determined
ends.” He continues, “a free man or woman is one who can
resist forces that act counter to his or her long-range self-interest,
whether these forces be within or without.” Similar ideas
are reflected in his statement: “one is an educated person
only if one’s mind is one’s own,” and “young people are not
free at birth; they become free only after they have been
properly educated.” According to his view, “education is
the process whereby rational agents achieve autonomy and
are thereby empowered to decide and act for themselves.”
Curtler explains that when Aristotle spoke of reason, he
spoke of the whole person as a rational being, which includes
the mind and the emotions. Thus, Curtler contends, the self-discipline
of the emotions is an important part of education. Although
he asserts a person’s moral values are pretty much determined
by the time they are age five, the liberal arts is a vital
tool in refining the students’ mental and emotional self-discipline.
If Virtue can be taught in later life, the author feels it
can only occur through human reason. He concludes by observing,
“Social Justice cannot be achieved if young people cannot
think” and “without viewing objective truth as a goal, there
is no way to resolve differences of opinion which would make
human ideals whimsical.” He further states, “an open mind
may be an empty mind.”
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