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Was President Hutchins Serious? John Dewey makes a further examination of Mr. Hutchins' position The Higher Learning in America John Dewey. Chwan-Chuen King Inst. of Epidemiology College of Public Health National Taiwan University June 13, 2009. Outline.
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Was President Hutchins Serious?John Dewey makes a further examination of Mr. Hutchins' position The Higher Learning in AmericaJohn Dewey Chwan-Chuen King Inst. of Epidemiology College of Public Health National Taiwan University June 13, 2009
Outline • Introduction of President of Hutchins • The Higher Learning in America 1. LEGAL FORENSICS 2. EVIDENCES OF A REAL ISSUE 3. WHERE DOES MR. HUTCHINS STAND? 4. METAPHYSICS IN THE UNIVERSITY C. Discussion
Robert Maynard Hutchins ( Maynard Hutchins), January 17, 1899 – May 17, 1977 An educational philosopher: Great Books of the Western World 1915-1917: Oberlin College, a small liberal arts college in Ohio WWI: Hutchins served in the United States Army's ambulance services in the Italian theatre. 1921: Yale University (B.A.), 1925: Yale Law School (L.L.B), after spending a year teaching high school History and English in Lake Placid, New York, 1927-1929: Dean of Yale Law School (Age 28) 1929–1945: a president of the University of Chicago (Age 30) and 1945–1951: its chancellor. He was the husband of novelist Maude Hutchins.
Broad Mind of Hutchins • Social sciences to solve social problems, especially in the face of the Great Depression. • In the late 1930s, Hutchins attempted to reform the curriculum of the University of Chicago along Aristotelian-Thomist lines, only to have the faculty reject his proposed reforms three times. • By 1947, the Hutchins Commission issued their report on the "social responsibility" of the press. • Hutchins founded the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in 1959, which was his attempt to bring together a community of scholars to analyze this broad area.
Philosophy of Education by Hutchins • The object of the educational system is to produce responsible citizens". • In The University of Utopia, Hutchins describes a country that has evolved to become the perfect society, Utopia, as well as their educational system, which has the well-defined purpose of "promot[ing] the intellectual development of the people". • Hutchins also explores some of the improper directions educational institutions have taken in the United States. He argues that education is becoming nothing more than a trade school, • Hutchins believes the students would receive a much more efficient and thorough education on working in a foundry by actually working in that foundry. He claims Universities should instead teach intellectual content, specifically the intellectual content related to the occupation, but that the occupation itself should take responsibility for training its employees. Hutchins also warns that education has shifted its focus from being educational to custodial. He charges that many schools have become no more than baby-sitting services for adolescents, protecting them from the tumultuous world of youth. He cites courses in home economics and driver's education as focusing on meeting a societal needrather than an educational goal. "The Idea of a College," the specialization of American education has robbed students of the ability to communicate with other students outside of their field.
Philosophy of Education by Hutchins School should pursue intellectual ideas rather than practical, he also believed that schools should not teach a specific set of values. "It is not the object of a college to make its students good, because the college cannot do it; if it tries to do it, it will fail; it will weaken the agencies that should be discharging this responsibility, and it will not discharge its own responsibility." The schools should not be in the business of teaching students what is right and just; it should be in the business of helping students make their own determinations. “When young people are asked, "What are you interested in?" they answer that they are interested in justice: they want justice for the Negro, they want justice for the Third World. If you say, "Well, what is justice?" they haven't any idea.”(Berwick, 1970) The great books do not have one answer to what justice is or isn't. In fact, there are many contradictory answers to this question. But what some see as a weakness, Hutchins asserts that students should be exposed to these conflicting ideas so that they may weigh and balance them in their own minds, boiling down the arguments and synthesizing a view of their own. Only in this way, can students learn what justice, beauty, and good really are.
