PAIDEIA Education

An integral part of my teaching practise has always consisted of the Greek conception of education which is encapsulated in the term paideia, the ideal model in education according to the ancient Greeks. This timeless and universal ideal of paideia embodied in each student, is the cornerstone of the revival of Classical education.

Paideia from the Greek pais (child), paidos, paideuein ( to educate, discipline, guide, train a child). (Greek παιδεία, paideía).Those Greek words are also related to ‘propaedeutic,’ ( providing instruction), paideutikos,pertaining to teaching and pedagogy, and paediatrics.

These educational ideals of Paideia later spread to the Greco-Roman world and were translated as humanitas and equated to the ‘artes liberals’ (refer to subjects considered worthy of a free person so he or she could actively participate in civic life.) with the ‘studia humanitatis’. (studies of humanities). It was many centuries later when this became the seven liberal arts which we know today as the trivium (grammar, dialectic or logic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (mathematics, geometry, music, and astronomy ).

The concept of Paideia is a fundamental principle to Greek thought and its primary element in forming ethos and culture in society. The early Greeks believed that Paideia did not only form the building blocks of a culture, but they believed that true freedom could only be achieved through paideia education. During that time in history the city-state and the citizens had a reciprocal relationship both striving to achieve arete or moral excellence. The goal was to develop the mind body and heart harmoniously uniting morality intellect and beauty. The virtuous principles in the paideia system shaped people in accordance with a standard that held universal principles which did not change with time.

In conforming to the ideals of paideia the Greeks understood that educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature according to Plato, was the greatest work of all and paideia was the means of shaping human nature in accordance with the ideal. Pedagogy involved gymnastics, grammar, rhetoric, poetry, music, mathematics, geography, natural history, astronomy and the physical sciences, history of society and ethics, and philosophy—the complete pedagogical course of study necessary to produce a well-rounded, fully educated citizen.”—Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind, pp. 29-30.

Paideia was instrumental in perpetuating ethos and culture from one generation to the next living virtuously in accordance with our rational human nature. According to Aristotle, eudaimonia or human flourishing was achieved through living virtuously with our human nature as rational human beings striving to express our full potential.

Thus education according to Werner Jaeger a classicist, paideia is ‘the process of educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature.” Werner Jaeger: Paideia: The ideals of Greek culture Vol. I: Archaic Greece, the mind of Athens, p. XXIII, third edition, Oxford 1946).

A response to the ideals of paideia in the twentieth century is evident in Mortimer J Adler’s revised classical education model which advocates for the Great books as seen in the Paideia Proposal. Adler believed that cultivating virtue and appreciating truth, goodness and beauty nourished the soul therefore this should be the priority of education.

Paideia, the formation and shaping of the character, aims to achieve moral virtue and intellectual wisdom by cultivating and nourishing the ‘true’ nature of the whole person.

*The School of Aristotle, by Gustav Adolph Spangenberg (1880)*

Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, Volume I: Archaic Greece: The Mind of Athens by Werner Wilhelm Jaeger, Gilbert Highet (Translator)

The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto.by Mortimer J. Adler. Macmillan.

The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View: Author: Richard Tarnas: Edition: reprint: Publisher: Ballantine, 1993:

: Published: 25 February 2022

America at 250: A Cautionary Case Study in Forgetfulness & Remembrance

In a July 3, 1776, letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams voiced his hope for future celebrations of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of their nation: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnised with Pomp and Parade, with Shows, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

Adams closed his letter soberly, for he knew the cost of American freedom would be great: “You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Day’s Transaction, even if We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”

Adams was prescient.

Artificial Intelligence – Friend or Foe of Classical Education?

The spectacular rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been ardently welcomed as well as anxiously feared.

In so many fields, including education, there are hopes that AI will vastly extend human capacity and the range of understanding. The power of Large Language Models (LLMs) to capture and summarise existing knowledge may provide a platform for finding new solutions to long-standing problems, and extend freedom for all kinds of creative breakthroughs in the arts and sciences. But there are also worries that AI could replace human intelligence in many areas, resulting in job dislocations and depersonalised services as well as academic cheating and bogus qualifications. The energy demands of the new data centres needed to power AI are also likely to have major social and political repercussions.

Classical Education - Then and Now

Fifty years ago anyone hearing the term "classical education" would take it to mean the rigorous study of the most important Greek and Latin authors - poets, dramatists, historians and philosophers - in their original languages. Traditional school curricula long focused closely on those studies. Until well into the nineteenth century the sciences and mathematics were comparative neglected, and (amazingly) English was not regarded as a proper subject for study at all! There could be no better evidence of the prevalence of this kind of education than the unofficial name given to the most prestigious degree at Oxford - Greats! The very word speaks of a world which specially revered the achievements of the great thinkers and writers of past ages almost above all else.

Progymnasmata – The Art of Rhetoric

It’s common today to equate rhetoric with the ability to sustain a coherent oral argument. Within contemporary education, particularly as part of higher education certificates, students are routinely expected to articulate and defend a position on a given topic through reasoned and persuasive discourse and, to varying degrees, they are schooled in the techniques necessary to accomplish this task. Yet, such a conception of rhetoric is certainly too simplistic.

For much of Western intellectual history, rhetoric has occupied a far more significant place within a standard education. As the culminating stage of the Trivium, it represented not merely the art of public speaking but the integration of a student’s disciplined thought, moral formation and linguistic mastery, demonstrated through their clear and precise reasoning, critical judgement and sensitivity to audience and context. Of course, these skills were not isolated but embedded within a broader understanding of virtue, civic responsibility and inherited culture.

Modern education tends to underestimate the breadth and sophistication of the classical approach to rhetoric, and it is doubtful whether many secondary school or university graduates could be truly described as accomplished orators in the traditional sense. However, if our goal as educators is to foster the full intellectual, moral and social development of young people, there is much to recommend revisiting one of the most enduring pedagogical practices of antiquity: the progymnasmata.

Students in the Chinese Room

In a 1980 article titled “Minds, Brains and Programs”, the American philosopher John Searle engaged with the question of whether “strong” artificial intelligence is possible, that is, could computers become truly sentient, conscious and rationally thinking creatures? In tackling this idea, he provided an illustrative thought experiment: “the Chinese room”.

Using Mortimer Adler’s Education Manifesto: The Paideia Proposal in an Australian Context

With the growing interest in classical education in Australia, amongst educators and parents, it is only fitting to revisit Mortimer Adler’s seminal work, The Paideia Proposal. Published in 1982, The Paideia Proposal is Adler’s educational manifesto as a solution to America's education system. While referring to the American educational landscape, Adler’s proposal can help to serve the Australian context.