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The Interrelation of Aims |
| Section: MODERN THOUGHT / T.S. ELIOT ON THE AIMS OF EDUCATION |
| Author: T.S. Eliot |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/1993 |
| Size: 2,275 Words, 12,953 Characters |
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So far, we have accepted as the most convenient starting point ...the three aims of education: the professional, or, in the humblest way of putting it, training to earn a living; the social, or ...preparation for citizenship; and the individual, or, in Matthew Arnold's way of putting it, the pursuit of perfection. But we cannot define education as merely the sum of these three activities; for if the term "education" is to cover all three and not be wholly applicable to any one of them separately, we must appreciate some relationship, or rather some mutual implication, between them, such that each, while it may still be called education, is not the whole of education by itself. We recognize that the choice of a livelihood is limited, first, by the capacities of the individual; and second, by the kinds of activity favored or discouraged by the society in which the individual finds himself, or in other words, the kinds of thing that people are prepared to pay a man to do. ...And this raises the question of moral criteria; so that the formula of earning a living is doubly inadequate, and we are led to both of the other aims on our list. Or, if we start from the formula "training for citizenship," that implies training to make a living; or, in a wider sense (including those perso...
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... social reformer who dreams of the happiness of the people-- such individuals do not encounter any obstacle so long as they refrain from action. They sail along happily in a good which is absolute, but fictitious: to stumble against reality is the signal for waking up. This contradiction, the mark of our wretchedness and our greatness, is something that we must accept in all its bitterness."
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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