Beyond Half an Education

By John I. Goodlad

I consider myself half-educated. How could that be, you say. I hold a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and have been a professor there and at several other major universities. Yet, I say, I am only half-educated. How can that be?

I am regarded as well educated because our society has a limited view of what education encompasses. From early times, human tribes have engaged in rites of passage symbolizing the readiness of their young to assume full adult responsibility. These rites were preceded or accompanied by education designed to ensure perpetuation of the tribes' ways of life. Learning these ways becomes an introduction into the human conversation. Our society looks mostly to schools for introducing the young to this conversation.

The "human conversation" becomes a metaphor for the whole of living: work, play, parenting, governing, and more. Societies differentiate the values they place on various elements of this conversation. These values, in turn, create incentives for preparing to participate in some parts of the human conversation and not others. These choices of values drive schools. Unless these choices are adjusted from time to time in the light of changing circumstances, a society can get quite out of balance in regard to the human traits it fosters. And...