File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_1999/bhaskar.9910, message 106


Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 16:44:44 +0100
From: Karl Maton <karl.maton-AT-dtn.ntl.com>
Subject: BHA: A small funny bit for light relief



Dear all,

Just thought I'd let you know that Bhaskar was mentioned in a small
thing I wrote for a journal for secondary school history teachers called
Teaching History.  It's a regular page called Mummy, mummy.. where a
small girl asks her mother (history teacher) about things.

-------------
Mummy, Mummy!  What’s the philosophy of education?

Be quiet, dear, and eat up your beef-flavoured soya burger, Mummy’s
trying to find her diazepam for the OFSTED inspection tomorrow.

But what is it?

Well, dear, it’s an intellectual pursuit that’s been going for thousands
of years which asks fundamental questions about the nature of education.

But daddy says that it’s about defining words.

Daddy’s still strapped into his armchair babbling about the meaning of
‘pedagogy’, and the doctor says he may never snap out of it.  Daddy’s right,
though, insofar as that’s all it seems to do most of the time.

And what do they say ‘pedagogy’ means?

Usually they either try to define it finally and never do, or end up
saying it depends on the context.  But there are other conceptions of
philosophy, such as the ‘underlabourer’ idea.

What’s that?

It sees philosophy as a means of clearing away obstacles to progress,
unknotting the mind like an intellectual massage.  A Greek philosopher
called Socrates - he was in that Bill and Ted film I let you watch last
night - said he was like a midwife: rather than giving birth to ideas
about the world himself, he helped others to give birth to their ideas
and to avoid complications along the way.  So, rather than trying to
finally define ‘pedagogy’ or saying it just depends on the time and
place, this kind of philosophy tries to point out and help when people
are being contradictory or muddle-headed.  So, in education it has
plenty of work to do!

Isn’t that what daddy’s doing?

Well, he would be but he strapped himself into the armchair in his study
and won’t come out to talk to anybody.

Is anybody doing it?

Well, there’s critical realists like Roy Bhaskar, who showed how many
people’s understanding of what science does were completely wrong and so
debates over whether other disciplines should be ‘scientific’ or not
were arguing over the wrong thing  ... there now, you’ve got me going
and it’s time for bed.  Run along now...

Mummy, what’s scientific?
------------


With best wishes,

Karl

Karl Maton
School of Education, University of Cambridge

Correspondence address:
108 Avenue Road Extension, Leicester LE2 3EH
Tel: 0116 220 1066
Email: karl.maton-AT-dtn.ntl.com

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the
truth of the imagination
Keats




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