Plato’s Republic: The Role of Education in Democracy

This paper will take a closer look at how Plato’s Republic is relevant in today’s world, specifically to education and democracy, and how his very philosophy as represented by dialectic is the essential method of education that will enable and empower the people for a democracy. The ability to engage in Socratic elenchus, to stand up to the test of the dialectic, was intended as an exercise in the art of investigating truth, rather than to inculcate any particular set of principles, doctrines, or opinions. For democracy to work, the people in whose hands the power of the state is lodged must be trained in the program that Plato prescribed for the guardians. The curriculum must teach the students courage, the special excellence of the ‘spirit’ element in their souls, wisdom, the excellence of the ‘philosophic’ element, and temperance or self-control. Plato’s prescription of the training for the guardians in the Academy should very well be adopted for training of the citizenry if they are to be prepared for and capacitated for democracy. It is not just the philosopher-king that is necessary, but more importantly, it is the philosopher-citizen that will make democracy work and that will make democracy meaningful

“Is It Desirable to Do Philosophy With Students in Their Second Language?”

Advocates of philosophizing with children report the benefits of the practice: tapping into a natural sense of wonder, cultivating the willingness to listen to others, developing critical reasoning, etc. A mother tongue shared by both students and teacher would go a long way in facilitating these learning processes. However, given that in many classrooms the language of instruction is not necessarily the students’ mother tongue, the question of the desirability of practicing philosophy with them arises. This paper considers some arguments in support of the negative response to this question: (a) children learning in a second language have limited vocabulary and their ways of expressing themselves are still undergoing development; (b) since young people do not yet have sufficient language skills, we cannot expect them to philosophize in a serious way; (c) linguistic deficiencies have led to the diminishing quality of education; making linguistically weak students engage in philosophy would be pedagogically disastrous. Counterarguments to each of these claims are then developed, pointing out that these operate on (a) a widespread misconception about children, (b) a possibly limited view of philosophy, and (c) an underestimation of the potential of philosophizing with children

Environment Education and the Ethics These Encourage: A Case for Outdoor Education in the Philippines

This paper discusses the role of environmental ethics and the values and motivations that can influence a person’s perspective and willingness to engage in pro-environment behavior. It explores the concept of outdoor education as an experience-based learning approach that has the potential to encourage pro-environment behavior by positively influencing the learner’s relationship with nature (ecosystemic), themselves (interpersonal), their community (intrapersonal), and the impacts of human societies on the environment (ekistic). It presents the possibilities of outdoor education as a strategy for strengthening environment education and the opportunities that can be explored through pursuing this approach in the Philippine setting