National Institute of Mental Health administrative supplement.

Present paper at Oxford Roundtable, Oxford, England, July 30-August 4

Socratic Knowledge, Christian Love, Confucian Virtue and Buddhist Emptiness: Guiding Principles for Education

The public, media and government seem increasingly concerned about the role education plays in our society and in improving individual and collective lives. The Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association are developing Common Core State Standards to be applied throughout the United States. This effort is the latest in a series of attempts to develop common standards that all could be used to measure all students. These standards reflect the current emphasis to make students college and career ready, be internationally benchmarked, be evidenced based and develop high-order skills. The US Department of Education is promoting this effort and others with unprecedented amounts of funding pushing for reform on several fronts. Modern reforms have increasingly focused on the material and economic welfare of the individual and society as important goals of education. Numerous policies, commissions and reports have tied the called for higher standards and excellence in our schools to economic interests. These reports and policies seem to have largely ignored the centra