Stephen Downes

Reacting to yesterday's discussion, Harold Jarche draws out "three conflicting premises [of western education] which compete for dominance," specifically "education as socialization, education as a quest for truth (Plato) and education as the realization of individual potential (Rousseau)." Ideally, of course, all three could be equally and consistently realized - but one wonders whether it would take a Hegelian dystopia in order to achieve this.