PERENNIALISM

BY: LAURA ROSSANO

PERENNIALISM Educational philosophy which is believed to follow a traditional

and conservative belief.

Perennialists view education as a constant and follow relevant

and meaningful ideas.

Stresses the importance of truth and reasoning. Focuses on personal development and what is important to people everywhere.

Taught through structured study. Students learn from reading and analyzing pieces of history by well-known writers and philosophers.

Believed to be taught through rigorous intellectual discipline and strong behavior control.

PEOPLE OF PERENNIALISM

Robert M. Hutchins was a perennialist educator that strongly believed in having basic traditional liberal arts in all schools.

Great books of the western.

He wanted to extract all extracurricular activities from schools, in belief that they were emotive and irrelevant to the learning process.

PEOPLE OF PERENNIALISM Mortimer Adler organized the Great Books

of the Western World curriculum along with Hutchin.

Purpose is to teach students how to be better thinkers and more independent.

When writing he wanted to make sure that his thoughts could be comprehended by all readers. He wanted to be consistent in his work.

Believes that philosophy should be part of the main curriculum in schools.

CLASSICS OF PERENNIALISM

Perennialism values the classics of art and literature.

The purpose is to enlighten students with more focus on important things.

The writings and teachings of Plato are very valuable and is often seen in this philosophy.

COLLEGE & PERENNIALISM

Many colleges use this philosophy of perennialism.

For example, St. John’s has no textbooks available to students but instead classes use many world known theoretical books.

Students would study roughly about 25 books per year in a class. This would broaden their intellection and eventually allow them to develop their own reasoning and thought process.

PERENNIALISM IN THE CLASSROOM

extremely structured and traditional.

Lots of lecturing and makes sure that the correct point is getting across to the students.

The questions asked have only one correct answer and things need to be put to memory.

Schools should spend more time teaching about concepts and explaining how they are meaningful to students.

Perennialist classrooms are centered on the teachers. They use methods of teaching that it best suited for disciplining the minds of the students.

ORDERLY SEATING Orderly seating arrangements are favored.

Desks are usually arranged in rows and students are seated in alphabetical order.

This is logical and systematic in the eyes of a perennialist.

A perennialist would not bother learning the names of the students due to the fact that it forms an environment of equality between teachers and students.

GROUPING OF STUDENTS Perennialists favor grouping of

students by ability.

Differences among students should be recognized and the higher achieving students should be grouped with students on that same level.