Paideia Agonistes: The Lost Soul of Modern Education

by John E. Grote

In recent years, as school shootings and violence among the young intensifies, the United States has begun to wonder where these problems originated, and how best to solve them. Is the fault with the school system? Or are our cultural ills the result of changing values? John E. Grote, in his provocative study of modern education, claims that culture and education are inextricably intertwined, and that the former is responsible for the decline of the latter. Grote outlines the modern condition, addressing the causes rooted in the Enlightenment's concept of man, and formulates a vision, based upon the Greek concept of paideia, that will renew the relationship between community and education.

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2000

Reviews

[Davis Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a bit surprising that this book seems to be completely obscure. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the fact that it's purveyed by the same greedy print-on-demand publisher as the much-lauded Norms and Nobility, and thus is not generally available for less than $60. I was fully expecting a Hicks-like work, so I dove in eagerly once I came across it in my college library. However, this is quite a different kind of study. Grote isn't really interested in outlining or defending classical education (as Hicks is): his goal is to dismantle some of the fundamental assumptions of modernity and to define a compromise model for education that blends the classical concept of paideia with the democratic/progressive approach of Dewey. It's a novel concept, for sure, but very different from what I expected. The first couple chapters are wonderful if not particularly original, but much of the latter half of the book drags badly as Grote launches into an extended, repetitive discussion that is mostly about John Dewey's ideas of education and community, which is probably more of interests to pedagogy majors than the layman. It reads more like a PhD dissertation on Dewey than anything. If for some reason you are in a position to read this book (I definitely wouldn't recommend shelling out the full price for it), I recommend reading the first four chapters and the last 15 pages or so. Overall, the book suffers from a lack of concision and from a total avoidance of actually providing a real solution to the problems that Grote dwells upon, which would have been remedied if he had been willing to incorporate more discussion of religion (or at least the Transcendentals) and to actually talk about the specifics of what paideia would look like in implementation. As it stands, it seems to me as if Grote can't have his cake and eat it too, clinging irrationally to Dewey and trying quite bizarrely to adapt the idea of paideia to a more pragmatic approach while critiquing the analytical soullessness of modernity. It just doesn't work that well. But it is a very different perspective than most books on the topic and still contains quite a few lovely thoughts, which makes it worth at least a skim if you have access to it.