A key aspect of the educator's responsibility as understood by Hannah Arendt is its dual character. Educators are responsible for both the life and development of the child and the continuance of the world, as Arendt puts it in "The Crisis in Education." Moreover, these aspects of responsibility are in tension with each other. Arendt's…

The state's commitment to educating all children can be framed as a matter of human capital development, or the economic benefits accrued to individuals and society as a result of educational attainment; it can be framed as a matter of capabilities, or the development of functionings that enable human flourishing; and it can be framed as a matter…

The teacher's responsibility goes beyond teaching; it ranges into investigations of what peripheral acts are necessary to make teaching possible in individual and general cases, into counseling and perhaps feeding children, even into political action. What the "Theory of Erotetic Teaching" can do to resolve such issues is discussed. (MT)

This paper explores the notion that teaching necessarily involves the attempt to bring about learning, making the relationship between teaching and learning appear to be causal. A number of philosophical views are considered, a new conception is put forward, and policy issues surrounding teacher accountability are discussed. (MT)

This paper analyzes the impact of the idea of accountability on education. It considers the kind of relationships that are promoted or produced by the culture of accountability, both in order to understand what kind of relationships are made possible and to understand what kind of relationships are made difficult, or even impossible, as a result…

There is mounting interest among educators in the concept of virtue, leaving a large question of how best to deal with tensions between self-regarding virtue ideals and other-regarding obligations. Two concepts of democratic virtue are presented. How educators should proceed is discussed. (MT)

The nature of personal rights and how such rights apply to an individual's right to learn are analyzed in the light of the obligations of the education system to that individual. (JD)

A society can educate all its members to be more creative than Aristotle's "ideal choosing agent" if it can encourage them to conform to certain standards while at the same time educating them to express individual proclivities. (JD)

The purpose of educational philosophy, as represented in "Philosophy and Education: Eightieth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education," is discussed and a proper role for the discipline is suggested. Several authors of essays in the yearbook are criticized for emphasizing adherence to schools of philosophy at the…

Education is a derived right of Americans. An organized process which aims to impart specified knowledge and skills, education is the only way in which learning opportunities, which are the right of Americans, can be ensured. (CJB)

A recent controversy regarding ability grouping is that it is often perceived as a means whereby racial or class bias can be subtly transformed into mechanisms of discrimination which exhibit the appearance of fairness and objectivity. This article addresses the question of fairness in ability grouping. (CJB)

The author takes issue with some of the essays in "Philosophy and Education: Eightieth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education," which urge that educational philosophy be tied to practitioner needs. Educational philosophy should concentrate on understanding education, not on improving it. (PP)

The assignment of responsibility to the educational institution and its agents eliminates moral responsibility from society. The key concept of responsibility is examined and its moral applicability to institutions refuted. A direction to be taken to reinstate moral responsibility in society is proposed. (JN)

The school as a social institution reflects the attitude of society as a whole when it labels and stereotypes black children, assuming that their achievement level will be lower than that of their white peers. (JD)