Assignment for Final Assessment, His102.

17
On the topic

From School of Athens, to Town vs Gown

Name: Nargis Hamid Monami
Student ID: 2021503630
Course: His102
Section: 17

Course Instructor: Mohammad Abul Kawser

[The references of this assignment have been done in APA-7 format. The plagiarism test has
been tested by Grammarly and 6% text of this assignment has been shown plagiarized.]
Research Objectives
In this article, I want to discuss the educational philosophy from time to time. Starting from
ancient Greece, the philosophy of education changed a lot until now. However, the point of
education should have been remained constant, although the points mismatched from the
beginning of the system and to now.
Research Questions
1. What are the main philosophies of education?
2. Do the objectives of School of Athens and the current Universities match?

Analysis
From the ancient Greek, Dialectic method by Socrates was a start of western philosophical
tradition of education. Dialectic method was originally a logically argumentation, which is
now applied to diverse fields as ‘Debate’. In search of justifying beliefs, judgments, and
actions, the practice of reasoning started. As a student of Socrates, Plato endorsed this view
of reasoning and made that a fundamental task of education. He set a vision of education in
which different groups of students would receive different sorts of education, depending on
their abilities, interests, and stations in life, this was also known as educational sorting.
However, Plato’s student, Aristotle, thought in a wider range. His optimism toward typical
students about the ability of education was more than Plato. Thus, he focused more on moral
virtue and the development of the character.

Raphael, School of Athens, 1509-1511, fresco (Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican)

However, the famous fresco painting, The School of Athens by Raphael, narrowed down the
philosophy of education more precisely. The School of Athens represents all the greatest
minds, such as philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, who have different insights for the
things of this world. But what this fresco tried to establish is “learning from each other”. In
this fresco, all the greatest minds gathered together sharing their ideas and learning from each
other.
Here, the two thinkers, Aristotle and Plato are in the center, pointing their hand in the
opposite direction. To Plato, the changing world that we see around us is just a shadow of a
higher, truer reality that is eternal and unchanging and to Aristotle, it’s the opposite, the only
reality is the one that we can see and experience by sight and touch. This fresco also
described great minds like Ptolemy and Pythagoras. Although there were differences of
thoughts, they are learning from each other.

However, the analysis of modern education is complicated. There are some philosophies for
the education here, Perennialism, Positivism, Behaviorism, Essentialism, Progressivism,
Reconstructionism, Constructivism, Humanism/ Existentialism. From the spread of primary
education to the emergence of universities, the education system has been improved.
Nevertheless, it created conflicts like Town v/s Gown too. Here, the town is the non-
academic population, and the gown represents the university community.
During the middle age, the students who went to university often held minor clerical status.
The gown, a tradition of university, as it helped to study in unheated and draughty buildings,
represented a social symbol for the university students. That was, university students are not
for physical or manual labors as the dress, gown was not physical for those. This made a
conflict between the gown and town. Now my thought is, is this the purpose of education, to
distinguishing the people?

Classic Aims of Education:

As it’s not possible to bound the goals of education into one, there are so many of them. For
example: cultivation of curiosity and the disposition to inquire; the fostering of creativity; the
production of knowledge and of knowledgeable students; the enhancement of understanding;
the promotion of moral thinking, feeling, and action; the enlargement of the imagination; the
fostering of growth, development, and self-realization; the fulfillment of potential, etc.
(Siegel H., 2020)
However, one thing is for sure, the aim of education can never be to make conflicts and
differences among the people.

Conclusion:
As Human Being, we have different thoughts. Sometimes they are logical, sometimes they
are not, but the beauty of these differences is that, we can talk about these. We can execute
our thoughts and learn from each other, as The School of Athens displays to us. There are
differences among people, but not necessarily we have to be hateful toward each other, like
Town v/s Gown. As Town vs Gown is not a subject just from middle age, it also runs in
today’s world too, a question can be asked, what did we learn from “The School of Athens”?
References:

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2017, March 10). Dialectic. Encyclopedia

Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/dialectic-logic

Khan Academy, Raphael, School of Athens, Khan Academy.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-
americas/renaissance-art-europe-ap/a/raphael-school-of-athens

Siegel, H. (2020, October 23). Philosophy of education. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy-of-education

Wikipedia, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia, Town vs Gown, Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_and_gown