Passage 1
Philosophy of Education is a label applied to the study of the purpose, process,
nature and ideals of education. It can be considered a branch of both philosophy
and education. Education can be defined as the teaching and learning of specific
skills, and the imparting of knowledge, judgment and wisdom, and is something
broader than the societal institution of education we often speak of.
Many educationalists consider it a weak and woolly field, too far removed from
the practical applications of the real world to be useful. But philosophers dating
back to Plato and the Ancient Greeks have given the area much thought and
emphasis, and there is little doubt that their work has helped shape the practice
of education over the millennia.
Plato is the earliest important educational thinker, and education is an essential
element in "The Republic" (his most important work on philosophy and political
theory, written around 360 B.C.). In it, he advocates some rather extreme
methods: removing children from their mothers' care and raising them as wards
of the state, and differentiating children suitable to the various castes, the highest
receiving the most education, so that they could act as guardians of the city and
care for the less able. He believed that education should be holistic, including
facts, skills, physical discipline, music and art. Plato believed that talent and
intelligence is not distributed genetically and thus is be found in children born to
all classes, although his proposed system of selective public education for an
educated minority of the population does not really follow a democratic model.
Aristotle considered human nature, habit and reason to be equally important
forces to be cultivated in education, the ultimate aim of which should be to
produce good and virtuous citizens. He proposed that teachers lead their
students systematically, and that repetition be used as a key tool to develop good
habits, unlike Socrates' emphasis on questioning his listeners to bring out their
own ideas. He emphasized the balancing of the theoretical and practical aspects
of subjects taught, among which he explicitly mentions reading, writing,
mathematics, music, physical education, literature, history, and a wide range of
sciences, as well as play, which he also considered important.
During the Medieval period, the idea of Perennialism was first formulated by St.
Thomas Aquinas in his work "De Magistro". Perennialism holds that one should
teach those things deemed to be of everlasting importance to all people
everywhere, namely principles and reasoning, not just facts (which are apt to
change over time), and that one should teach first about people, not machines or
techniques. It was originally religious in nature, and it was only much later that a
theory of secular perennialism developed.
During the Renaissance, the French skeptic Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592)
was one of the first to critically look at education. Unusually for his time,
Montaigne was willing to question the conventional wisdom of the period, calling
into question the whole edifice of the educational system, and the implicit
assumption that university-educated philosophers were necessarily wiser than
uneducated farm workers, for example.
Q1.What is the difference between the approaches of Socrates and
Aristotle?
1) Aristotle felt the need for repetition to develop good habits in students;
Socrates felt that students need to be constantly questioned
2) Aristotle felt the need for rote-learning; Socrates emphasized on dialogic
learning
3) There was no difference
4) Aristotle emphasized on the importance of paying attention to human nature;
Socrates emphasized upon science
Q2.Why do educationists consider philosophy a ‘weak and woolly’ field?
1) It is not practically applicable
2) Its theoretical concepts are easily understood
3) It is irrelevant for education
4) None of the above
Q3.What do you understand by the term ‘Perennialism’, in the context of
the given comprehension passage?
1) It refers to something which is of ceaseless importance
2) It refers to something which is quite unnecessary
3) It refers to something which is abstract and theoretical
4) It refers to something which existed in the past and no longer exists now
Q4.Were Plato’s beliefs about education democratic?
1) He believed that only the rich have the right to acquire education
2) Yes
3) He believed that only a select few are meant to attend schools
4) He believed that all pupils are not talented
Q5.Why did Aquinas propose a model of education which did not lay much
emphasis on facts?
1) Facts are not important
2) Facts do not lead to holistic education
3) Facts change with the changing times
4) Facts are frozen in time
Passage 2
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist
Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on
August 28, 1963, in which he calls for an end to racism in the United States and
called for civil and economic rights. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights
supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the
speech was a defining moment of the civil rights movement.
Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed
millions of slaves in 1863, King observes that: "one hundred years later, the
Negro still is not free". Toward the end of the speech, King departed from his
prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme "I have a dream",
prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" In this
part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become its
most famous, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a
land of slavery and hatred. Jon Meacham writes that, "With a single phrase,
Martin Luther King Jr. joined Jefferson and Lincoln in the ranks of men who've
shaped modern America". The speech was ranked the top American speech of
the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.
Q1.What issues does Martin Luther King’s speech address?
1.Continuation of racism
2.End to racism and civil and economic rights
3. Civil rights
4.Civil War
Q2.What pushes King to speak: “I have a dream”?
1.He reads out the Emancipation Proclamation
2.He is prompted by Mahalia Jackson
3.he is overwhelmed by the crowd
4.Licoln had asked him to give the speech
Q3.From the last paragraph, give one word for “to leave”
1.Departed
2. Proclamation
3.Improvised
4.Address
Q4.What is the name of martin Luther King’s famed speech?
1.The Emancipation Proclamation
2.An Improvisation
3. A Peroration
4.I Have a Dream
Q5.In front of whom does King speak?
1.The civil rights supporters
2.His friends
3.Lincoln
4.The Negroes
