A Break From Grades

Grades ruin everything. But I wanted to take a break from this topic to discuss something a bit more enlightening, if not uplifting. I am an admirer of the work of Richard Rorty. I think that he has changed the way we do philosophy in North America for the better. Nevertheless, his meagre writing on education deserves serious criticism. James Baldwin’s “paradox of education” points out precisely the weakness in Rorty’s position. And although the two are not specifically speaking to one another, I think it is worth putting them into dialogue.

Rorty, R. (2000). Education as Socialization and as Individualization. In Rorty, R. Philosophy and Social Hope. Penguin, pp. 114-126.

Here is a link to James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers”.

Rob Reich gives a critique of Rorty similar to my own in his “The Paradox of Education in Rorty’s Liberal Utopia”.

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