Then and Now: An Assessment of Perennialisms Educational Curriculum

Submitted by:
Cocamas, Mary Joyce, B.

EDFD 120 (THU)

1st Semester, AY 2015-2016
Prof. Abigail Thea O. Canuto

October 19, 2015

There is no denying that Education is viewed as an investment and a means to a better

life. It is concerned with equipping the children to earn a good living for themselves and
enabling them to lead good human lives. As seen in our Philippine culture, parents would work
hard and sacrifice a great deal, even going as far as working abroad, in order for them to earn
money and grant their children the best education the schools has to offer. Education has become
a necessity, in line with food and shelter. It does not only benefit the children, but also the nation.
Indeed, investing in education is the right and smart thing to do.
Education not only offers knowledge and employment, it also presents empowerment,
peace, equality, an improved lifestyle, and a more productive society. With all these in mind, it is
crucial to acknowledge the existence of an educational crisis. Yoka Brandt (2015), a UNICEF
Deputy Executive Director, reported that currently in 2015, more than 120 children are out of
school. Brandt also cited a learning crisis, where it is estimated that 130 million children cannot
read or count even if they have reached Grade 4. Like an untreated wound, the situation is
expected to worsen, and by 2030 over 600 million children will not be able to access basic
schooling (Brandt, 2015). For the past years, leaders have been calling and acting to propose a
progressive education. But in seeing the worsening education situation, we must question if it is
real progress or are we only led to a false notion of progress? Perhaps in resolving the learning
crisis, wherein students would be given a strong foundation on the basic skills such as reading,
writing and arithmetic, together with the learning of core knowledge, will this worsening
educational situation be remedied?
An Overview of Perennialism
Perennialism is a philosophy of education that is heavily influenced by the philosophies
of Realism and Thomism. Some of the notable spear headers of Perennialism are Robert
Maynard Hutchins, Jacques Maritain, and Mortimer Adler. Perennialism upholds that there are
important principles of right and justice that are changeless and recurrent, and that there are
eternal truths and values that should be taught to students (Gutek, 1997). An example of these
eternal truths and values are the foundational skills of reading, writing and arithmetic which will
hopefully lead to literate and civilized people. It prioritizes the cultivation of human rationality,
intellect, and cultural heritage through a same and uniform curriculum for everyone, regardless
of individual differences.

As a researcher, learner and educator-in-training, I would like to delve deeper into the
different types of educational philosophies before I would be sent in the field and practice
teaching. To examine the spectrum of the distinct philosophies of education, and see how they
are alike and at odds with each other. Also, seeing how Perennialism is mirrored in our present
curriculum, I saw its relevance in the Philippine situation and it piqued my interest. The
discussion of this paper aims to focus on Perennialisms view of education and its curriculum.

Perennialism, Schooling, and Education

In relation to schooling and education, Jacques Maritain (1943) once wrote:
It is harmful to try to push back the microcosm of school education the entire process of
shaping the human being, as if the system of schools and universities were a big factory
through the back door of which the young child enters like a raw material, and from the
front door of which the youth in his brilliant twenties will go out as a successfully
manufactured man. Our education goes on until our death. (p. 25-26)
More than being an investment, schooling and education are also often viewed as being a
factory. There is a misconception that schooling completes a persons education, and after its
completion an educated person will be the outcome. They fail to recognize that schooling is only
a small, perhaps considered necessary for some, part of education. It is only the beginning and
preparation of the upbringing of man during their working years and beyond (Maritain, 1943).
The education of man is a human awakening, an awakening that requires life-long learning. Only
through trials encountered in life, the range and depth of experience that makes for maturity, can
humans truly become educated persons.
Humans who are not equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge are like unarmed
and untrained soldiers sent out in the field during war. They are more likely to lose, fail, or
worse, die. The period of schooling in a mans life is not only for basic skills and knowledge but
also for fundamental values and training of character. It develops a sense of freedom, sense of
responsibility, sense of human obligation, respect for humanity and culture, and most of all, the
eagerness for experience and reason based on facts (Maritain, 1943). It aids in the continuity of

the duties of education: to maintain the essentials of human education and to adapt to the present
requirements of the common good (Maritain, 1943).
According to Maritain (1943), the aim of education is "to guide man in the evolving
dynamism through which he shapes himself as a human person while at the same time conveying
to him the spiritual heritage of the nation and the civilization in which he is involved, and
preserving in this way the century-old achievements if generations. (p.10)" It agrees with the
thought that basic schooling only serves as a preparation for the continuation of learning in adult
life, through the imparting of skills and simulations that will motivate them to keep their minds
actively engaged (Adler, 1982). Although schooling is only a preparation, it is still important for
it guides the evolving dynamism through which man forms himself as a man.
Perennialisms uniform subject-matter curriculum
Robert Maynard Hutchins (Adler, 1982, p. 6) once stated that, the best education for the best is
the best education for all.
There are notable edges to Perennialisms uniform subject-matter curriculum. For one, it
aids man in his advance toward wisdom through the transmission of preserved acquired
knowledge. Man needs a strong foundation with his culture and universal knowledge, to seek and
understand a more complex body of knowledge. He also needs to be culturally literate, in order
to have meaningful reflective conversations with others, and not to be belittled for not knowing
the basics of his culture and the world around him.
A recent example is how some students, a few even in college, who watched the
blockbuster movie Heneral Luna are asking why Apolinario Mabini was seated throughout the
film. There were even speculations from some netizens that Mabini was just tired, speculations
that have reached President Aquino who could only shake his head in disbelief (Dizon, 2015).
This goes to show how much, or how little, our youth knows about our countrys history. They
were uninformed, thus, deprived of our countrys rich history and heritage. They could have
continued with their life robbed of the inspiration and hope that the Sublime Paralytic and the
Brains of the Revolution Apolinario Mabini stands for. How can we raise nationalistic and
patriotic citizens if they, themselves, do not know the roots of the land and nation that raised
them? How can we learn from the mistakes of the past, if we easily disregard the lessons and

mistakes of those who have come before us? Just as Joven, from the movie Heneral Luna, was
shot in the hand and near the ears, will we continue to be deaf and negligent of what is
happening? Perhaps it is time to refocus and touch base with the basic history and culture that we
must impart to the future generation, for they are the ones who would be left to train the
succession of future generations to come. To ensure that we will be leaving behind citizens that
are fit and trained with the basic skills, knowledge, and most importantly with love for our
culture.
Perennialisms curriculum imposes an equal education for all, not only in number of
years but also in quality. I am hopeful that when properly imposed, this type of schooling and
education would lessen, and soon abolish, the line that separates the elite from the masses and
the intellectual from the anti-intellectual, since everyone would have the equal opportunity to
learn and grow. As in written in John Deweys Democracy and Education (1916), a democratic
society must provide equal educational opportunity through giving its children the same quantity
and quality of education. I only fear that this uniformity of education fails to consider individual
differences and special needs of some children who are eager to learn. With this in mind, for
Mortimer Adler (1982), the answer lies in adjusting the program to take into account the
differences of the students.
Perennialism and the Great Books
In his published work about the Great Books, Robert Maynard Hutchins (1954) wrote:
Every man's mind ought to keep working all his life long; every man's imagination
should be touched as often as possible by the great works of imagination; every man
ought to push toward the horizons of his intellectual powers all the time. (pp. 16-17)
One thing I found to be distinct about Perennialism is that they put a great significance to
reading and learning from the Great Books of the Western Civilization. I was appalled that it was
specifically about the Western Civilization. As written by Gutek (1997), is it a product of a
Eurocentric ideological bias and an imposition of the dominant culture? For all one knows, it can
be a ploy to impose control and conquer the people through the belief that they are enriching
their minds with the help of the great books.

Robert Hutchins (1954) is convinced that the West needs to recapture and reemphasize
and bring to bear upon its present problems the wisdom that lies in the works of its greatest
thinkers and in the discussion that they have carried on (p. 4). But unlike Robert Hutchins, I am
still not convinced that the great books should be entirely from the West. Such influence imposed
on the students, the great ideas that dominate us without our knowing, should not come from
foreign origins. Besides the great books of the Western Civilization, I propose to include the
Classic and Traditional books of the specific country. That our education should be rooted from
our countrys own works, art, and culture, before progressing to those of the rest of the world. If
these books are the means of understanding our society and ourselves, it must foremost start on a
personal level. If these books are meant to shed some light on all our basic problems (Hutchins,
1954), we should apply it and try to resolve the problems of our own society before doing the
same to the world.
And in contrast to Bertrand Russells idea that the pupil in school should study whatever
he liked (Hutchins, 1954), I agree with Hutchins that it would be a crime to allow a child to grow
up without knowing Shakespeare just because he did not like reading one of his works. A day
might come that the now-grown up would look back and feel cheated by his teachers for
defrauding him of his cultural heritage. Reading these great books will help the students think
critically, and to widen their horizons. These books would lead to other thoughts, other
questions, and other ideas (Hutchins, 1954); even if at first they maybe just forced to do it.

Perennialism and the Philippine K-12 Curriculum

Many of todays classrooms have integrated Perennialism into their education. Teachers
and administrators decide what the students should learn, with little regard to their interest.
Although it should be noted that the methodologies used by Perennialist classrooms to teach
students to think critically are based on Socratic methodologies, where there is dialogue and it is
not entirely the passive banking type of learning. Perennialism is also reflected on the
curriculums spiral approach, where the topics start from the basics and increase in level and
complexity. It also provides great emphasis on the learning of the basic skills and knowledge,
such as reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Despite all of this, the multiple differences in the classroom are yet to be addressed. How
can an equal education be effective for each unique student when there is the looming presence
of individual differences, such as in their learning styles, needs, and interests? There lie big
responsibilities for the teacher, as an artist who will aid the process of discovery of his or her
students to help them be educated and think critically. It is the educators task to discover what
an education is, and to invent the methods of interesting their students in it (Hutchins, 1954). A
task that, I must say, is easier said than done.

Points to Ponder
What are the possible outcomes of including non-Western books to the list of Great
Books?
How can the individual differences in the classroom be addressed without compromising
the learning of basic knowledge and skills?
What are other subject areas or fields of knowledge that needs to be included in a
Perennialist curriculum to prepare the youth for their adult life in our modern world?
References
Adler, M.J. (1982). The Paideia proposal: An educational manifesto. New York: Macmillan.
Brandt, Y. (2015, January 22). Education: the most powerful investment in our future. Retrieved
from https://blogs.unicef.org/blog/education-the-most-powerful-investment-in-ourfuture/.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: Macmillan.
Dizon, N. (2015, September 30). Aquino cant believe question asked why Mabini was seated
throughout Luna movie. Retrieved from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/726449/aquino-cantbelieve-question-asked-why-mabini-was-seated-throughout-luna-movie.
Gutek, G. L. (1997). Philosophical and ideological perspectives on education. ( 2nd ed). Boston:
Allyn and Bacon.
Hutchins, R.M. (1954). Great books: The foundation of a liberal education. New York: Simon
and Schuster.
Maritain, J. (1943). Education at the crossroads. New Haven: Yale University Press.