In my Dialogue and Difference class yesterday, we read the philosopher Nel Noddings’ perspective on the true goal of education. According to Noddings, the current educational emphasis on academic achievement is misplaced and flawed; schools should be teaching their students an “ethic of care”. In other words, Noddings believes that the true goal of education should be developing and teaching students how to develop caring relations, and then giving them the tools to sustain those caring relations, be it with other humans, non-humans (pets, the environment), ideas (such as mathematics, historical figures/concepts, science), and/or objects.
What do you think? Does it have to be “either/or” or can it be “both/and”?
