Rational Humanism Curriculum Ideology

Within professional and public sectors, many recognize the normative function of education as a deeply value-laden social enterprise by which particular visions of and values for education and human life are conceptualized and cultivated, and this, largely occurs within the curriculum. Thus, in the study of curriculum, attending to ideology the implicit or overt system of ideas, beliefs, and values that shape a particular way of seeing and being in the worldis an enduring matter of significance. Rational humanism is one such ideology that Elliot Eisner posits informs current curriculum thought and practice. Expressing faith in the power of reason and capacity of intelligence to direct human growth and progress, this orientation has enjoyed a long history; avidly defended and opposed, and subjected to complex transformations and differing interpretations over time, it continues to exert, if only latently, an abiding influence with which curriculum scholars must reckon. The following discussion proceeds with further description of rational humanism issuing from Eisner's analysis, entertaining key arguments for and against it, its distinguishing historical roots and routes, and some persistent questions kept alive by the curriculum commitments it bears.

Although Michael Apple, in Ideology and Curriculum, is best known for drawing attention to the import of ideology in directing and reproducing what is attended to and affirmed in curriculum, and educationally valued, Eisner has sought to identify major curriculum ideologies shaping contemporary discourse and direction in the field. In Eisner's typology, rational humanism finds its place among and in relation to the contrasting cur-riulum ideologies of religious orthodoxy, progres-sivism, critical theory, reconceptualism, and cognitive pluralism. For rational humanism, the heart of the educational enterprise is found in cultivating our humanity through the development of human reasoning (i.e., in inquiry, observation, study, questioning, dialogue, and reflection).

For educational advocates strongly allied with the ideological underpinnings of rational humanism such as Mortimer Adler, Robert Maynard Hutchins, E. D. Hirsch, William Bennett, and Alan Bloom, the selection of and emphasis on curriculum content is of utmost importance, enagaging the young with that which represents the best of our cultural heritage and wealth, and artifacts of highest human achievement. The Great Books programs of Hutchins and Adler (in the 1930s and 1950s) and Hirsch's Cultural Literacy curricula guides identifying what all U.S. children should know are examples reflecting this tenet. It is argued that for a society to be strong, for people to intelligibly converse and come together across differences on equal footing to solve shared problems, a common intellectual cultureand thus, it follows, a core curriculum, built on authentic primary sourcesis required.

Proponents of this view generally oppose the provision of vocational or elective courses in grade school curriculum, such choice or specialization not unimportant but more suitably provided elsewhere. The philosophical, artistic, literary, and historical have as much place as, if not more than, those studies deemed most work-related or practical, including the scientific and mathematical. Pedagogical methods must not be didactic either, but rather provoke analysis, criticism, interpretation, discussion, and debate. Higher-order thinking is promoted by searching for evidence, articulating reasons, and entertaining oppositional views. Paramount is nourishing the rational powers of every child through engagement with the liberal traditions and disciplinescritical understandings, humanistic values, modes of inquiry, forms of discoursethat constitute the height of human knowledge.

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