Book Review: Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education
From Corkscrews and Cathedrals
Woods, Robert M., Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education, Classical Academic Press: Camp Hill, PA, 2019, $9.95, 128 pp.
Classical Academic Press publishes a helpful collection of resources on Classical Christian Education, and Dr. Robert Woods’ Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education is part of their Giants in the History of Education series.
The book’s greatest feature, in addition to being an accurate portrayal of Adler and his work, is that it is concise without compromising the richness of its content. To say Adler’s publishing career was prolific and his contribution to educational reform was immense would be understatements. Yet, in this brilliant primer on Mortimer Adler and his Paideia approach to education, Woods coalesces the salient attributes of the educator and his reform proposals in a way that will greatly benefit those unfamiliar with Adler.
Woods opens with a brief biography of Adler before describing his life-long project as making
a persuasive case for liberal education through reading, studying, and discussing the great books. As public philosophers (Adler worked closely with Robert Maynard Hutchins), both were intellectuals committed to a vision of teaching and learning that robustly engages the masterpieces of the past with a democratic impulse to cast a wide net for education for kindergarten through grade twelve and adult learning.
Adler’s was a noble quest of educational reform that emphasized a robust engagement with the great books of the western tradition—the masterpieces of the past. Yet, it was anything but elitist, as one might infer; instead, it was an educational project that intended to provide “the same quality of schooling for all.”
Next, Woods enumerates the components of the particular standard of education for which Adler contended, one that was complementary to the classical model of education, but not exactly synonymous. Adler’s was an approach to the classroom that he called the Paideia proposal; and, his proposal essentially consisted of a three-column structure.
The first column is formal didactic instruction. In this column, students received a short engaging lecture that would improve the mind “by the acquisition of organized knowledge.”
The second column is academic coaching or skill development. In this column, students are taught the basic skills of listening, speaking, observing, reading, writing, estimating, measuring, and calculating. Practically speaking, they observe and imitate the teacher and then receive critical feedback in the “know-how of the skill” they are learning.
This is not, however, the stage in which students develop “the deeper abiding understanding of the skill” they are learning. That will come once students can practice the skill successfully. As Woods notes, “Knowing how to do something and understanding what one is doing are very different even though they are of course intricately connected.”
Adler calls his third column, The Socratic Seminar. This method of teaching is valuable, according to Adler, because “the interrogative or discussion method of teaching … stimulates the imagination and the intellect by awakening the creative and inquisitive powers. In no other way can children’s understanding of what they know be improved, and their appreciation of cultural objects be enhanced.”
Woods confidence in Adler’s ideas was heartening for someone like me who is not particularly fond of government education. Combined with his classic writing style and clear treatment of Adler’s proposal, Woods’ optimism made the book a joy to read. He not only outlines the big ideas of Adler’s Paideia trilogy with concision and cogency, Woods’ own passion for the import of Adler’s approach to public education reform is apparent and persuasive as captured in his paraphrase of Adler, where he writes, “If Americans do not read, cannot write, and forget how to converse in a manner informed by truth, then the civitas is lost.”
Anyone interested in understanding the importance of the liberal arts tradition or more about Adler’s unique approach to classical education for the public sector would benefit greatly by reading this book. Most importantly, it will be helpful for teachers, administrators, and even parents of homeschoolers who are looking for perspective in developing their own philosophy of education.