Character, Education, and the Habit-Making Life

• In Event: 33.079 - Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: 33.079-20 - Breaking Habits/Thinking Differently: New Visions of Philosophy and Education

Abstract

Recent focus on habits in education is a welcome development. Nevertheless, the current definition of habits in education is geared to an egotistical view whereby the fixed aim of education is to promote competition. An improvement to the egotistical view of habits is the community view. However, this view either problematically promotes the same fixed aim as the egotistical view or relies on an overly simplistic fixed conception of ethical habit, or ‘virtue,’ divorced from intellectual habits. Insofar as neither the community view nor the egotistical view captures the importance of flexible habit and flexible aims, both are incomplete. I argue habits and aims in education have intellectual and ethical dimensions and are necessarily flexible.

Author

• Carmen Elinor James, Teachers College, Columbia University