AKADEMI RAKYAT — NOTES #1
Philosophy was cultivated as a foundation of learning and teachers modeled their teaching after the style of Socrates; a technique we now know as “Socratic questioning”. The Renaissance painter Raphael’s “School of Athens” captured the spirit of the majesty of philosophy and learning.
A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE
Dr Azly Rahman
(Notes on People’s Academy)
On Philosophy of teaching
1] The word “academy” has always interest me — it brings back memories of my undergraduate reading Plato, a 5th. century BC Greek philosopher who chronicled the thoughts of Socrates, the “first teacher”. There is a genealogy of master-pupil relationship that provided the element of “Axial Age in Philosophy”; Socrates taught Plato who taught Aristotle who taught Alexandra of Macedonia who was humbled by Diogenes the mystic.
Plato’s Academy housed great teachers and helped provide “holistic and humanistic” education to the youth of Athens. The foundation of education is that of “ars liberalis” the “arts of a free man” in which a child excels in which he/she learns to train the mind, body, and also following Socrates in “Apology”, arts and sciences of the improvement of the soul”.
Philosophy was cultivated as a foundation of learning and teachers modeled their teaching after the style of Socrates; a technique we now know as “Socratic questioning”. The Renaissance painter Raphael’s “School of Athens” captured the spirit of the majesty of philosophy and learning.
What must the “modern academy” of any nation be based upon, given the complexity of this postmodern world? Educate! educate! , said the philosopher Nietzsche, but the teachers must first be educated …
How do Malaysians renew the prosperity in education, teaching children to become “the everyday genius”, “the everyday/everyperson’s philosopher” and members of the culture attuned and even embodied and immersed in the culture of scientific thinking right from the start of “schooling” — children will grow up as good workers, good citizens, and good people with good spirit who will, borrowing Socrates again, not bow down to the “gods of the modern State” but to their inner conscience shaped by Forms rather that Appearance?
We have become too cybernetic and have forgotten that we are existentialist beings rolling the rock up and down the hill, and like Albert Camus’ Sisyphus, imagine ourselves happy ….
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DR AZLY RAHMAN, who was born in Singapore and grew up in Johor Baru, holds a Columbia University (New York) doctorate in International Education Development and Master’s degrees in the fields of Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He has taught more than 40 courses in six different departments and has written more than 300 analyses on Malaysia. His teaching experience spans Malaysia and the United States, over a wide range of subjects from elementary to graduate education. He currently resides in the United States.
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