BERTRAND RUSSELL AND EDUCATION IN CITIZENSHIP

Bertrand Russell believed that before an educational program could be formulated, one had to have a clear concept of the type of individual to be produced by such a program. He noted that one of the enduring controversies in education was whether the aim of education should be to cultivate the good individual, or train the good citizen.; When Russell first entered the field of educational theory in 1915, he was a strong advocate of education for the cultivation of the good individual. He proposed the development of an educational program based on respect for the rights of the child, and designed to produce intellectually capable and emotionally stable individuals who would go out into the world and bring about the social reforms Russell envisioned. Given the nature of Russell's lonely and aristocratic upbringing, his early preoccupation with intellectual pursuits, and his concern for the plight of humanity, this was understandable.; In 1932, however, Russell became an advocate of education in citizenship. This study suggests that three factors were associated with the change of emphasis in Russell's educational aim. The first was Russell's realization that the international situation was volatile and in urgent need of organizational and educational reforms. Survival demanded the establishment of a world state. The second, and closely related factor, was that the tension that Russell had long experienced between his strong elitist tendencies in education, and his sense of noblesse oblige, was resolved in favor of the latter. Third, Russell's involvement with the educational enterprise known as the Beacon Hill School left him convinced that children in groups needed to be taught the elements of good citizenship.; The study concluded that Russell's advocacy of education in citizenship over education for the cultivation of the good individual represented an evolution or progression of his educational thought, mandated by new sets of circumstances and experiences, and entirely within the framework of the empirical view of knowledge which he so strongly advocated. Moreover, his expectation was that when the world was put to order, the aim of education could again be the cultivation of individual excellence. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)...