I do not believe the practices of our current public education reflect the aims of "Philosophy on education" from Plato to Dewey because of the Context Statement and questions Rorty ask in The Ruling History of Education. What are the directions and limits of public education in a liberal pluralist society? How can we best assure an equitable distribution of educational opportunity? Should the quality of education be supervised by national standards and test? Should public schools undertake moral and religious education? These same questions or controversies have been asked from Plato to present day.
             In America today we are breaking away from the roots of philosophical and educational thought. We implement new ideas for education without thinking them through. For instance, "No child left behind" is a prime example of not weighing all the pro's and con's of instituting a new concept. We have experts with ideas of what educators should do and how to teach but no proof that it will be a success. After 8 to 12 years we abandon it for some new idea published in an educational journal. Today students forget what they are taught because most of what we teach is subject matter. They are not taught problem solving through experience. We have gotten away from the ways of education that worked for millions, which go back to the ancient philosophers. These ancient philosophers believed in the idea of family first, the state second, and that school should be like home as much as possible (Aristotle). I agree with Dewey that teaching is an art and students learn through activity or experiences. Education begins at birth and ends with death.
             Contempory educators have little interest in Plato and Aristotle, the late nineteenth and twentieth century thinkers like Nietzsche, John Dewey, Peirce, Habermas, or Gadamer whose works include serious reassessments of the contemporary relevance of the ancient Philoso...