The Agony or the Ecstasy? The Academy at the Crossroads

Abstract

This article argues that contemporary schooling in the United States could benefit from a return to the model of Plato's original Academy in ancient Athens. Specifically, that ecstatic experience should provide a central and informative role, rather than a peripheral and incidental one to educational methodology. Citing educational theorists from Maria Montessori to Ted Sizer, and transpersonal thinkers from Ken Wilber to Michael Murphy, the author suggests that schooling should address the elective higher stages of human development in addition to the conventional ones. The author proposes supplementing traditional curricula with integral practices that address the students' bodies, minds, and spirits, and reviving the tutorial as an effective means of mentoring adolescents.

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