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Prudence as a Pedagogical Principle

by

Martin Cothran

$3.00

Presented at the 2024 CiRCE National Conference: A Contemplation of Prudence.

Prudence is one of the classical practical virtues. It has been described as “right reason applied to practice.” In education, we tend to commit one of two fallacies: that of never getting beyond learning how to learn, and that of pushing our students forward before they are adequately prepared the kinds of things we want to teach them. Classical educators tend to be well-versed in the traditionalist fallacy of never getting out of first or second gear. But in our attempt to avoid the traditionalist problem, we often fall into the opposite, romanticist, problem of pushing our students forward too quickly, employing methodologies our students are too young to be advantaged by. We bypass the lower gears and starting them out in 5th gear. We will discuss these issues with an eye toward some kind of pedagogical balance.