A Primer for Philosophy and Education

Occasionally, I get requests from publishers or authors to review works of theirs. This is one such request.  Today, I will be reviewing Dr. Sam Rocha's book A Primer for Philosophy and Education. I wasn't initially sure that this book would fit my criteria of only reviewing Catholic and Orthodox products, but since Dr. Rocha is Catholic, I figured that counted.

In this brief 45 page primer, Dr. Rocha attempts to open the minds of his readers to what philosophy and education really are. I was a philosophy major for one month in college, when I thought I wanted to be a priest. However, the teachers at my school taught philosophers, NOT philosophy. There is a huge difference between the two as Dr. Rocha explains in Chapter 4.

He also points out in this primer that our society has brainwashed us into thinking that philosophy and education merely lead to good grades. These good grades then become the sole purpose of attending classes. People don't learn and acquire knowledge for the love of learning. Instead, they do it to get a good grade, which leads to a degree and ultimately a job. I must admit that I was more than guilty of that in high school and college. However, that changed years after I graduated when I started reading works interesting to me and not required reading by professors.

While this Primer is a short read, it is also a dense read. You can read the entire work in under an hour. However, it will feel like it took you longer because it was packed with basic and essential truths that make you stop and think. While this isn't a book about homeschooling, it definitely reinforces my belief in homeschooling my son and his future siblings. I'd recommend this work to anyone who has an interest in philosophy of education, especially those who don't know where to start.

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