"Education must, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them"
About this Quote
Bruner’s line refuses the cozy idea of school as a cultural delivery service, as if knowledge were just heritage packed into neat boxes. The opening clause concedes the conservative function of education - transmission of culture - then pivots to a more volatile mandate: education should also manufacture alternatives. That “must” matters. It’s not a suggestion for progressive classrooms; it’s a requirement for a society that doesn’t want its traditions to calcify into dogma.
The subtext is a critique of schooling as social reproduction. If education only passes on what a culture already believes, it produces competent inheritors, not active citizens. Bruner, a key figure in cognitive psychology and a driver of the “cognitive revolution,” spent his career arguing that minds don’t merely absorb information; they build models of reality. In that context, “alternative views” aren’t political talking points so much as cognitive necessities: different frames, narratives, and explanatory systems that reveal how any single worldview is constructed.
Then he adds the kicker: “strengthener of the will to explore them.” Information isn’t enough; curiosity needs spine. Bruner is pointing at the emotional economy of learning - fear of being wrong, pressure to conform, the social cost of dissent. A good education doesn’t just expand the map; it trains the appetite for leaving home. Read today, it’s also a quiet rebuke to algorithmic life and standardized schooling alike: when every system optimizes for predictability, the radical act is cultivating students who can tolerate ambiguity long enough to think.
The subtext is a critique of schooling as social reproduction. If education only passes on what a culture already believes, it produces competent inheritors, not active citizens. Bruner, a key figure in cognitive psychology and a driver of the “cognitive revolution,” spent his career arguing that minds don’t merely absorb information; they build models of reality. In that context, “alternative views” aren’t political talking points so much as cognitive necessities: different frames, narratives, and explanatory systems that reveal how any single worldview is constructed.
Then he adds the kicker: “strengthener of the will to explore them.” Information isn’t enough; curiosity needs spine. Bruner is pointing at the emotional economy of learning - fear of being wrong, pressure to conform, the social cost of dissent. A good education doesn’t just expand the map; it trains the appetite for leaving home. Read today, it’s also a quiet rebuke to algorithmic life and standardized schooling alike: when every system optimizes for predictability, the radical act is cultivating students who can tolerate ambiguity long enough to think.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|
More Quotes by Jerome
Add to List
