Philosophy of education and Prank call: Difference between pages

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The '''philosophy of education''' is the study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals of education. This can be within the context of education as a societal institution or more broadly as the process of human existential growth, i.e. how it is that our understanding of the world is continually transformed (be it from facts, social customs, experiences, or even our own emotions).

{{Primarysources|date=April 2007}}

A '''prank call,''' also known as a '''crank call''', '''hoax call''', '''phony call''', or '''phony phone call''' is a form of [[practical joke]] committed over the [[telephone]]. As with all practical jokes, prank calls are generally done for humorous effect, though there is a thin line between [[humor]] and [[harassment]], and the person receiving the call may not find it funny. Prank phone calls began to gain a nationwide following over a period of many years, as they gradually became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound engineers, and media traders beginning in the late 1970s. Among the most famous and earliest recorded prank calls are the [[Tube Bar prank calls|Tube Bar]] tapes which centered around [[Louis "Red" Deutsch]], and the Lucius Tate phone calls. Comedian Jerry Lewis was an incorrigible phone prankster, and recordings of his hijinks, dating from the 1960s and possibly earlier, still circulate throughout the country to this day.

Even very prominent people have fallen victim to prank callers, as for example Queen [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Elizabeth II]],<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/618065.stm bbc.co.uk article on Queen Elizabeth II prank call]</ref> who was fooled by Canadian DJ [[Pierre Brassard]] posing as Canadian Prime Minister [[Jean Chrétien]], asking her to record a speech in support of Canadian unity ahead of the [[1995 Quebec referendum]]. Two other particularly famous examples of prank calls were made by the [[Miami]]-based radio station [[Radio El Zol]]. In one, they telephoned Venezuelan president [[Hugo Chávez]] and spoke to him, pretending to be Cuban president [[Fidel Castro]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2637395.stm bbc.co.uk article on Hugo Chávez prank call]</ref> They later repeated the prank, except that they called Castro and pretended to be Chávez. El Zol was also fined by the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC).

==Educational Philosophies==

* [[Educational essentialism]]

* [[Educational progressivism]]

* [[Educational perennialism]]

* [[Educational existentialism]]

* [[Educational behaviourism]] (with [http://edweb.sdsu.edu/LShaw/f95syll/philos/phbehav.html more information])

* [[Autonomous learning]]

* [[Critical pedagogy]]

* [[Coyote teaching]]

* [[Socratic method]]

==History==

A chronological summary of the work of some of the most important and influential [[Western culture]] educational philosophers follows.

===Plato===

[[Plato]] is the earliest important educational thinker. Education is, of course, a relatively minor part of his overall philosophical vision, but it is an important one. He saw education as the key to creating and sustaining his [[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]. He advocated extreme methods: removing children from their mothers' care and raising them as wards of the state, with great care being taken to differentiate children suitable to the various castes, the highest receiving the most education, so that they could act as guardians of the city and care for the less able. Education would be holistic, including facts, skills, physical discipline, and rigidly censored music and art.

==Prank calls in popular culture==

For Plato the individual was best served by being subordinated to a just society. Plato's belief that talent was distributed non-genetically and thus must be found in children born to all classes moves us away from aristocracy, and Plato builds on this by insisting that those suitably gifted are to be trained by the state so that they may be qualified to assume the role of a ruling class. What this establishes is essentially a system of selective public education premised on the assumption that an educated minority of the population are, by virtue of their education (and inborn educability), sufficient for healthy governance.

Prank calls are generally done for the amusement of the pranksters themselves. Many pranksters record the calls to share the joke with an audience. Some performers such as the [[The Jerky Boys]] have made a name for themselves producing albums of their recorded prank calls. Other prank call performers, such as [[Bob Pranky - Prank Calls Unlimited]], [[Touch-Tone Terrorists]], [[Melba's Phone Militia|Brother Russell]], [[The Happy Telephone]] and

[http://www.leroymercer.com LEE ROY MERCER] have garnered a following as well. The [[television series|television show]] ''[[Crank Yankers]]'' is a series of real-life prank calls made by celebrities and re-enacted on-screen by [[puppet]]s for a humorous effect. As with the Bob Pranky calls, the Crank Yankers sometimes borrow ideas, or entire routines, from obscure releases by relatively unknown pranksters such as The Ballbusters, who are neither credited nor remunerated for their original fun{{Fact|date=April 2007}}.

==Prank calling and the Internet==

Plato should be considered foundational for democratic philosophies of education both because later key thinkers treat him as such, and because, while Plato's methods are autocratic and his motives meritocratic, he nonetheless prefigures much later democratic philosophy of education. This is different in degree rather than kind from most versions of, say, the American experiment with democratic education, which has usually assumed that only some students should be educated to the fullest, while others may, acceptably, fall by the wayside.

[[Michael Biggins]], an actor whose real name is Michael Bigansky and goes by the performance name of [[Blackout (entertainer)|Blackout]] was (as far as can be researched) the very first person to put original prank calls on the internet in a [[digital]] [[streaming]] (instantly playable) format. There may have been downloadable calls before this time, but not streaming. He was also the first person to host an internet talk radio show based primarily on prank calls on the now defunct [[Lycos Talk Radio network]]<ref>[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_2001_March_26/ai_72284900 Lycos Talk Radio]</ref> Which was an internet based talk radio site using [http://www.wonderhorse.com Wonderhorse] internet broadcasting and [[teleconference]] software.<ref>[http://www.wonderhorse.com Wonderhorse internet broadcasting and teleconference software]</ref> Blackout started his site Blackout's Box in 1995 ''(cite: verifiable by a whois check on ___domain name blackout.com and also verifiable with web archives such as wayback machine and in [[newsgroups]] archive postings and several major print sources - see references section)'' and put his first pranks online using the test version of [[RealAudio]] Beta software (which has over time evolved into [[RealPlayer]]) on a 14,400 [[U.S. Robotics]] modem. This was long before [[mp3]] or [[SHOUTcast]] streaming or [[internet radio]] stations existed. Before this time, the only way for both prank callers and prank call fans to hear pranks was by exchanging underground tapes, or maybe hearing them on the radio, but many radio prank calls were fake or 'set up' because of the steep [[FCC]] fines that could be imposed on the station if caught. Blackout used [[reel to reel]] recorders in his high school radio station [[WKPX]]<ref>[http://www.wkpx.freeservers.com/history.html 88.5 WKPX]</ref> in Florida to record his first pranks, and then transferred them to ([[voice mail box]]es) - hence where he got the name 'Blackout's Box'. People would spread his [[voice mail box]] number around on [[BBS]]s ([[bulletin board systems]]) and other VMBs so that calls into Blackout's voice mail box to listen to his pranks would grow virally (before internet multimedia type viral spreading existed), and he would get requests from all over the U.S. for him to prank people. Blackout was finally able to preserve his pranks in a digital format when [[Digital audio tape|digital audio tape]] recorders became available. This allowed him to port them to computer hard drive without losing quality. They were then converted to the [[RealAudio]] format and uploaded via [[FTP]] to his site the first day [[RealAudio]] beta became available in 1995. It was quite a pain and time consuming process to do at the time, but the ability of having anyone in the world who had a modem and the RealAudio plugin be able to hear one a prank instantly and in [[real time]] with no downloading was a big step forward. The very first call he put on the internet was called ''The Rrrrrrrooksnitchzien Society''<ref>[http://www.blackout.com/blackout/rook28.ram The first Prank Call on the Internet: ''The Rrrrrrrooksnitchzien Society'']</ref> in which he kept [[411]] [[telephone operators]] going mad for a good half an hour. Blackout's pranks were known to be longer and more complex than your average quick prank and he gained quite a following and much international press because of this. Hardware, software, technology and bandwidth have grown exponentially since Blackout put that first call up on the internet and so has the flood of sites, shoutcast, icecast, and podcast stations devoted to prank calls. [[Blackout (entertainer)|Blackout]], while moving more into the acting and independent film scene, still hosts an interactive TV/RADIO show on Thursday nights and occasionally still does prank calls.

The Woodcreek Faction (http://www.youtube.com/thewoodcreekfaction) broke new ground by becoming pioneers of filming prank phone calls & posting them on the web. The films allow the prank caller to portray a character who is seen by the audience instead of heard. This format has inspired many other comedy teams. The Woodcreek Faction pranks, in particular, are very successful on YouTube as well as many similar sites.

===Aristotle===

Though [[Aristotle]] wrote a treatise ''On Education'', this only survives through fragments that have come down to us. We thus know of his philosophy of education primarily through brief passages in other works. Aristotle considered nature, habit and reason to be three equally important forces to be cultivated in education. Thus, for example, he considered repetition to be a key tool to develop good habits. The teacher was to lead the student systematically; this differs, for example, from Socrates' emphasis on questioning his listeners to bring out their own ideas (though the comparison is perhaps unfair since Socrates was dealing with adults).

A classic example of their work "Kung Fu Pizza Prank":

Aristotle placed great emphasis on balancing the theoretical and practical aspects of subjects taught. Subjects he explicitly mentions as being important included reading, writing and mathematics; music; physical education; literature and history; and a wide range of sciences. He also mentioned the importance of play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKO_xHgj7Pw

==Online Prank Communities/Stations==

One of education's primary missions for Aristotle, perhaps its most important, was to produce good and virtuous citizens for the polis. ''All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.''

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Ever since the opportunity has been available, there has been internet radio stations dedicated to prank calls. Most of them feature a so-called "rotation" of prank calls which is a constant broadcast of various prank calls submitted by the community, usually streamed from a [[SHOUTcast]] server host.

A lot of prank-call stations also feature live shows dedicated to prank calling - many of the infamous radio personalities from these communities like to spam their names on common sites like [[Wikipedia]] as an attempt to gain more listeners (see page history).

=== Rousseau ===

[[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]] (1712-78), though he paid his respects to Plato's philosophy, rejected it as impractical due to the decayed state of society. Rousseau also had a different theory of human development--where Plato held that people are born with skills appropriate to different castes (though he did not regard these skills as being inherited), Rousseau held that there was one developmental process common to all humans. This was an intrinsic, natural process, of which the primary behavioral manifestation was curiosity. This differed from Locke's ''[[tabula rasa]]'' in that it was an active process deriving from the child's nature, which drove the child to learn and adapt to its surroundings.

Although prank call communities are still relatively small-scale compared to [[FM Radio|FM stations]] that feature live pranks, it is a growing community on the internet today and many new communities are developing.

As Rousseau wrote in his book ''[[Emile: Or, On Education|Emile]]'', all children are perfectly designed organisms, ready to learn from their surroundings so as to grow into virtuous adults. But, due to the malign influence of corrupt society, they often failed to do so. Rousseau advocated an educational method which consisted of removing the child from society (i.e., to a country home) and alternately conditioning him through changes to environment and setting traps and puzzles for him to solve or overcome.

==Examples==

Rousseau was unusual in that he recognized and addressed the potential of a problem of legitimation for teaching. He advocated that adults always be truthful with children, and in particular that they never hide the fact that the basis for their authority in teaching was purely one of physical coercion--"I'm bigger than you." Once children reached the age of reason (about 12), they would be engaged as free individuals in the ongoing process of their own.

Some examples of well-known prank calls are:

:Caller: ''Do you have [[Prince Albert in a Can]]?''

=== Dewey ===

:Receiver: ''Yes, I do.''

{{main|John Dewey}}

:Caller: '' Well let him out!''

:Caller: ''Hello! Is your refrigerator'' (''Nose'', ''Toilet'', or ''Water'' in some variants) ''running?''

=== Rudolf Steiner ===

:Receiver: ''Yes, it is.''

[[Rudolf Steiner]] (1861-1925), a philosopher and writer, created a holistic educational impulse that has become known as [[Waldorf education|Waldorf Education]]. He emphasizes a balance of developing the intellect (or head), feeling and artistic life (or heart), and practical skills (or hands). The education focuses on producing free individuals, and Steiner expected it to enable a new, freer social order to arise, through the creative, free human beings that it would develop.

:Caller: ''Then you'd better go catch it!''

:Caller: ''Is Mrs. Wall there?''

Waldorf Education is based on Steiner's philosophy, known as [[anthroposophy]], and divides education into three discrete developmental stages; these stages predate but have close similarities to [[Piaget]]'s stages of child development.

:Receiver: ''No.''

:Caller: ''Is Mr. Wall there?''

:Receiver: ''No.''

:Caller: ''Are there any Walls there?''

:Receiver: ''No.''

:Caller: ''Then how does your roof stay up?''

===''The Simpsons''===

During the early years of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', a popular [[Running gag|recurring gag]] involved Bart making prank calls to [[Moe's Tavern]]. This bit was inspired by the infamous [[Tube Bar prank calls]] of the 1970s. The calls usually followed a set pattern: Bart would ask for a non-existent person, Moe would shout loudly for the person Bart asked for, Moe catching on only after the bar (usually) erupts in uproarious laughter, and Moe threatening violent revenge upon catching the perpetrator. Moe never seemed to realize that it was Bart who made the call. Once Bart even told Moe that he made prank calls and Moe still did not catch on: Bart: "Well I make prank phone calls." Moe (in a happy voice one uses when talking to children): "Good for you."

"People" whom Bart has asked for include:

The first stage is early childhood, normally lasting 6-7 years. In this stage, which emphasizes practical skills and concrete experiences, imitation is the primary educative force, and an environment replete with healthy impulses and especially practical work - crafts, gardening, cooking, cleaning, woodwork, and much more - is regarded as the ideal educational setting for the pre-school and kindergarten years. Language development is fostered through story-telling, verse and movement and/or finger games, i.e. primarily imitatively. The children are given opportunities for free play both inside and outside; this is considered vital for their healthy development, as this is the way they digest their impressions and develop their will forces, feeling life and intellect in an age-appropriate manner.

* I.P. Freely - (''I pee freely'')

* Maya Buttreeks - (''My butt reeks'')

* Jacques Strappe – (''jock strap'')

* Ivanna Tinkle – (''I wanna tinkle'')

* Heywood U. Cuddleme – (''Hey, would you cuddle me?'')

* Amanda Huggenkiss – (''A man to hug and kiss'')

* Mike Rotch – (''My crotch'')

* Al Coholic – (''Alcoholic'')

* Bea O'Problem – (''B.O. problem'')

* Seymour Butz – (''See more butts'')

* Anita Bath – (''I need a bath'')

* Homer Sexual – (''A homosexual'')

* Lee V. Mediately - (''Leave immediately'')

* Eura Snotball - (''You're a snotball'')

* G.I. Manidiot - (''Gee, I'm an idiot'')

* Oliver Clothesoff (''All of her clothes off!'')

* Will U. P. Onme (''Will you pee on me?'')

* Hugh Jass (''Huge ass'')

* Ollie Tabooger (''I'll eat a booger'')

* Ahmed Adoudi (''I made a doodie'')

One backfire on this formula was a call to "Hugh Jass" (''huge ass''), as there turned out to be a person in the bar named Hugh Jass. Another backfire was when Homer was running the bar and didn't know how to carry out the prank when Bart asked for Ollie Tabooger (''I'll eat a booger''). A third was a time where [[Mr. Burns]] called Moe's by mistake while looking for [[Smithers]], and was threatened by Moe who thought it was a prank call. Finally, in a flashback scene to Homer and Marge's youth, Marge tries to call Homer (whom she believes goes by the name "Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar" because of his shyness), only to get Moe to threaten her when she asks for his name. After hanging up, Moe mutters "And that's the origin of that!"

The second stage runs from the beginning of schooling, at six or seven years of age, until puberty. Here, education is best achieved through appeal to the child's imagination; development of the children's feeling and artistic life is strongly emphasized. The teacher's authority is established through guiding the child wisely and sensitively, but clearly; there is great worth placed upon establishing this sense in the child of having found a true authority in the teacher. There is a balance between academic, artistic and practical (crafts) subjects. The arts play an especially large role at this time; all subjects are to be presented with artistic feeling and permeated with imaginative approach. Two foreign languages are normally taught from first grade on. Generally the attempt is made to keep a main teacher with a class for longer periods of time, often from first grade right through the end of the elementary school.

Interestingly, in the video game [[The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants]] for NES and Genesis, you can make prank calls to Moe by putting a coin in the phone by Moe's Tavern. Examples of what Bart can say are I.M. Adope (''I am a dope'') and Stu Piddidiot. (''stupid idiot'')

The third stage runs from puberty until the end of childhood, or approximately from 13-14 years of age until 20-21. Here, the authority of the earlier years is no longer a viable pedagogical tool; instead, idealism becomes the key force of education. The children's intellectual development is now intensively fostered and their sense of judgement called upon. Great worth is placed upon avoiding early specialization; even in the secondary school, all students are normally expected to take a full range of academic courses (including physics, chemistry, biology, geology, mathematics, history, art history and literature), one or two foreign languages, arts, crafts, music (frequently both orchestral and choral), physical education and a movement discipline special to the schools ([[eurythmy]]). Teachers are specialized according to the discipline and the education should introduce the adolescent to the larger world as much as possible. Foreign exchanges and work experience are both thus common elements of the secondary school.

===Futurama===

Throughout the education, a great importance is placed upon having free and creative individuals as teachers; thus, schools should have an appropriate amount of freedom to shape their own curriculum and teachers should have a corresponding freedom to shape the daily life of the classroom. In order for such a system to function, intensive work must take place both amongst teachers within schools and between schools to provide the necessary communication, training and development.

A prank call leads to [[Fry (futurama)|Fry]]'s delivery of a pizza to a cryogenic lab, which sets the whole series in motion. The name used is I.C. Wiener (Meaning "I see Wiener" or "Icey wiener"), referring to the men frozen inside of the cryogenic chambers.

Fry also adopts a dog after receiving a prank call asking for a pizza to be delivered to a Seymour Asses (see more asses). Fry then names the dog Seymour following the prank call.

Waldorf education includes a respect for children's physical nature, rhythmic life (technical term: [[ether body]]), consciousness (technical term: [[astral body]]) and individuality ([[ego]]). Anthroposophy includes teachings about [[reincarnation]] and schools often try to foster an awareness that each human being - and thus each child - carries a unique being into this earthly life.

==Reaction==

As both an independent educational model and a major influence upon other educators - such as [[Maria Montessori]] - Waldorf education is currently both one of the largest and one of the fastest growing educational movements in the world. Waldorf schools are also increasingly operating as state-funded (in the U.S.A. ''charter'') schools or even state-run (in the U.S.A. public) schools.

In the United States, prank calls are easily traced through [[Caller ID]]. It is possible that caller ID can reduce the number of prank calls. However, most telephone companies currently permit callers to withhold caller ID if they do not wish the called party to know their identity. In North America, there is a way to disable the victim's Caller ID by dialing *67 before dialing.

Sometimes the joke can be taken too far, especially if the prankster succeeds in making his victim believe the scenario is real. Prank call comedian [[Jim Florentine]] (who mainly takes incoming calls from [[telemarketer]]s and turns the tables by performing pranks on them) has had the police called on him on more than one occasion for taking his jokes too far. During one call, Florentine tells an [[Agency (law)|insurance agent]] that, rather than pay to keep an elderly woman alive, he is going to go to the hospital and smother her with a pillow.<ref>''Terrorizing Telemarketers III'', Jim Florentine</ref> After the call, the agent called [[9-1-1]] and gave them Florentine's number and the address on file, and the police arrived at his home with guns drawn. However, when the police showed up and discovered it was actually a prank, the officer simply asked, "Don't you think you're a little old for this?"<ref>liner notes, ''Terrorizing Telemarketers III'', Jim Florentine</ref>

=== B.F. Skinner ===

One of [[B.F. Skinner]]'s (1904-90) contributions to education philosophy is his text ''[[Walden Two]]'' wherein he details the failings of society and education, as one is intricately and intrinsically linked to the other.

The pedagogical methods [[Direct Instruction]] and [[Precision Teaching]] owe much to his ideas. [[behaviorism|Behaviorist]] theories play largely in his proposed ideas of [[social engineering (political science)|social engineering]].

==As A Crime==

Precision Teaching, developed by Skinner's student Ogden Lindsley, uses the basic philosophy that the "learner knows best". Each learner is charted on a unique graph known as a "Standard Celeration Chart". The record of the rate of learning is tracked by this charting and decisions can be made from these data concerning changes in an educational program.

Prank calls range from annoying hang-ups to false calls to [[emergency services]] or [[bomb threat]]s. Prank calls that waste the time of emergency services are a [[criminal offense]] in most countries.

One such hoax call occurred in [[Perth, Western Australia|Perth]], [[Australia]], on [[New Year's Eve]] [[2002]], when a drunken teenager called the new anti-terrorist hotline to report a bomb threat against the New Year's Eve fireworks celebration.<ref>[http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/attorneygeneralHome.nsf/Page/Media_Releases_2003_January_2003_WA_man_charged_over_hoax_hotline_call_(1_January_2003) Perth, Australia bomb threat hoax]</ref> The threat was taken seriously, and the celebrations were about to be canceled, when police discovered that no such threat existed. The teen was arrested for deliberate false reporting.

===Maria Montessori===

{{main|Maria Montessori}}

Tension was also caused in December 2005, when a Catholic Church-owned radio station in [[Spain]] ([[COPE (radio station)|COPE]]) played a prank on [[Bolivia]]n president-elect [[Evo Morales]]. The hoaxer pretended to be Spanish Prime Minister [[José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero]], congratulating Morales on his election<ref>[http://www.quepasa.com/english/news/latinamerica/Zapatero.Morales.prank/406542.html Prank call to Evo Morales]</ref> and saying things like, "I imagine the only one not to have called you was George Bush. I've been here two years and he still hasn't called me".<ref>[http://www.informativos.telecinco.es/cope/zapatero/broma_morales/dn_17521.htm Transcript of call (in Spanish)]</ref> The Bolivian government protested to Spain, and the real Zapatero called Morales and apologized. The Spanish government in turn summoned the [[papal nuncio]] in protest.

=== Jean Piaget ===

{{main|Jean Piaget}}

In the [[United States]], the [[Telecommunications Act of 1996]] makes some prank calls a [[felony]] with penalties of up to two years in prison, and possible fines (depending on severity). However, such penalties are rarely carried out. As an example, the [[Chicago]] [[shock jock]] [[Mancow Muller|Erich "Mancow" Muller]], after being criticized for the extensive use of prank calls on his radio show, broadcasted the sarcastic remark: "Reality check for you people: Chicago's the murder capital of America. The police don't care if you get a prank call."

=== Paulo Freire ===

A Brazilian who became committed to the cause of educating the impoverished peasants of his nation and [[collaboration|collaborating]] with them in the pursuit of their liberation from oppression, [[Paulo Freire]] (1921-97) contributes a philosophy of education that comes not only from the more classical approaches stemming from Plato, but also from modern Marxist and anti-colonialist thinkers. In fact, in many ways his ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' may best be read as an extension of or reply to [[Frantz Fanon]]'s ''Wretched of the Earth'', which laid strong emphasis on the need to provide native populations with an education which was simultaneously new and modern (rather than traditional) and anti-colonial (that is, that was not simply an extension of the culture of the colonizer).

Moreover, to make a prank call that falls afoul of the Telecommunications Act, {{UnitedStatesCode|47|223}} (a)(1), the call must be done with the intent to "annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass". Arguably then, if the intent of the call is to amuse, confuse, or simply to engage the call's recipient, there is no violation of the Telecommunications Act.

Freire is best-known for his attack on what he called the [[banking concept of education]], in which the student was viewed as an empty account to be filled by the teacher. Of course, this is not really a new move--Rousseau's conception of the child as an active learner was already a step away from the ''[[tabula rasa]]'' (which is basically the same as the "banking concept"), and thinkers like [[John Dewey]] and [[Alfred North Whitehead]] were strongly critical of the transmission of mere facts as the goal of education.

More challenging, however, is Freire's strong aversion to the teacher-student dichotomy. This dichotomy is admitted in Rousseau and constrained in Dewey, but Freire comes close to insisting that it should be completely abolished. Critics have argued that this is impossible (there must be some enactment of the teacher-student relationship in the parent-child relationship), but what Freire suggests is that a deep reciprocity be inserted into our notions of teacher and student. Freire wants us to think in terms of teacher-student and student-teacher, that is, a teacher who learns and a learner who teaches, as the basic roles of classroom participation.

==See also==

This is one of the few attempts anywhere to implement something like democracy as an educational method and not merely a goal of democratic education. Even Dewey, for whom democracy was a touchstone, did not integrate democratic practices fully into his methods. (Though this is in part a function of his peculiar attitudes toward individuality and his idea of democracy as a way of living rather than merely a polticial practice or method.) However, in its early, strong form this kind of classroom has sometimes been criticized on the grounds that it can mask rather than overcome the teacher's authority.

* [[Celebrity prank call]]

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' (specifically, [[Moe's Tavern]])

* [[Tube Bar prank calls]]

* [[Obscene phone call]]s

* [[Phone Losers of America]]

* [[Dead Ringers (comedy)]]

* [[The Happy Telephone]]

* [[Davin & Devyn]]

* [[Touch-Tone Terrorists]]

* [[The Jerky Boys]]

* [[Rickey Smiley]]

==References==

Freire's work is widely-read by educationalists but is less well-respected among philosophers.{{fact}}

<references />

==External links==

Aspects of the Freirian philosophy have been highly influential in academic debates over 'participatory development' and development more generally. Freire's emphasis on emancipation through interactive participation has been used as a rationale for the participatory focus of development, as it is held that 'participation' in any fora can lead to empowerment of poor or marginalised groups. Critics argue that the inherently undemocratic, unequal nature of development projects forecloses any possibility of Freirian emancipation, but many cling to the 'empowering potential' of development.

{{dmoz|/Recreation/Humor/Pranks/Prank_Calls/|Prank Calls}}

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[[Category:Comedy]]

[[Category:Humor]]

[[Category:Jokes]]

[[Category:Podcasting]]

[[Category:Practical jokes]]

[[Category:Prank phone calls]]

[[fr:Canular téléphonique]]

=== Neil Postman and the Inquiry Method ===

[[ja:迷惑電話]]

[[Neil Postman]] has been a strong contemporary voice in both methods and philosophy of education. His 1969 book "Teaching as a Subversive Activity" (co-authored with Charles Weingartner) introduced the concept of a school driven by the [[Inquiry Method]], the basis of which is to get the students themselves to ask and answer relevant questions. The "teacher" (the two authors disdained the term and thought a new one should be used) would be limited in the number of declarative sentences he could utter per class, as well as questions he personally knew the answer to. The aim of this type of inquiry would be to prepare the students to lead responsible adult lives, primarily by functioning as an antidote to the rampant bureaucracy most adults are faced with after leaving school.

[[ru:Пранк]]

[[sr:Телефонско малтретирање]]

Postman went on to write several more books on education, notably "Teaching as a Conserving Activity" and "The End of Education." The latter deals with the importance of goals or "gods" to students, and Postman suggests several "gods" capable of replacing the current ones offered in schools, namely, [[Economic Utility]] and [[Consumerism]].

[[fi:Pilasoitto]]

[[pt:Trote telefônico]]

=== John Taylor Gatto ===

[[sv:Busringning]]

{{main|John Taylor Gatto}}

Spiritual successor to ''[[The Hidden Curriculum]]'', Gatto takes a historical view of educational systems as primarily and purposefully [[socialization|socializing]] and [[normative]], as opposed to the stated goal as a vehicle for individual [[personal development]].<ref>[http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher]</ref>

== Critical responses and counter-philosophies ==

Critics have accused the philosophy of education of being one the weakest subfields of both [[philosophy]] and [[education]], disconnected from philosophy (by being insufficiently rigorous for the tastes of many "real" philosophers) and from the broader study and practice of education (by being too philosophical, too theoretical). However, its proponents state that it is an exacting and critical branch of philosophy and point out that there are few major philosophers who have not written on education, and who do not consider the philosophy of education a necessity. For example, [[Plato]] undertakes to discuss all these elements in ''The Republic'', beginning the formulation of educational philosophy that endures today.

== Notes ==

<div class="references-small"><references /></div>

== External links ==

* [http://www.vusst.hr/ENCYCLOPAEDIA/main.htm Encyclopaedia of Philosophy of Education]

* [http://edweb.sdsu.edu/LShaw/f95syll/philos/phintro.html Five Educational Philosophies] by Larry J. Shaw, San Diego State U]

[[Category:Educational philosophy]]

[[Category:Education]]

[[fr:Philosophie de l'éducation]]