Perennialism

The word perennial means lasting through the years, like a plant that returns every season. Perennialism applies that idea to knowledge. It holds that some ideas are so important they have survived for centuries, and that those enduring ideas are as relevant today as when they were first conceived. A curriculum, on this view, should be built around them.

The core belief

Perennialism rests on the conviction that the great ideas of history’s finest thinkers are meaningful even now. Time has tested them and they have lasted, which is taken as evidence that they touch something permanent in the human condition. Fashions in knowledge come and go; perennialism is interested in what stays.

Studying these lasting ideas is meant to do more than fill a learner with facts. It enables a learner to appreciate learning for its own sake, and at the same time to develop their intellectual powers and their moral qualities. The aim is a sharper mind and a stronger character, formed by wrestling with the best that has been thought.

Flashcard

What is the core belief of perennialism?

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Answer

Enduring ideas stay as relevant as when first conceived

The great ideas of history’s finest thinkers still matter. Studying them builds a love of learning for its own sake, sharper intellect, and stronger moral character.

The perennialist curriculum

If lasting ideas are the goal, the curriculum has a particular shape. Three features stand out.

1. The study of philosophy. Philosophy is central because it lets learners reach the ideas that are most insightful and timeless for understanding the human condition. It is the subject that deals directly with the enduring questions.
2. The teaching of religious values or ethics. A perennialist curriculum makes room for the moral and ethical traditions that have guided people across generations.
3. A clear sense of right and wrong. Teaching emphasises the ability to tell right from wrong, so that learners have definite rules they are expected to follow. Moral certainty is treated as something a school should provide, not avoid.

The thread tying these together is permanence. Where other philosophies prize what is new or useful, perennialism prizes what has lasted, and builds the curriculum to pass it on.

Flashcard

Name two features of a perennialist curriculum.

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Answer

The study of philosophy and the teaching of ethics

It also teaches a clear sense of right and wrong with definite rules to follow. The common thread is permanence: passing on what has lasted across the centuries.