What the report covers

The assignment links Kant's philosophy to R. S. Peters's three criteria of education. It is not a general history of German idealism, and it is not a teaching-methods manual.

Write Peters first, in his own terms, then ask what in Kant can serve as ground.

Peters's three criteria

In Ethics and Education, Peters argues that 'education' is not a neutral synonym for any schooling. It implies initiation into worthwhile activities, a grasp that goes beyond knack or habit, and a process that is not mere moulding behind the learner's back.

The criteria are conceptual tests, not a lesson plan. A paper can ask whether a given classroom practice would pass them.

What in Kant can ground this

Kant's moral philosophy treats the person as an end, not only as a means, and treats autonomy as giving oneself the law. Education, in his lectures on pedagogy, is bound up with forming a being who can use reason freely. That sits well with Peters's resistance to hidden conditioning.

The fit is not perfect. Kant's rigorism and his historical remarks on discipline are not the same as Peters's liberal university culture. Name the gap.

A fair assignment ending

Take one school practice — an exam, a civic ritual, a hidden curriculum — and test it against Peters's three criteria, then say whether a Kantian respect for autonomy would change the verdict. Cite the books, not a slogan.

Sources

1. Peters, R. S. (1966). Ethics and education. Allen & Unwin. (The three criteria of a worthwhile educational process.)
2. Kant, I. (1785/1998). Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals. Cambridge University Press.
3. Kant, I. (1803/2007). Lectures on pedagogy, in Anthropology, history, and education. Cambridge University Press, for Kant's remarks on education as the formation of a free being.

Last updated: November 13, 2026