Assume anarchy: the educational philosophy of Peter Boettke

Kneller (1984, 1978, 1971) identifies four major theories of education: progressivism, perennialism, essentialism, and reconstructionism. No particular theme fits my mentor, Peter Boettke, particularly well. In fact, Boettke's educational philosophy can best be described as educational anarchism, and his educational philosophy comes from his understanding of economics. We would never want a one size fits all, "top down" approach applied to the economy as a whole. By the same logic, why would we ever want to impose a one size fits all standard on something as diverse as a student body? Boettke's method, which can also be summarized as a "just do it" method, is sensitive to his different students and relies on local knowledge of time and place. The article describes educational anarchism and explains how Boettke has effectively applied educational anarchism in practice.