ABSTRACT
Of all contemporary English philosophers of education, Dearden has contributed most to clarifying thinking in the area of primary education. In his book, (1968) The Philosophy of Primary Education (Routledge and Kegan Paul), he analyzed a number of very important concepts (including interests’, ‘play’ and ‘experience’), and he put forward a carefully argued theory to underpin the primary school curriculum. Here he analyzes the concept of ‘need’, as exemplified in the phrases ‘The needs of children are ...’ or ‘In the primary school children need...’. He argues that needs-statements do not simply describe what children lack but go beyond that to imply that what children lack is in some ways desirable or valuable. He maintains that ‘one has to look behind statements of need to the values that are guiding them, for it is here that the issue substantially lies.’ This explains why proponents of any educational ideology can argue their case by reference to children’s ‘needs’ and why the nature of these ‘needs’ differs crucially from ideology to ideology.
