ABSTRACT
At the romantic stage, students' perception focuses on the extremes, on the most fascinating bits and pieces, on vivid true stories, on dramatic events and ideas, on bizarre facts, on heroes and heroines, and on some particular areas in great detail. The focus of interest at the philosophic stage moves from the particulars to the principles by which the particulars may be ordered. The primary association at the philosophic stage, then, is the Truth. The intellectual achievement that establishes the student in the philosophic stage is the relatively rapid transition from romantic interests to finding very general principles or laws. The distinction between the romantic and philosophic stages of educational development finds no analogue in Piaget's or Erikson's developmental theories. Erikson discusses the development of ideological schemes as a part of his “identity versus role confusion” stage. The process of development into and through the philosophic stage is quite unlike the process suggested by an expanding horizons model.
