The Future of Education

A common phenomenon experienced by many but spoken about by few is the trend in education to urge older faculty to retire in order to hire younger people. In part this movement is predicated on colleges and universities garnering income from research grants, and hence the insistence on  evidence based quantitative research projects.  This paper explores the role of ageism in higher education and makes a case for the role of experience in teaching and learning as well as enriching the environments in which learning and scholarship take place. Especial emphasis is placed on the role of experience in the formation and development of judgment that remains a vital part of the educational enterprise. The paper examines the potential dangers inherent in moving educational research exclusively in the direction of quantitative and evidence based inquiries. Guided by Wittgenstein’s words, "Even if all our scientific questions are answered, our problem is still not touched at all," an argument is made for the need for humanistic reasoning to sit alongside  scientific reasoning. How else can truths be found? How else do we even begin to form an answer to the question of what really is the truth?