After behaviourism, navigationism?

Two previous articles in this journal advocate the greater use of a behaviourist methodology called Precision Teaching' (PT). From a position located within virtue ethics, this article argues that the technical feat of raising narrowly defined performance in mathematics and other subjects is not sufficient justification for the extensive use of behaviourist techniques such as this. The article uses ideas drawn from ancient Egyptian mythology as well as some more familiar Greek philosophy, to raise broader questions about the wisdom of relying too heavily on technical rationality in present-day educational practice. The polemical intent is to dismiss unreflective behaviourism and to offer a brief glimpse of a very new educational paradigm: 'navigationism'.