The History and Meaning of Liberal Education 10 June 2017
What is a liberal education? How did the concept take shape and what makes it liberal? Who were the historical thinkers who contributed to its development?
What is a liberal education? How did the concept take shape and what makes it liberal? Who were the historical thinkers who contributed to its development?
What is a liberal education? How did the concept take shape and what makes it liberal? Who were the historical thinkers who contributed to its development?
The standard definition was provided almost 150 years ago by Matthew Arnold, school inspector and author of Culture and Anarchy, who argued that we should teach children âthe best that has been thought and knownâ. Yet Arnoldâs view has been out of fashion for decades and many educators believe that the best that has been thought and known are poor guides to the modern world when compared to âtwenty-first-century skillsâ such as creative thinking and problem-solving.
The idea of a liberal education is now widely thought to be a right-wing preoccupation, associated with grammar schools and assumed to consist of a stodgy diet of Latin and Ancient Greek. Liberal education, it is claimed, prepares a small number of middle-class children to be members of a nineteenth-century-style elite which no longer exists.
One recent advocate of liberal education has been the former education secretary, Michael Gove. His liberal education-inspired reforms, hugely unpopular, have nonetheless have been embraced by a small but growing number of schools. Toby Young, founder of the West London Free School, which aims to provide a âclassical liberal educationâ for children from all backgrounds, argues that progressive ideas in education have in fact entrenched poverty, and that academic subject knowledge is a birthright for children which allows them to âtranscend the prison of the selfâ.
The 2010 Civitas report, Liberal Education and the National Curriculum, stated that the primary purpose of a liberal education is to prepare children for life in a free and democratic society, not to train them for work. So who is right?
Join us at this IoI Education Forum study day to explore these questions and discuss whether liberal education is worth defending. Was a liberal education ever more than an ideal, open only to a privileged few? Should we have liberal education for all?
For further information about this event, including the programme, speakers and suggested readings, visit the Institute of Ideas Education Forum event page
You can book via the Eventbrite link hereÂ