Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T16:00:11.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Liberal Education: What Was It? What Is It?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Saul Sack
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A great deal is being said and written about the importance and significance to contemporary society of liberally educated people. But few pause to define the term “liberal education” or “liberal arts.” Implicit in the words of their advocates is the assumption that people are generally agreed as to the content which the terms comprehend, and that this content is much the same now as it has been in the past. Historically this supposition is inaccurate; nor does it correctly picture the current temper of thought. The liberal arts curriculum and its product the liberally educated man, changed, albeit more slowly, as society changed. As we shall see, they represented something quite different in past ages, or even a century ago, from that with which they are invested by varying current opinions.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , December 1962 , pp. 210 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © 1962, University of Pittsburgh Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Protagoras, 326. From Jewett, Benjamin, editor and translator, The Works of Plato (New York, 1892).Google Scholar

2. Sandys, J. E., A Companion to Latin Studies (Cambridge, 1925), 229.Google Scholar

3. Watson, J. S., translator, Cicero: On Oratory and Oraters; with His Letters to Quintus and Brutus (London, 1891), III, 19, 33.Google Scholar

4. Quoted in Snow, Louis F., The College Curriculum in the United States (New York, 1907), 31–32.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., 72.Google Scholar

6. Pennsylvania Gazette, August 12, 1756.Google Scholar

7. Stille, Charles, A Memoir of the Rev. William Smith, D.D., Provost of the College, Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1869), 12.Google Scholar

8. Pennsylvania Gazette, August 12, 1756.Google Scholar

9. Minutes of Trustees, VII, January 3, 1826, 135 ff., University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar

10. Barnard, F. A. P., “On Improvements Practicable in American Colleges,” Barnard's American Journal of Education (January, 1856), I, 177.Google Scholar

11. Minutes of Trustees, VII, July 23, 1824, 82–83, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar

12. Quoted in Woody, Thomas, Liberal Education for Free Men (Philadelphia, 1951), 202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13. Barnard, F. A. P., 179 f.Google Scholar

14. “The Proper Condition, Relations and Course of Studies of the Colleges,” Pennsylvania School Journal (September, 1862), XI, 95.Google Scholar

15. Greeley, Horace, Hints towards Reforms, in Lectures, Addresses and Other Writings (New York, 1850), 121–22.Google Scholar

16. Quoted in Woody, 212.Google Scholar

17. Milton, John, Tractate on Education, ed. Browning, Oscar (Cambridge, 1897), 4.Google Scholar

18. Franklin, Benjamin, “Observations Relative to the Intentions of the Original Founders of the Academy in Philadelphia,” in Woody, Thomas (ed.), Educational Views of Benjamin Franklin (New York, 1931), 1 ff.Google Scholar

19. Carey, Mathew, Reflexions on the Proposed Plan for Establishing a College in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1826), III.Google Scholar

20. American Journal of Education (September, 1826), I, 566 ff.Google Scholar

21. Minutes of Trustees, I, April 28, 1813, 81, Jefferson College.Google Scholar

22. Pittsburgh Gazette, September 21, 1830.Google Scholar

23. Catalogue, 1839, 12, Gettysburg College.Google Scholar

24. Minutes of Trustees, V, June 27, 1865, 7, Dickinson College; ibid., V, June 26, 1866, 24.Google Scholar

25. Catalogue, 1840–41, 19, Marshall College; ibid., 1870–71, 11.Google Scholar

26. Minutes of Trustees, X, January 1, 1867, 587–89, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar

27. Catalogue, 1866–67, 31, Lebanon Valley College.Google Scholar

28. Minutes of Managers, I, December 7, 1869, 77, Swarthmore College; Catalogue, 1869–70, 38–40, Swarthmore College.Google Scholar

29. Minutes of Trustees, XVI, June 8, 1914, 132–33, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar

30. Catalogue, 1918–19, 24–26, Geneva College.Google Scholar

31. Catalogue, 1919–20, 34–35, Bucknell University.Google Scholar

32. Catalogue, 1922–23, 57 ff., Temple University; Catalogue, 1922–23, 29, Lebanon Valley College.Google Scholar

33. Catalogue, 1928–29, 39–42, Grove City College.Google Scholar

34. Catalogue, 1931, 41–43, Bryn Mawr College.Google Scholar

35. Catalogue, 1932, 33, 136, Ursinus College.Google Scholar

36. Catalogue, 1933–34, 28, 54, Lafayette College.Google Scholar

37. Catalogue, 1933–34, 34, Franklin and Marshall College.Google Scholar

38. Catalogue, 1937–38, 36, Moravian College.Google Scholar

39. Catalogue, 1939–40, 45–46, Muhlenberg College.Google Scholar

40. Catalogue, 1943–44, 24–25, Haverford College.Google Scholar

41. Catalogue, 1946–47, 34–35, Dickinson College.Google Scholar

42. Minutes of Trustees, I, November 13, 1749, 1, College, Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia.Google Scholar

43. Ibid., I, January 8, 1754, 38.Google Scholar

44. Ibid., I, July 11, 1755, 56.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., III, January 10, 1780, 38–39, University of the State of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar

46. Faculty to Trustees of the University of the State of Pennsylvania, 1787.Google Scholar

47. Minutes of Trustees, X, January 1, 1867, 587–89, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar

48. Woody, 53 ff.Google Scholar

49. See, for example, Minutes of Trustees, I, March 10, 1761, 131 ff., College, Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia.Google Scholar

50. Leonard, Fred, A Guide to the History of Physical Education (Philadelphia, 1923), 290ff.; Deobold, B. Van Dalen, Mitchell, Elmer D., and Bennett, Bruce L., A World History of Physical Education (New York, 1953), 373 f.Google Scholar

51. See, among others, Minutes of Faculty, October 30, 1890, 32, Western University of Pennsylvania (University of Pittsburgh); Catalogue, 1892–93, 36–39, Washington and Jefferson College; Catalogue, 1896–97, 33, Allegheny College.Google Scholar

52. Minutes of Trustees, XI, February 3, 1875, 275, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar

53. Woody, 222.Google Scholar

54. Catalogue, 1951–52, 49, Lycoming College; Catalogue, 1950–52, 12, Mercyhurst College; Catalogue, 1951–52, 30, Wilson College.Google Scholar

55. Cf. Catalogue, 1951–52, 19, Chestnut Hill College; Catalogue, 1951–52, 44, University of Scranton; Catalogue, 1951–52, Marywood College.Google Scholar

56. See note 54.Google Scholar

57. See note 54.Google Scholar

58. Catalogue, 1949–50, 36–51, Washington and Jefferson College.Google Scholar

59. Cf. Catalogue, 1950–52, 50 ff., Thiel College; Catalogue, 1950–51, 35 ff., Westminster College; Catalogue, 1950–51, 39 ff., Wilkes College.Google Scholar