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"If we remember that the animal is a
specialist, and a perfect one, all of its knowing-power being fixed
upon a single task to be done, we ought to conclude that an education
program which would only aim at forming specialists ever more perfect
in ever more specialized fields, and unable to pass judgment on any
matter that goes beyond their specialized competence, would lead
indeed to a progressive animalization of the human mind and life."
—Jacques Maritain,
Education at the Crossroads |
The Aims
of Education -- A Pleas for Reform
by Alfred North Whitehead, Chapter 1
ALMOST WISE: Robert Maynard Hutchins and the Reform of the Curriculum
by
James A. Patrick. In contrast to the disunity of modern collegiate
curriculums, the medieval university had a principle of unity. It was
theology. Failure to include that teaching which lies beyond philosophy
because it comes from God renders the other disciplines incomplete,
half-blind. Philosophy without theology, natural wisdom without that
supernatural wisdom which perfects it, rapidly becomes a rationalism, which
in turn gives way to skepticism.
The Arte of English Poesie
by George Puttenham (1569 A.D.)
The Arte of Rhetorique
by Thomas Wilson (1560 A.D.)
The Arts of Learning and Communication
A Handbook of the Liberal Arts by Benedict M. Ashley, O.P. (1958)
The Boke named The Governour,
Devised by Sir Thomas Elyot, Knight (1531
A.D.)
A
Brief History of Rhetoric and Composition
For teachers of writing.
A Brief Overview of Rhetoric
By Joseph Petraglia-Bahri.
Rhetoric, arguably one of the oldest disciplines in the world, is given a
brief overview in this article, which contains a number of interesting links
to related topics.
The Changing Idea of a University: American Higher Education and the
Illiberal Use of Knowledge
by Matthew D. Wright, Acton Institute
A
Classical Education in Elizabethan England |
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Cicero on the Genres of Rhetoric
Selected passages
Cicero's De Inventione
Classical Rhetoric
A brief overview at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville.
The Crisis in
Contemporary Education
by Mortimer Adler
The Curriculum of the Boston Latin Grammar School
(1712)
The Decline of Oratory
by Pliny the Younger
De Ratione Studii,
(Upon the Right Method of Instruction),
by Erasmus (1511 A.D.)
Demetrius on Style
The Divine Comedy as a part of Catholic Education
by Adrian Calderone
Education
A concise, insightful discussion of "education" from M. Adler's lexicon.
The Educational Legacy of Medieval and Renaissance Traditions
An informative and illustrated tour.
Elementarie
by Richard Mulcaster (1582 A.D.)
The Garden of Eloquence
by Henry Peachum (1593 A.D.)
God and the Professors:
Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion (1941)
by Mortimer Adler
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"Education is a high word; it is the preparation for knowledge,
and
it is the imparting of knowledge in proportion to that preparation."
—John Henry Newman |
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The Higher
Learning in America
by Robert Maynard Hutchins
How to Read a Book: a Guide to Reading the Great Books
by Mortimer Adler
Humane Learning in the Age of the Computer
by Russell Kirk.
What we need to resist is a schooling that turns out young people who know
the price of everything and the value of nothing: people replete with
information and unable to digest it.
The Ideal Education
by Quintilian (1st cent A.D.).
The "Institutes" of the renowned Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, gives his ideas
on the ideal Roman education. The works of Quintilian, as well as Cicero,
are of such value they even dominated the teaching of rhetoric in the
English schools during the 16th-18th centuries.
The
Idea of a College
by Robert M. Hutchins
The Idea of A University
by John Henry Newman (1854)
The Idea
of a University
by John Henry Newman; full text, The Newman Reader
The Importance of the Classics
by Louise Cowan.
But why in particular should followers of Christ be interested in the
classics? Is Scripture not sufficient in itself for all occasions? What
interest do Christians have in the propagation of the masterworks?
The Jesuit Ratio Studiorum of 1599
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The
Seven Liberal Arts from the Catholic Encyclopedia
The expression 'artes liberales', chiefly used during the Middle Ages, does
not mean arts as we understand the word at this present day, but those
branches of knowledge which were taught in the schools of that time. |
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Labor, Leisure, and Liberal Education
by Mortimer Adler.
“All the quarrels that exist in educational philosophy exist because men
have different conceptions of what the good life is, of what is good for
man, of the conditions under which man is improved or bettered. Within that
large area of controversy about education, there is one fundamental
distinction that I should like to call to your attention.”
Liberal Arts
From the Adler lexicon.
The Liberal Arts and Sexual Morality
Are the liberal arts and sexual morality connected? There is strong
evidence that they are, for if we graph their development over the
last half-century, we will see an almost identical curve of
accelerating decline. Although this proves nothing, it
certainly suggests something worth exploring more deeply. By Peter
Kreeft
The Liberal Arts:
Their History and Philosophy
by Otto Bird
Liberal Education and Mass Democracy (coming soon)
by Leo Strauss
Longinus On the Sublime
The Lost Tools of Learning
by Dorothy Sayers.
“For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to
learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort
spent in vain.” To achieve the true goal of education, renowned Catholic
author, Dorothy Sayers, wisely proposes that we adopt a suitably modified
version of the medieval scholastic curriculum for methodological reasons. |
The Method of Teaching in Practice
from "Jesuit Education: Its History and Principles Viewed in the Light of
Modern Educational Problems" by Robert Schwickerath, S.J. (1903)
The New Education
by Petrus Paulus Vergerius (1400 A.D.)
Of Education
by John Milton (1650 A.D.)
Origen: On Classical Learning
A letter from Origen to St. Gregory Thaumaturgus of Pontus on
the application of his classical learning to the study of Scripture.
Plutarch: The Training of Children
From the world's greatest biographer.
Quintilian on Rhetoric
Quintilian, Selections on Rhetoric
Rhetoric
by Aristotle
Roman Educational Practices
Brief selections from Horace, Pliny the Younger, and Martial.
The
Seven Liberal Arts from the Catholic Encyclopedia
The Scholemaster
by Roger Ascham (1570 A.D.)
Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric
A clearly written explanation of classical and renaissance rhetoric
Statutes for the University of Paris
by Robert de Courcon (1215 A.D.)
Teaching, Learning, and Their Counterfeits
Everyone knows, or certainly should know, that indoctrination is not
genuine teaching and that the results of indoctrination are the very
opposite of genuine learning. Yet, as a matter of fact, much that goes
on in the classrooms of our schools is nothing but indoctrination; By
Mortimer J. Adler.
The Value of a Catholic Liberal Arts Education
by Dominic Aquila. “This unity of truth, which is the essence
of a Catholic education and which distinguishes the Catholic habit of
thought from others, has never been fully realized in American
Catholic education, even though it was the ideal of Catholic education
in America from its very beginning…Young people today live guided more
by their imagination than by reason and intellect. They are largely
ignorant of Western history and literature, but far from stupid. What
they want is not more data but meaning.”
What is Classical Rhetoric
by Martin Cothran
What is Liberal Education?
by Leo Strauss
What is
a Liberal Education?
by Mortimer Adler. A liberal arts education is indispensable
for any intellectual profession. In fact, this has been "the
educational preparation of European scientists down to the present
time. Einstein, Bohr, Fermi, and other great modern scientists were
developed not by technical schooling, but by liberal education." The
great German scientists of the 19th century studied Greek, Latin,
logic, philosophy, and history, in addition to mathematics, physics,
and other sciences.
Wisdom
as the Goal of Liberal Learning
by Mortimer Adler.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," says the Bible. In
this context, "fear" means hearkening to God's word. Aquinas explains
that this is a filial, not a servile, fear--a true respect for the
divine law, not dread of punishment. It rests on faith in God's
revelation of His will to man. And it ends in wisdom, the perfection
of the intellect that accompanies perfect love."
Works of Robert Maynard Hutchins
Selections |
