Liberal
education
we must have.
Propaganda - 1943 - Post War Prospect of Liberal Education
?
502 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
Post-War Prospect for Liberal Education
THERE ARE THOSE who say that liberal education, as we have known it in America, is declining toward extinction. In the vast enterprise of war "we have found no obvious use for the liberally educated except in the services of public information and propaganda. After the war is over there will be powerful forces drawing young people away from the liberal studies- But there will be other powerful forces operating in the opposite direction-
The vindication of democracy by victory will raise a vast number ot questions as to the meaning of democracy, of the conditions economic and psychological and spiritual under which democracy can thrive. More and more, we shall be forced to think about the meaning of life, of the values we live by. The new place of America in the world as a whole, the awakened interest in other peoples, other cultures must inevitably draw the minds of men away from the mere practicalities of living.
We stand at the threshold of an intellectual and moral renaissance- Much as some of us might prefer the mental ease of provincialism, isola- tionism, we shall not be able to escape the impact of world forces. A ne^ scheme of civilization is forming, quite as strange to us, quite as exacting in the requirements it imposes on the individual, as the new technology-
Shall we find that we can adapt ourselves to this new order of civilization without liberal education? As little as we can adapt ourselves to the ne^ technology without adequate training. A liberal education will preserve our souls against the confusion, the negativism that harrass the untrained in the face of revolutionary changes.
Liberal education we must have. It cannot be simply a restoration ot the so-called liberal education of pre-war times, too often merely the con- tinuance of traditional ideas, traditional methods. The educator will need to rethink his whole system of educational values. He will need to fix nis mind upon the definite goal of producing a liberally educated man, a civilized man who has resources enough within himself to meet bravely tP changes that crowd in upon a dynamic world.
Liberal education we must have. It cannot be simply a restoration ot the so-called liberal education of pre-war times, too often merely the con- tinuance of traditional ideas, traditional methods. The educator will need to rethink his whole system of educational values. He will need to fix nis mind upon the definite goal of producing a liberally educated man, a civilized man who has resources enough within himself to meet bravely tP changes that crowd in upon a dynamic world.
Post-War Prospect for Liberal Education
THERE ARE THOSE who say that liberal education, as we have known it in America, is declining toward extinction. In the vast enterprise of war "we have found no obvious use for the liberally educated except in the services of public information and propaganda. After the war is over there will be powerful forces drawing young people away from the liberal studies- But there will be other powerful forces operating in the opposite direction-
The vindication of democracy by victory will raise a vast number ot questions as to the meaning of democracy, of the conditions economic and psychological and spiritual under which democracy can thrive. More and more, we shall be forced to think about the meaning of life, of the values we live by. The new place of America in the world as a whole, the awakened interest in other peoples, other cultures must inevitably draw the minds of men away from the mere practicalities of living.
We stand at the threshold of an intellectual and moral renaissance- Much as some of us might prefer the mental ease of provincialism, isola- tionism, we shall not be able to escape the impact of world forces. A ne^ scheme of civilization is forming, quite as strange to us, quite as exacting in the requirements it imposes on the individual, as the new technology-
Shall we find that we can adapt ourselves to this new order of civilization without liberal education? As little as we can adapt ourselves to the ne^ technology without adequate training. A liberal education will preserve our souls against the confusion, the negativism that harrass the untrained in the face of revolutionary changes.
Liberal education we must have. It cannot be simply a restoration ot the so-called liberal education of pre-war times, too often merely the con- tinuance of traditional ideas, traditional methods. The educator will need to rethink his whole system of educational values. He will need to fix nis mind upon the definite goal of producing a liberally educated man, a civilized man who has resources enough within himself to meet bravely tP changes that crowd in upon a dynamic world.
Liberal education we must have. It cannot be simply a restoration ot the so-called liberal education of pre-war times, too often merely the con- tinuance of traditional ideas, traditional methods. The educator will need to rethink his whole system of educational values. He will need to fix nis mind upon the definite goal of producing a liberally educated man, a civilized man who has resources enough within himself to meet bravely tP changes that crowd in upon a dynamic world.
