Beyond the university
Subtitle: why liberal education matters
By: Michael S. Roth
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 228
ISBN-13: 9780300175516
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: EDUCATION / Aims & Objectives; Higher Education; Aims and objectives; Humanistic Education; EDUCATION / Higher; Philosophy; EDUCATION / History; Education
Description: "Contentious debates over the benefits-or drawbacks-of a liberal education are as old as America itself. From Benjamin Franklin to the Internet pundits, critics of higher education have attacked its irrelevance and elitism-often calling for more vocational instruction. Thomas Jefferson, by contrast, believed that nurturing a student's capacity for lifelong learning was useful for science and commerce while also being essential for democracy. In this provocative contribution to the disputes, university president Michael S. Roth focuses on important moments and seminal thinkers in America's long-running argument over vocational vs. liberal education.  Conflicting streams of thought flow through American intellectual history: W. E. B. Du Bois's humanistic principles of pedagogy for newly emancipated slaves developed in opposition to Booker T. Washington's educational utilitarianism, for example. Jane Addams's emphasis on the cultivation of empathy and John Dewey's calls for education as civic engagement were rejected as impractical by those who aimed to train students for particular economic tasks. Roth explores these arguments (and more), considers the state of higher education today, and concludes with a stirring plea for the kind of education that has, since the founding of the nation, cultivated individual freedom, promulgated civic virtue, and instilled hope for the future"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-210) and index.
Table of contents: title: From taking in the world to transforming the self; title: Pragmatism : from autonomy to recognition; title: Controversies and critics; title: Reshaping ourselves and our societies.