Education and Liberty

St. Johns College President Christopher Nelson recently gave an address about the value of a liberal arts education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

If you have ever asked me why I went to St. Johns, what I think is so great about the liberal arts, or why I think that education is the only way to create real change, here is your answer:

Our nation’s foundation rests upon the principle of the intellectual freedom of each of its citizens; its political, economic, moral and spiritual freedoms are all derived from this intellectual freedom, and its political, economic, moral and spiritual strength depends upon it. We are a nation built upon a respect for the individual and a trust that our citizens are capable of self-government.

For the sake of our country, we therefore need our citizens to have an education in our democratic traditions and foundations, as well as in the arts needed to question and examine those very foundations so that we may keep them vibrant and alive for us against attack or atrophy. There is a real tension between these two goods. The traditions, customs and laws of the nation are at times at odds with the very things that encourage the autonomy of the individual citizen who might question them. This tension is healthy in a free republic.

A college education that will strengthen this tension will serve this nation well because it will help us educate independent and self-sufficient citizens who will be fit for the freedom they enjoy in our country. Providing the access and opportunity to as many as possible to undertake such an education will serve that public interest.

If we prize the individual in our society and value the ways an individual may become self-sufficient, we also ought to support the many and various means our colleges employ to help their students become independent and strong. In the end, the independence of our citizenry will strengthen our nation. Education in the arts of freedom and self-sufficiency make the promise of America possible[...]

We are sometimes asked whether we aren’t elitist. One former dean’s answer to that was, “We are small, but we are about as exclusive as a pick-up baseball game. If you have a glove, want to play and make an effort, you belong.” It’s a particularly good image because it suggests something that is very all-American. We are a model of an American institution in at least two respects:

? First, democratic participation is our primary mode in the classroom. Our students are responsible for participating in their classes, all of them in the same way. They must all read the books, and then they must learn to listen to the authors, listen to their classmates’ contributions, and listen to themselves speaking. They have equal responsibilities, equal rights and equal opportunities to learn according to their abilities, their desire and their preparedness for class.

? Second, all of our students read, and read critically, the principal documents that define our American democracy: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the great speeches of Washington and Lincoln, and certain key Supreme Court decisions.

Read the full speech here.

{I love my college.}

“Tyrants forbid citizens to do their duty as free men.

Free government permits them to do it.

Liberal education enables them to do it.”

Stringfellow Barr, Co-founder of St. John’s College Great Books program, 1941

In Andrew’s post on Jacob Klein, he briefly quotes Scott Buchanan’s essay entitled “The Last Don Rag.” Drawing on the St. Johns tradition of don rags, a discussion with your tutors (professors) regarding a specific text or idea, the essay (speech) is a serious of questions. I have yet to find a more compelling call for the role of education as it relates to a free society:

“Have you recognized that you are and always have been your own teacher? Amidst all the noise and furor about education in this country at present, I have yet to hear this question raised. But it is basic. Liberal education has as its end the free mind, and the free mind knows that he knows nothing, and then goes on to add: I know what it is that I don’t know. My question then is: Do you know what you don’t know and therefore what you should know? If your answer is affirmative and humble, then you are your own teacher, you are making your own assignment, and you will be your own best critic. You will not need externally imposed courses, nor marks, nor diplomas, nor a nod from you boss….in business or politics.”

“Under the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, have you persuaded yourself that there are knowledges and truths beyond your grasp, things that you simply cannot learn? Have you allowed adverse evidence to pile up and force you to conclude that you are not mathematical, not linguistic, not poetic, not scientific, not philosophical? If you have allowed this to happen you have arbitrarily imposed limits on your intellectual freedom, and you have smothered the fires from which all other freedom arise. Most of us have done this and come short of what that threadbare slogan, human dignity, really means… We are willing to become cripples in our minds and fractions of men in our lives.”

When Tom Palmer, eminent libertarian and St. Johns alumnus, asked me to take some of his students on a tour of Annapolis these quotes were on the short list of stops. The Barr quote at the top of this page and most of the second Buchanan quote are listed on the wall of one of the college’s buildings.

Liberty and the liberal arts are intricately tied. But why? What is it that “St. John’s stands for” that without which ”this country is not worth defending against the Nazis.”

A true education creates a free mind, a mind that is constantly searching, evaluating, and learning in the most honest and authentic way. We commonly believe that if a child can recite the correct answer when queried, that he has, obviously, has a knowledge of it. The problem lies in the fact that you cannot impart knowledge, you can only model the process of acquiring it and encourage an honest examination that leads to understanding. Free society requires those who promote it to model free thinking. It asks us to be critical of our beliefs and our actions. If we are to have a free society we must be self governed and a liberal arts education fosters the ability to do this.

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage… Unless we can make the philosophic foundations of a free society once more a living intellectual issue, and its implementation a task which challenges the ingenuity and imagination of our liveliest minds, the prospects of freedom are indeed dark. But if we can regain that belief in power of ideas which was the mark of [classical] liberalism at its best, the battle is not lost. ~F.A. Hayek, Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, p194

If children are allowed free development and given occupation to correspond with their unfolding minds their
natural goodness will shine forth. ~Maria Montessori

There are certain moments in my life where I feel like the world is telling me something. Times where so many of the conversations I have , ideas I am thinking about and articles I read converge, that I can’t help but listen. This is one of those moments.

We all know that how we educate children needs to change, that the public school system is not  “working”. (I go further, and believe that it is inherently incapable of providing a truly valuable education that respects the individuality of the child.)

Most of the discussion of education has been negative statements, statements of what we don’t want. So what is the vision? What do we want out of education? What would be the very best outcome for society?

Now I don’t presume to know the Answer, but I will propose an answer (and I am curious to hear what you think!): We want innovators. We want creative problem solvers, critical thinkers. That is where the continued progress and prosperity lies. We want people who see a problem, and are empowered to fix it, or at least give it an honest try. We want people who see a need, and want to fulfill it. We want entrepreneurs. This call is universal. It goes beyond industry and sector, it reaches the very source of prosperity for all people, in all countries. A country of inspired innovators is a country of prosperous, perhaps even happy, people. The wonderful Maria Montessori said in chapter one of her book, The Absorbent Mind, “If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.” The next question becomes what is the best way to develop the habits and insights of those “makers of men.” How do we inspire that wonderful quality of “tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”? Again, I do not presume to know the Answer. It is and always will be an evolving process but I have some ideas…

My current work is inspiring. I am honored to be in the company of a man working towards this: my boss, Jeff Sandefer, is an entrepreneur who, in addition to his many other contributions towards the cause of liberty, is making huge strides in how we approach higher education. The Pope Center for Higher Education put out an excellent article today regarding his prediction of the collapse of the US higher education system. As I work with him to develop a primary school curriculum we are making progress towards changing the very model of elementary education. Exciting times.

Here you will find an excellent speech that he gave on education.

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference. ~Aristotle

The ‘absorbent mind’ welcomes everything, puts hope in everything…adopts any religion, and the prejudices and the habits of its countrymen, incarnating all in itself. That is the child! ~Maria Montessori

Nature says copy your parents…whatever your interests are, the child gets tremendously interested in them too. ~Margaret Homfray, below video, 08:50

As I was researching Montessori principles, I came across some wonderful full-length lectures, by a plain speaking Montessorian named Margaret Homfray. This one on preparing children to read is particularly good.

If our goal is to educate children to become free thinking adults then we need think about how to they develop the habits of thought. We have to be aware of the role each of us has in fostering the habits of dialogue. If we never speak to children like they are thinking beings, if we never model sophisticated language and thought for them, children will never become comfortable thinking about sophisticated ideas.  Then, how can they enjoy the wonderfully complex ideas that we value?

When was the last time you had a conversation with a child? Asked them an open-ended question? It is amazing. They are so eager to talk to you, eager to tell you what they are thinking, what they like, what they don’t, what they have done with their day. Children see adults talking to one another all the time, and when you make the smallest effort to engage them, they tell you all about themselves. Each of us making these small efforts are what create the culture we strive for.

And you don’t have to wait until you have your own child to begin fostering a culture of dialogue. Try it with the next child you are standing with in the grodery store line, or on the bus.  Let me know what you learn.