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.}

© Papazi Mouris, Flickr “greekadman”Creative Commons License

“Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not,
as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe,
an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory”

~Emily Post, American Etiquette Pioneer

A new study in the journal Psychological Science concluded that happy people talk more, and have more substantive conversations. While this study solely reveals the correlation between happiness and conversation, not a causal link, I find it interesting that it is not mere conversation that the happy have, but substantive conversation.

If education is didactic and does not foster behaviors that allow for the clear and purposeful exchange of ones own ideas than there is no opportunity for the students to practice what the happiest people do: have meaningful fulfilling conversations!

See the links below for more information on the study:

Happy People Talk More, and With More Substance

Can You Talk Your Way to Happy?

Substantive talks better than small talks for happier life

One of the women in my education masters program came up with the following advertisement to recruit secondary teachers after reading Phil Gang’s Rethinking Education.  She did it with a little tongue and cheek, but frankly, it’s spot on!

“Secondary level teacher of ……………required, must have high self esteem, be intelligent, have a full extra curricula life, be open minded, trustworthy, friendly, nice and have a good sense of humor.

Applicant must have empathy and respect for students, knowledge of developmental psychology, be versatile, flexible, and be able to facilitate and mediate in the classroom. They must have good listening skills, a belief in young people, and faith in the future of mankind.”

How amazing.  She also expressed (and we at Education and Liberty all agree) that a “teacher” must be a life long learner.  She shared this great link by an organizational trouble-shooter, Kevin Eikenberry, about the qualities of a life long learner.   The article talks about how we are all really in the business of learning, what that means, and how to get better at it.

“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.

This is a great article by Michael Strong.  In it, Michael talks about how Socratic practice helps develop student’s rational abilities and helps make rational, tolerant discourse a cultural norm.  

Michael actually has a column on this website.