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Liberal Education: What Was It? What Is It?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Saul Sack
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Extract

A great deal is being said and written about the importance and significance to contemporary society of liberally educated people. But few pause to define the term “liberal education” or “liberal arts.” Implicit in the words of their advocates is the assumption that people are generally agreed as to the content which the terms comprehend, and that this content is much the same now as it has been in the past. Historically this supposition is inaccurate; nor does it correctly picture the current temper of thought. The liberal arts curriculum and its product the liberally educated man, changed, albeit more slowly, as society changed. As we shall see, they represented something quite different in past ages, or even a century ago, from that with which they are invested by varying current opinions.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , December 1962 , pp. 210 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © 1962, University of Pittsburgh Press 

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References

Notes

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