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History of the Ideas of Liberal Education

In researching the historical aspects of the shift from an oratorical tradition to a specialization type of education in post-secondary institutions in the United States from 1860 to 1945, Bruce A. Kimball's book, Orators and Philosophers, presents the conflict between two of the most recognized educational traditions, philosophy and rhetoric. He presents this conflict as a move to specialization in higher education, or an empirical standard, pushing out the traditional oratorical method of post-secondary learning. For example, laboratory experiments replaced student speeches, graduate departments in specialized fields were multiplying exponentially, established student literary organizations lost favor to athletic and fraternal organizations, and teaching styles converted to lecture-style classes and moved away from interactive study. Students began to choose their curriculum rather than having it be prescribed to them. Modern languages became popular and classical languages were emphasized less. Kimball discusses the reasons and reactions to these and other shifts, and points out some of the sociopolitical causes for this shift. While today, for the most part, these issues have been resolved in favor of a 'liberal-free' (or what Kimball defines as a specialization in a philosophical tradition) custom in response to the social power of the body electric of science, his chapter on Confrontation in America of the Oratorical and Philosophical Tradition does lend a historical perspective on how the development of today's liberal arts colleges define 'liberal' and suggests what alternatives might have been more useful than the present emphasis on the 'liberal-free' ideal. Kimball does argue that the transformation in education that occurred over this period can be overstated, but nonetheless it did metamorphose today's post-secondary educational system.

Kimball traces one of the basic areas of conflict between the two educational traditions to a confusion about the semantics of liberal arts. What is 'liberal' in reference to education? Kimball reports that educators such as Irving Babbitt and Robert Hutchins spoke of a liberal arts tradition as freeing a student to better themselves in order to be productive and successful in their communities. These proponents of a rhetorical tradition for higher education saw education as a tool for free men to use a varied and extensive education and presentation of that education (gained through self-discipline) to influence their peers, perhaps to their own advantage, but ultimately for the advantage of the community. On the other hand, proponents of specialization in higher education drifted toward the ideal that education liberates a person from whatever it was they needed to be freed from. One example pertinent to the time frame Kimball studied was the empirical specialization that allowed students and educators to research power structures and develop superior militaristic strategies.

Aside from the shifting educational methodologies, there was a definite political agenda in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Sociopolitical friction grew out of the Civil War. Accessibility to education was not evident for all men, and hardly at all for women and minorities. Education was still an elitist privilege, but the end of slavery and rumblings from the burgeoning women's movement were beginning to infiltrate the society of education. Kimball does not expound upon why the changes are appearing so closely on the heels of the Civil war, admitting that this would "...invite criticism for denigrating the antebellum colleges, or more generally, for relying on the dated and simplistic generalizations of traditional historiography" (p. 161).

Immediately after the Civil war, there were tremendous changes in America's existing colleges, and as new, especially land-grant institutions were developed, there was an emphasis on technical, or scientific study. Influenced by Germany's progressive model of higher education, specialized scholarship, research, and accessibility of choice in education, a model of specialization in education began to fall into favor in the United States. The oratorical traditions of recitation began to be replaced, but not immediately, and not without struggle. However, as progressivism grew nearer, and as pragmatism and experimentalism began to take hold of the learning process, the meaning of the term science in colleges, and in society, became dynamic. This was exciting for some in academia, and as the definition grew more and more synonymous with specific research and methodology, more and more of America's universities adopted departments of study specializing in scientific fields, and subjects such as the classical languages and astronomy became less favorable and less often encountered, especially with the rise of a less prescriptive and more elective curriculum. These types of changes in academic values, reports Kimball, had not been seen since medieval times.

Slowly, over decades, however, emphasis was placed on science, changing as its definition was, and the importance of languages, oratories, recitations, and a prescriptive cirriculum was downplayed. Kimball recounts an increase in emphasis on modern language requirements and a decrease in emphasis on classical literature and languages during this time.

One of the influential educators that assisted in this transformation of cirriculum to specialization was C.W. Eliot, president of Harvard University. He defined liberal studies as "...those which are pursued in the scientific spirit for truth's sake" (p. 167). This frontal opposition to an oratorical tradition was aided by a struggle among those desiring an oratorical tradition in post-secondary schools. Humanists, Neo-humanists, New Humanists, and other schools of thought were struggling within themselves for the accommodation of nineteenth century academia. They seemed not to be able to agree upon which classics should be studied, how they should be studied, or interpretations of their content. This only gave the 'liberal-free' camp more fuel for their fire.

At the conclusion of Kimball's chapter on conflict, he does outwardly criticize the philosophical tradition of today's universities. He points out the elitism, and the history of elitism, and he also examines the thinking of educators such as Frank Aydelotte, president of Swathmore College for 19 years during the First World War and the Great Depression, and educators at Wells, Colgate, and Reed Colleges, who acknowledged elitism and who believed that not all men are equal in their ability to learn. Kimball also discloses the social and political assumptions that underlie the move toward a solely specialized type of education. Through Abraham Flexner, Kimball "...finds an example of the liberal-free accommodation that clearly demonstrates the ambiguity and tension inherent in this kind of approach".

Through his historical presentation, Kimball seems to be suggesting that a combining of both educational approaches would best serve a student. He neglects, however, to fully take into account the dynamic social situation of students, and does not address at all the economic realities of his subjects, and barely reacts to religious persuasions. His unveiling of American educational culture and writings and opinions of educators and educational administrators of the period he studied, however, is thorough. Perspectives from students of the day may have assisted in completing the picture of the shifting educational standards of the time. The relevance of this intense and passionate period of educational dynamicism is witnessed by the formats used in today's universities, and most primary and secondary schools. Empirical standards are adhered to. Objectivism is placed, in the hierarchy of scholarship, above relationality and interaction. Specialization has continued to evolve, and the oratorical tradition is becoming harder and harder to dissect out of the body of the curriculum. Kimball attributes part of this to the growth of the middle class and the emphasis placed on the ideal of increasing per capita income. The implication is that economics is closely tied to the political, social, and educational change of post-secondary education in the United States then, and now.



Bibliography

Kimball, Bruce A. Orators and Philosophers, A History of the Ideas of Liberal Education. Teachers College Press, NY 1986

Posted by: Sarah S.

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