Why Liberal Education Matters

Michael S. Roth, presidente di Wesleyan University, ha scritto un libro interessante e non banale sulle humanities e la loro importanza, Beyond the University (Yale UP), sottotilo, Why Liberal Education Matters. Ce lo presenta Christopher B. Nelson, "The book’s supporting framework, which Roth borrows from the education scholar Bruce Kimball, is the idea that two distinct traditions of liberal education have “uneasily co-existed” in America. The first is a philosophical tradition emphasizing preparation for inquiry; its aim is freeing the mind to investigate the truth about things physical, intellectual and spiritual. The second is a rhetorical tradition emphasizing initiation into a common culture through the study of canonical works; its aim is learning to participate in the culture, to appreciate its monuments and to create new monuments inspired by the old. Roth characterizes the philosophical thread as “skeptical” and the rhetorical thread as “reverential.”
The central argument is that liberal education is some combination of these two traditions that aims at serving the needs of the “whole person.” washingtonpost.