THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



NOVEMBER, 1873. 



LIBERAL EDUCATION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 1 



Br Prof. WILLIAM P. ATKINSON", 



OB" THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE Off TECHNOLOGY. 



THE collapse of that classical system of liberal education which 

 has held almost undisputed sway since the revival of learning in 

 the sixteenth century, and the now generally recognized insufficiency 

 of the theory which makes the study of the languages of Greece and 

 Rome the sole foundation of the higher education, are leading, as all 

 familiar with the educational thought of the present day are aware, to 

 the greatest variety of speculations as to the system which is destined 

 to supersede it. That a theory of liberal education as well adapted 

 to the wants of the nineteenth — or, shall we not rather say the 

 twentieth — century, as was the classical theory to the wants of the 

 sixteenth, has yet been elaborated, would be quite too much to affirm. 

 We are living in the midst of a chaos of conflicting opinions, and it 

 seems to be the duty of all who think at all on a subject on which the 

 vital interests of the future so much depend, and especially incum- 

 bent on all practical teachers to make such contribution as they are 

 able, from their studies and reflection or their experience, toward the 

 right solution of the problem. It is to such a contribution that I now 

 ask your attention. 



I begin with a definition of Liberal Education, in regard to which 

 I presume we shall not be much at variance. The term liberal is op- 

 posed to the term servile. A liberal education is that education which 

 makes a man an intellectual freeman, as opposed to that which makes 

 a man a tool, an instrument for the accomplishment of some ulterior 

 aim or object. The aim of the liberal education of any period is the 

 right use of the realized capital of extant knowledge of that period, 

 for the training of the whole, or only of some privileged part of the 



1 A paper read in the Department of Higher Instruction at the annual meeting of the 

 National Teachers' Association at Elmira, N. Y., August, 1873. 



VOL. IV. — 1 



