Reclaiming Liberal Education In America | Hoover Institution

Quick Overview

Reclaiming liberal education in America requires re-educating ourselves on its history and purpose, adopting a minimal core curriculum emphasizing foundational texts in sciences, humanities, and political thought, and actively promoting free speech principles to foster the curiosity and civility essential for cultivating capable human beings for free societies.

Key Points: Classical liberal education traces back to Socrates, combining formal studies (like STEM subjects in the Quadrivium) with dialectical questioning (Trivium: rhetoric, grammar, logic). John Stuart Mill defined the modern aim of liberal education as producing "capable and cultivated human beings to prosper in free societies and to maintain the political institutions of free society." The situation in American higher education has deteriorated over the last decade, evidenced by incidents like the 2015 Yale costume controversy and Harvard's post-George Floyd statements regarding the riots. Underlying causes for the decline began long before recent events, citing William F. Buckley's 1951 book, "God and Man at Yale," which already argued the faculty conscripted the curriculum for ideological ends. Solutions include universities re-educating themselves on liberal education's history, adopting orientation materials on free speech and due process, and instituting a minimal core curriculum. Viewpoint diversity is crucial because, unlike settled math or science questions, moral and political affairs almost always have something to be said on the other side, preventing views from collapsing into "dead dogma." Constructive government engagement involves enforcing Title VI anti-discrimination rules and supporting state-level "civic thought" programs focused on American political ideas and institutions.

Context: This webinar, hosted by the Hoover Institution's Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI), featured a discussion between host Aaron Tilman, moderator Brandis Kanes, and guest speaker Peter Burkowitz regarding the state and future of liberal education in the United States. The RAI center focuses on studying crises of trust in American institutions and promoting evidence-based reforms, with this specific session exploring the intellectual and civic foundations necessary for maintaining free societies.