RECALLING EDUCATION
By Hugh Mercer Curtler
List Item No. 299
ISBN: 1-882926-55-2 (cloth)
210 pages (includes Index)
List Price: $24.95
Internet Special: $21.21 —
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In this searching and relentlessly logical critique, a distinguished professor of philosophy argues that the purpose of education—enabling students to achieve intellectual autonomy—has been largely forgotten. Hugh Mercer Curtler challenges prevailing myths about education; clarifies the distinction between education and indoctrination; explains the significance of a proper understanding of education in a democracy; and offers recommendations to reverse current trends.
What They're Saying...
"Recalling Education devotes…attention to dismantling the arguments against liberal education. Beginning with a very satisfying definition of the kind of liberty that 'liberal' education aims at (a positive freedom resting upon the autonomy that comes from 'possessing one's own mind'), Curtler turns a skeptical eye to the current substitutes for liberal education and debunks their major, and by now quite familiar, premises."
— Academic Questions
"Many readers may be attracted to Curtler's specific educational, societal, and political arguments…"
— Choice
"[A] well-written and provocative book…"
— Library Journal
"Recalling Education by Hugh Mercer Curtler is a 'revolutionary' document that establishes or, should I say reestablishes, a case for a curriculum based on the best that has been written and thought. In what can only be described as an impassioned defense of the Western canon, Professor Curtler successfully exposes the specious claims behind post-modernism and cultural relativism. Curtler is an unequivocal traditionalist whose idea of education would in my judgment restore legitimacy to academic pursuits sadly damaged by fashionable theory and politically correct doctrine. Here is a book every scholar should read and every university administrator should employ as a guide for future decisions."
— Herbert London, John M. Olin Professor of Humanities, N.Y.U.; President, Hudson Institute
"Curtler recalls that liberal education equips citizens to exercise positive freedom, that it is for all and is, therefore, vital for democratic society. The manner in which this subtle doctor ties his critique of 'militant multi-culturalism' and his defense of adherence to a canon of great books to the aims of liberal education constitutes an invigorating tonic for those weary souls who would reclaim public education from ideologues who've forgotten the difference between education and indoctrination."
— James M. Tallmon, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, South Dakota State University
"Dr. Curtler has produced a thoughtful, well argued book which strips away much of the intellectual rubbish surrounding higher education. This powerful indictment of political orthodoxy in higher education is a most important contribution to contemporary discussion. Undaunted by political correctness and entrenched power, he hammers away at the faddish, feel-good dumbing-down of higher education. He dismantles the educational bureaucracy's cult of authenticity and self esteem learnedly, logically, lucidly. It is a particularly important book because unlike most tomes on education, he is willing to slay sacred cows like the semiprofessional athletics euphemistically called 'collegiate sports', and he offers detailed, provocative, and practical proposals for reform of curricula and policy. Let educrats beware; this is a powerful indictment of the contemporary state of the American university."
— Michael Sugrue, Princeton University, The Council of the Humanities
Chapters Include:
- The Purpose of Higher Education
- Debunking Some Myths
- Education or Indoctrination?
- How Not to Read a Book
- Citizenship in a World of Difference
- The Liberal Arts and the Public College
- Can Virtue Be Taught?
- Dissenting Opinion
- Where Do We Go from Here?
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