Educated Person (eBook)

The central argument of this book is that the interrelated ideas of the educated person and a liberal education are in need of serious rethinking. The book contributes to this rethinking through an analysis of influential historical and contemporary treatments of liberal education, as well as scholarship in feminist theory and critical pedagogy. The book concludes by presenting a new ideal of the educated person and a reconceptualization of liberal education.

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Liberal education has long been a fascination for scholars in a variety of disciplines and is closely associated with the idea of the educated person. Seen at one time as a matter for colleges and universities, over the years it has become central to the debate surrounding general education in high school and even the earlier grades. Yet so many and varied are the uses of the term 'liberal education' that the question arises of whether and how the idea is any longer a useful or helpful construct. In what way might it speak helpfully to educational challenges we face today? In what ways does it still speak helpfully to educational challenges we face today? In what ways might it be a guide as we search for a better way forward? These are the central questions that are addressed in this book. In doing so, the positions of three theorists-John Henry Newman, Mortimer J. Adler, and Jane Roland Martin-who have written about liberal education in a compelling way and from different perspectives are selected for close analysis. The analysis is built upon to fashion a new ideal of the educated person and a new theory of liberal education.