Some Observations on American Education

The great question of our time is whether the two ideas education for all and education as the development of the mind are incompatible. This book is based on the Sir George Watson lectures given at British Universities in the autumn of 1954 in which the prominent American education philosopher and administrator Robert Maynard Hutchins examines the state of education in his own country. This collection of observations covers topics of history general characteristics ideals standards and methods control and conformity today and tomorrow. Also included is a chapter on alumni athletics and academic freedom which will be of relevance to anybody interested in his significant and not uncontroversial tenure as President of the University of Chicago 1929-1951 remembered as much for the elimination of intercollegiate football as his attempts to reform the curriculum in line with his liberal beliefs.