The Harvard Classics › Great Ideas › Education

Education

‹ 8 · Outline · 10 ›

9.Schools, colleges and universities

9a.Criticism of schools and colleges

Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9

p. 213School and lecture-room are innocent, in contrast to the bar's unprincipled adroitness.read · scan

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 223The Khalifeh claims he was the Sultan's schoolmate and monitor, grounding a claimed friendship.read · scan

Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36

p. 321The universities need reform; they teach little Scripture and let Aristotle rule further than Christ.read · scan
p. 324Order of university study is inverted: Bible ends with the Bachelor's degree while the Sentences occupy doctors.read · scan
p. 326–327Only the aptest pupils should go to the high schools, which without diligent Scripture study are gates of hell; princes and magistrates should supervise.read · scan

Michel de Montaigne, Of the Institution and Education of ChildrenVol. 32

p. 54–55Montaigne wants learning blended with sports and exercise, taught gently, and condemns the harsh prison-like discipline of colleges.read · scan
p. 59Schooling wastes years on words and grammar; aim to form a complete gentleman, trained in deeds like the Spartans.read · scan
p. 64His father sends him to the College of Guienne with the best masters, yet he profits little from philosophy and lost his Latin.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39

p. 121School tradition is a succession of masters and scholars, not of inventors who perfect what is invented.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 316–317Schools nourish false doctrines of imagination and sense, teaching what they do not understand in many empty words.read · scan

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34

p. 6–7Despite excellent schooling, he found only doubts and discovered his own ignorance.read · scan
p. 54Criticizes the Schools' method of disputation as unproductive.read · scan

John Milton, Tractate on EducationVol. 3

p. 236Schools waste years on Latin and Greek words and force children to compose themes; universities begin with abstract logic instead of easy arts.read · scan
p. 237Misspent youth at schools leaves students hating learning and turning to ambitious divinity, law, or statecraft, or ease, unprincipled in virtue.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 29Too much and too little education hinder the mind.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 79Schools teach useless learning, we learn to dispute not to live; children's time should go to what is useful in manhood.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 319–320Men pursue false knowledge and mistake education extremely.read · scan

George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37

p. 258Wishes judgment by men of plain common sense without the prejudices of a learned education.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 9–10Franklin's schooling: grammar school, then writing and arithmetic, cut short by his father's expense concerns and family size.read · scan
p. 51–52Workmates learn something daily from Franklin; the Oxford scholar's schooling and wasted opportunity are recounted.read · scan

Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to ConquerVol. 18

p. 210–211Tony's song mocks schoolmasters' grammar and learning, claiming liquor gives better discernment.read · scan

Edmund Burke, A Letter to a Noble LordVol. 24

p. 398–399Hopes parents will trust the old schools and universities, not new radical lectures, for their children's formation.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19

p. 75–77A student seeks knowledge at the university; Mephistopheles compares learning to the infant taking the breast by habit.read · scan
p. 77–79Mephistopheles satirically advises the student to begin with college logic, method and scholastic forms.read · scan
p. 79–81Satirical advice on lectures, notebooks and choice of faculty for the student.read · scan
p. 81–84Mephistopheles advises the student that theory is grey and life green, and mocks pedantic learning.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Introduction to the PropyläenVol. 39

p. 255Argues the artist's training should include anatomy and natural science, but the schools of specialists serve their own pupils, not the artist's needs, so Goethe offers his own instruction.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 80–82He mocks college learning that turns stirks into asses, thinking Greek can climb Parnassus.read · scan

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17

p. 182The father spends his earnings on high school for his son, who learns diligently but must leave when money runs out.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5

p. 8–9Colleges and reading breed bookworms who accept received views instead of seeing principles themselves.read · scan
p. 11–12Colleges should teach elements and kindle youth by creating rather than drilling; gowns and endowments cannot replace wit.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5

p. 62–63Scorns the education at college of fools as wasteful charity.read · scan
p. 75–76Colleges leave young geniuses disheartened; self-reliance must change education among other institutions.read · scan
p. 79The universal system of education fosters restlessness and imitation.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-SoulVol. 5

p. 137–138Ordinary education often labors to silence and obstruct the common wisdom of humanity.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5

p. 261Emerson attacks education as a system of despair, resting on lost faith in appealing to the divine sentiments in man.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 24Mill argues early education showed children can acquire advanced knowledge easily, and the schoolboy's Latin and Greek is wasted time.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 190A self-taught man overrates education; with proper schooling Harris would have had great weight, and college pains are often wasted.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Twenty-Four Years AfterVol. 23

p. 391Jesuit college for boys and Notre Dame girls' school noted.read · scan

John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28

p. 103Schools teach catechisms and phrases instead of human meanings, producing shallow deformation instead of information.read · scan

Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39

p. 393–395Re-examine all learned at school, church or book and dismiss whatever insults your soul.read · scan

9b.The idea and life of a university

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9

p. 173Young Cicero describes studying under the philosopher Cratippus, with daily lectures, companionship and philosophical inquiry with friends.read · scan

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 69Augustine teaches rhetoric to young students at Carthage and reads literature with Faustus.read · scan
p. 70Augustine prefers Rome because students there study peacefully under discipline, unlike the unruly licence of Carthage's scholars.read · scan
p. 86–87Alypius studied under Augustine, who taught rhetoric at Carthage; a quarrel with his father kept him from his lectures.read · scan

Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36

p. 301Early convents were Christian schools teaching Scripture and training people to govern and preach.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 269Primitive church kept schools in every see, training ripest scholars for ministry; author urges restoring this order using existing schools and universitiesread · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 375Quixote details the hardships of the student's path to a degree and its eventual reward.read · scan

Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor FaustusVol. 19

p. 209–212Faustus formerly made the schools ring with disputations; students now mourn his loss.read · scan

Ben Jonson, The AlchemistVol. 47

p. 571–573Mammon vows to found colleges and grammar schools.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 312Universities' office in a commonwealth will be treated, noting things needing amendment.read · scan

John Milton, Poems Written at School and at College, 1624-1632Vol. 4

p. 20A college vacation exercise performed before the assembly, with Latin speeches then English.read · scan
p. 20–23Academic exercise personifying logical categories for a college audience.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise RegainedVol. 4

p. 395Athens, mother of arts and eloquence, offered as schooling to mature Christ for kingship.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 102–103Whitefield consults Franklin about turning his Orphan House into a college.read · scan
p. 114Franklin recounts the academy's incorporation as the University of Philadelphia and takes pleasure in its educated youth serving the country.read · scan

Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40

p. 447–449Reverent address to Eton college, where Science adores its founder and boys play and study.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 279The clergy were more fully educated than the military noblesse, with deep erudition fitting their authority.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 434–436Mary Ann proposes sending her young laddie to college for a year before marriage.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 353The college of doctors studied theology, history, literature and Oriental languages, each required to publish.read · scan
p. 353Federigo founds colleges, professors, and a library open to all citizens and strangers, showing his advanced view of learning and its institutions.read · scan

Thomas Carlyle, Inaugural Address at EdinburghVol. 25

p. 359Recalls arriving at Edinburgh as a boy of fourteen to attend classes and gain knowledge.read · scan
p. 360He will offer observations on the race young students have started and the arena they will find.read · scan
p. 361Students should be diligent at university, the seed-time of life, where habits of study are formed.read · scan
p. 362–363Traces the origin of universities from gatherings around teachers like Abelard, and their enduring value despite printing.read · scan
p. 388–389Farewell to students, urging them to consult the eternal oracles rather than temporary noises.read · scan

John Henry Newman, The Idea of a UniversityVol. 28

p. 31A university is a school of universal learning, gathering teachers and learners; mutual education is a constant occupation of society, beyond books.read · scan
p. 35Such gatherings resemble a university's occasional Commencement and promote intellectual stimulus and sympathy.read · scan
p. 36Metropolises act as virtual universities; question is whether education is founded on principle or left to random masters.read · scan
p. 38A university is a place of concourse where students gather for every kind of knowledge, where excellence finds a centre.read · scan
p. 39–40Athens as the archetype of a university, drawing youth of the Western world to gain wisdom.read · scan
p. 42The student from a distant land learns what a university must be by understanding its fitting home.read · scan
p. 43Students needed bodily wants supplied to be at leisure to furnish their minds.read · scan
p. 44The site of a university should be liberal and noble, with material pomp befitting a great seat of learning.read · scan
p. 45The University of Paris lost its meadows to sale and building, emblem of moral decline of the institution.read · scan
p. 46–47Lipsius and Wood argue a university needs a healthy, pleasant site, suited to learned leisure and inviting students to stay.read · scan
p. 47Newman considers the material setting and outward circumstances proper to a great university, using Oxford's lost glory as illustration.read · scan
p. 48Colleges as palaces of learning dominate the town; trade is subservient to the higher intellectual life.read · scan
p. 49He imagines the ideal site and a flourishing university overcoming early struggles.read · scan
p. 49–51Students from all lands flock to the ideal university, eager for wisdom, then return carrying peace to the world.read · scan
p. 51Athens presented as a university to show its nature, object and needs; poor students come seeking wisdom.read · scan
p. 52–53Marcus, Cicero, Gregory and Horace come to Athens to complete their education in the city of wisdom.read · scan
p. 53Student life at Athens: rowdy youths, teachers unprotected, town-and-gown feuds, poor scholars sharing a cloak.read · scan
p. 54Freshman receives the university gown after initiation trial.read · scan
p. 54Freshman must choose lodging and teacher amid touts for professors and sophists seeking fame or profit.read · scan
p. 54–55Athens educated by what students saw and heard, by sympathy, not by books; indoors comforts are irrelevant.read · scan
p. 56Student imbibes genius by walking Athens: sculptures, paintings, theatre, orators, learning taste through oral tradition.read · scan
p. 57Merely seeing Plato gives the student a measure of education; personal presence teaches beyond lectures.read · scan
p. 57Athens as university: open-air philosophic schools, famed teachers drawing thousands of pupils from all regions, education by nature and love of the noble rather than cloistered discipline.read · scan
p. 58–59Schools organized into student nations, with professors as patrons and protectors of student clients; chairs endowed by the State.read · scan
p. 59Student life at Athens: varied companies and impressions, and Herod's villa gatherings for students.read · scan
p. 60Students gather at Athens; Basil's influence helps his companions profit from the place's advantages.read · scan

James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1378–1379The university's true teaching is Veritas, not Greek and Roman lore or mere science.read · scan

Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32

p. 173Irish monks served as instructors in grammar and literature to the West and as copyists.read · scan

Treaty with MexicoVol. 43

p. 303Schools, colleges, libraries and scholars are to be respected and protected in war.read · scan

9c.English universities and their endowments

Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36

p. 314–315Old foundations rightly let nobles' children study and help others learn.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 261Oxford and Cambridge cannot supply enough able preachers to fill England's cures.read · scan
p. 267–269Corrupt elections of scholars from grammar schools to the universities undermine learningread · scan
p. 371Describes England's ancient and present universities, their subjects, colleges and endowments for poor men's sons.read · scan
p. 372Compares the sites and provisions for students at Oxford and Cambridge, such as fuel and food.read · scan
p. 373Compares colleges, town and degree ceremonies (Act, Commencement) at Oxford and Cambridge.read · scan
p. 374Praises the order and discipline of college life, which Erasmus said surpassed monastic rules.read · scan
p. 374Rich men's sons crowd out poor scholars via bribery and packed elections, which will overthrow learning.read · scan
p. 374–376Describes professors, public lectures, disputations and degrees in the sciences, tongues, divinity, law and physic.read · scan
p. 376Describes the sequence of university degrees from sophister to bachelor, master and divinity bachelor, with years of study and required exercises.read · scan
p. 377Doctorate completes eighteen or twenty years of study; students who linger idly past forty are condemned as drones, and Bishop Fox is quoted against it.read · scan
p. 378Describes law and physic degrees, college governance, and officers who supervise students' behaviour and punish defaults.read · scan
p. 379–380Surveys the Inns of Court and the grammar schools endowed for poor scholars across the realm.read · scan
p. 380–381Poor scholars at collegiate churches are maintained by founders, trained in Latin, Greek and versifying, then sent to the universities.read · scan
p. 381–382List of Oxford colleges and founders, plus halls with more liberty than the colleges.read · scan
p. 382Defends university endowments against greedy men; Henry VIII values them as making the realm well governed after his death.read · scan
p. 382Warns that seizing college lands would threaten all property and return England to the Goths and Vandals, who opposed learning.read · scan

Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15

p. 323–324Donne's schooling: a private tutor, Oxford at eleven, Cambridge, then Lincoln's Inn; laborious study and remarkable early learning.read · scan
p. 324Tutors in mathematics and liberal sciences also secretly instilled Romish principles.read · scan
p. 343–344The University grants Donne a divinity doctorate on the King's recommendation and the merit of his book.read · scan

Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George HerbertVol. 15

p. 375Herbert's schooling under a tutor, Westminster and Cambridge, with his mother securing tutors to guard his virtue.read · scan
p. 380Herbert's university career of fellowships and degrees, marked by strict study and the cherishing of his tutor.read · scan

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 80–81Clergy are educated at Oxford or Cambridge, away from capital's corruption, which shapes their reserve.read · scan

Samuel Johnson, Life of Addison, 1672-1719Vol. 27

p. 156–157Addison's college career at Oxford, elected as a Demy through a patron's recommendation.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 122University degrees copied the seven-year apprenticeship term; master, teacher and doctor were once synonymous.read · scan
p. 463–465Schools and colleges are endowed chiefly by local revenues, estates or trustees rather than the general revenue of the state.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 235English education, from infancy to travel, is in ecclesiastical hands, and old institutions are favored as promoting morality and discipline.read · scan

Thomas Carlyle, Inaugural Address at EdinburghVol. 25

p. 374–376Endowments do not produce great scholarship; English universities are rich yet lack eminent scholars, while poor Heyne transformed classical study.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 364Universities galvanize dead languages into a semblance of life.read · scan
p. 415–416Emerson visits Oxford and Cambridge, noting their scholars, polished manners, college customs and discipline.read · scan
p. 416Oxford is ancient, conservative and rich in great names, the school of the island and link to European learning.read · scan
p. 417Oxford enriched by benefactors' gifts of halls, fellowships, libraries and art, and by its Bodleian collections.read · scan
p. 418English train scholars like engineers, with tutors, physical conditioning, examinations and costs; Oxford's prestige inspires dedication to study.read · scan
p. 419Emerson describes Oxford fellowships and classical drill producing accurate, learned, tasteful men who shape English style and affairs.read · scan
p. 420–421Public schools and universities aim to form the well-educated English gentleman; they are finishing schools for the upper classes, excluding useful training.read · scan
p. 421Despite perverted foundations and favoritism, Oxford truly imparts the knowledge it prizes; examinations are severe and students read and write better than Americans.read · scan
p. 422Wealth, libraries and cultivated company give English scholars systematic reading; the university must be retrospective, though hostile to genius.read · scan
p. 423–426The vernacular service was tutor and university of the people; universities form the clergy, who long were the nation's scholars.read · scan
p. 427–428The university aims to produce gentlemen and bishops rather than saints or philosophers; the church has not fostered diffusion of knowledge.read · scan
p. 447English journalists write well by being educated to it, with an Oxford education.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 250–251He recalls his Harvard commencement and classmates receiving degrees.read · scan

9d.Home tutor versus school

See also: Family 8c · Virtue and Vice 4b

Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2

p. 193Good teachers at home rather than public schools; a man should spend liberally on education; governor taught endurance of labour.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 142–157More recalls being brought up as a child in the Cardinal's house.read · scan

John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13

p. 57–59Young gentlemen are misled by schoolmasters, tutors and travel governors.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 50Locke weighs private education at home against school, judging the tutor's care for virtue and manners better than Greek, Latin and schoolboy boldness.read · scan
p. 51A good tutor at home should fortify a young man with resolution against temptation before he enters the world.read · scan
p. 52A home tutor can form minds and manners individually, which a schoolmaster with dozens of boys cannot do.read · scan
p. 53A boy bred at home by a good tutor will show more manly carriage than a grammar-school boy.read · scan
p. 55Breeding a young gentleman at home under a good governor is best for the main end of education, virtue.read · scan
p. 72Breeding should be begun under a tutor in youth, before the young gentleman enters the world, since later reform is too late.read · scan
p. 74–75Sheltered breeding leaves youths ignorant of the world; they should be told its vices and tricks beforehand with examples of ruin.read · scan
p. 76Youth cannot be kept from vice by ignorance; a tutor must introduce him to knowledge of the world by degrees.read · scan

Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to ConquerVol. 18

p. 206–207Mrs. Hardcastle thinks school would kill Tony; Hardcastle says only the alehouse and stable will educate him.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 27Father's isolation of Mill from other boys avoided corrupting school influence but left him unpractical, trained to know rather than to do.read · scan
p. 27Father saved Mill from school life's bad effects but gave no substitute for its practical training, expecting effects without causes.read · scan

9e.Travel as education

Michel de Montaigne, Of the Institution and Education of ChildrenVol. 32

p. 40–43The pupil should learn from all men and places, from travel and acquaintance, and from histories read for judgment rather than dates.read · scan
p. 43Worldly acquaintance and travel broaden the learner, as Socrates claimed the world as his city.read · scan
p. 45Pupil should learn from the world's varied sects, opinions, laws and customs to judge his own and know his weakness.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 223Travel to Italy as part of young gentlemen's upbringing corrupts them.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 45–46Travel is education for the young, needing language first and a tutor who knows the country.read · scan

Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George HerbertVol. 15

p. 410–411Farrer, eminent for piety and learning at Cambridge, learned languages and the religions of the western world by travel.read · scan

John Milton, Tractate on EducationVol. 3

p. 245Youth should ride abroad to observe the land and sea and travel later to enlarge experience rather than learn principles.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise RegainedVol. 4

p. 384Seeing empires and courts is offered as schooling that removes novice 'rudiments' and prepares for greatness.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 179Locke criticizes sending youths abroad at sixteen to twenty-one, when they resist tutors; languages should be learned earlier under a tutor.read · scan
p. 179–180Locke argues the best age for a young gentleman's travel and how tutors and governors spoil its benefit by sparing him responsibility.read · scan
p. 181Travel should teach a young man knowledge of men, caution and good breeding, best gained through conversation with persons of quality.read · scan

Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to ConquerVol. 18

p. 233–234Hardcastle scorns the idea that a young man could learn modesty by travelling abroad.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19

p. 354Travel to see fine cities would teach Hermann to embellish his native town.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5

p. 78–79Lack of self-culture makes educated Americans idolize travel.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 38–39Residence at Ford Abbey and a year in France with the Benthams were important to Mill's education.read · scan
p. 40Year in France brought language, lectures in chemistry, zoology, logic and mathematics, and the benefit of Continental life.read · scan
p. 42The visit to France broadened his development and his education resumed on return.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 507–508Travel is most improving to a young naturalist, sharpening curiosity and activity.read · scan
p. 509Travel morally teaches patience, unselfishness, self-reliance and making the best of things, like a sailor's character.read · scan

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