The Learned Society

It was Plato who first set forth a systematic theory of education and articulated the symbiotic relationship that holds between politics and education. He revealed how alterations to the political order must necessarily affect the education of the citizenry and vice versa. Hence, when a state alters its educational aims, political changes of the first order are bound to follow; and, in similar fashion, when the political order changes, so too must the educational system. Hitler’s first legislative act was to shut down teacher training facilities.

Plato further understood the centrality of education for human well-being and flourishing. He established a curriculum he believed was best suited for free men, what we now call a liberal arts education. A modern commentator in Liberal Education, Civic Education and the Canadian Regime: Past Principles and Present Challenges, edited by David W. Livingstone, summarizes the aims of a liberal education:

Its...