HUAS37000 - History of Education

Course Description

We will explore how modern educational ideals like equal opportunity and economic productivity are foreign--even antithetical--to the sensibilities of early educational reformers.  We will trace the development of educational ideals in settings as varied as 4th-century BCE Athens, the time of Confucius and later Chinese dynasties,  the early Christian eras of Augustine and Aquinas, the Enlightenment in France, the Industrial Revolution of 19th-century Europe, the People's Republic under Mao, and the 20th century American ascendency.  We will read excerpts from classic commentaries on education like the "Four Books" in Confucianism, Plato's Republic, Augustine's Confessions, Rousseau's Emile, and Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind.  

HUAS37000 History