Four Educations

Robert Hutchins, former President of the University of Chicago, wrote in 1936 in Higher Learning in America that each university has four goals:

1. Liberal Education--to train citizens and leaders for the nation.

2. Academic Education--to train researchers and professors for the university.

3. Professional Training--to train students in specific work skills for the market.

4. Political Education--to train government and quasi-government workers for the state.

According to Hutchins, every college impacts all four, but every college also chooses one master--to the detriment or neglect of the other three. 

The history of America higher education, Hutchins said, could be summed up as focusing on Education for Liberty [from 1780-1860], then Education for Learning [1860-1932], Education for the Market [1932-?], and Education for Government Bureaucracy as the legacy of the future.

Today we are witnessing the shift from #3 to #4, not only in the schools but in the broadening of government controls over more sectors of the economy.

This should seriously concern every American and anyone else who cares about the future of freedom. 

Each of us should put our minds to personally obtaining a better leadership education in our own readings.