| "If
I had any hope that in the foreseeable future, the educational
system of this country could be so radically transformed that
the basic liberal training would be adequately accomplished
in the secondary [i.e., high] schools and that the
Bachelor of Arts degree would then be awarded at the termination
of such schooling, I would gladly recommend that the college
be relieved of any further responsibility for training in
the liberal arts... if we are going to have general human
schooling in this country, it has to be accomplished in the
first twelve years of compulsory schooling...it would be appropriate
to award a bachelor of arts degree at the completion of such
basic schooling. Doing so would return that degree to its
original educational significance as certifying competence
in the liberal arts, which are the arts or skills of learning
in all fields of subject matter."
Nobel
Prize-winning economist Gary Becker (University of Chicago)
made much the same point about the importance of early education
when he noted the effect of the lack thereof in the bottom
20 percent of the income distribution in the United States
in which too many children are not learning the skills and
adopting the habits and values that other children acquire.
One result is increasing inequality. For example, prior to
1950 college graduates earned about 40 percent more than high
school graduates, on the average. Today they earn 80 percent
more. Thus education prior to college admittance age (roughly
age 18) is increasingly important in our society.
When
is it too late to make up for deficient early education? Becker
says studies show that by age 16 government job-training programs
for 16-year-olds do not succeed because they cannot overcome
the failure to learn skills in the first 16 years. Dr. Adler
noted that the responsibilities and financial pressures of
college costs, adulthood and marriage effectively end the
availability of sufficient leisure time necessary for general,
liberal educational opportunities for most college-age students,
in favor narrow specialized, vocational education.
Can
government schools solve the problem by providing education
and skills that traditionally have been provided by parents?
Becker, citing various studies, concludes there is no evidence
that will work. What about replacing real mothers with professional
day care personnel? Sweden tried this on a grand scale (a
literal, Spartan-like nationalization of the family) at great
social cost, but produced no evidence of positive effects
on children. Early home education, completed at the secondary
level with general liberal education in the humanities, offers
the surest - now well-tested - solution to the current educational
crisis. As schools in general do not offer such an education
at the secondary level, home educators must find ways to provide
this for their students.
In
a 1970 appearance on the TV show Firing Line, hosted
by William F. Buckley, Jr, Dr. Adler made the same point that
liberal education, the backbone of which is study of the Great
Books (not student-selected electives), should be completed
by the end of secondary (high) school:
"I think the curriculum for liberal studies should be
completely fixed. There should be no electives at all. I do
not think the student is in any position to make choices about
what he should study. I do not think his interests make any
difference. They are all human beings; they are all going
to become citizens; they are all going to have lots of free
time. I think electives – the choice of specialization
- should come after the liberal arts degree.
I
think the liberal arts degree is given four years too late.
I would take American schooling and cut it down , and make
it European in this sense: six years of elementary schooling;
six years of secondary (lycee, gymnasium
- high school); the collegiate (i.e., the BA [Bachelor
of Arts]) degree coming at the end of that [i.e.,
at the conclusion of secondary education - 12th grade in the
US]...I might extend that by taking [into account] the differences
in the population: I might have the very brightest twelve
years [i.e., through 12th grade] ; for the next level
thirteen years; and the last, fourteen years, but not more
than fourteen."
Taking
Dr. Adler's words and personal encouragement to heart, in
2000 AD we developed the Great Books Program for
students high school and college age and up. Like the AP science
courses for which high school students can earn college credits
for completing courses of college level content and rigor,
the Great Books Program allows willing students to
gain a broad, liberal (i.e. from liber or libertas
- liberty, or freeing from ignorance) education in the humanities
through the study of the great books while in high school
or college, via distance education, for college credit.
Mortimer Adler [sitting] at
his last Great Books Discussion Group,
with our directors [standing, l to r] Steve Bertucci,
Pat Carmack and Tom Orr, 2000 AD
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