The Future in Education

Abstract

SIR RICHARD LIVINGSTONE has made a notable contribution to educational thought, although he himself would disclaim any suggestion of originality in his views, since his inspiration comes principally from the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Shakespeare and Milton, together with the main teachings of Christianity. He is concerned only incidentally with the organization of education, but in a style remarkably pleasant and illuminating he deals with those problems which are almost eternal. Work in the schools, he says, is merely preparatory for what should come later as experience accumulates and as the mind expands to comprehend ideas which are complex in themselves and of deep significance, such as we find particularly in social questions, policies and philosophy. He attaches great importance to the fertilizing influence which experience exerts upon knowledge. Too many ideas, which Whitehead would term inert, are plastered on to the young mind, only to fall off again; while even undergraduates are not yet mature enough in their experience of life to comprehend fully the information with which their minds are loaded.

The Future in Education

By Sir Richard Livingstone. (Current Problems.) Pp. ix + 127. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1941.) 3s. 6d. net.