Abstract
THE four lectures in this volume were delivered JL in September 1945 at the University of Toronto—the first three on the Burwash Foundation and the fourth as the Sir Robert Falconer Memorial Lecture. Although they are not consecutive, all deal with aspects of a single problem–how to improve ourselves and our society by education—and are a valuable corrective to the current obsession of educationists for dealing with means rather than ends. Those who are familiar with Sir Richard's earlier writings will not be surprised to find that, although he examines proposed revisions of curricula to meet the needs of the modern world, he is chiefly concerned to emphasize, as the prior task of education, the need “to inspire and to give a sense of values and the power to distinguish what is first-rate... from what is not”. “It is”, he declares, “right to teach the pupil to criticize, but it is even more important to train him concurrently to admire.” To him “nothing—not all the knowledge in the world—educates like the vision of greatness, and nothing can take its place”.
Some Tasks for Education
By Sir Richard Livingstone. Pp. vii + 98. (London, New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1946.) 5s. net.
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Social Improvement By Education. Nature 160, 625 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160625a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160625a0