뉴먼, 밀, 아놀드의 인문교육에 대한 소신

The Nature, Method, and Usefulness of Liberal Education as Envisioned by Newman, Mill and Arnold

'Liberal education' came under attack in England in the nineteenth century, as an urgent need came to be felt for the development of technology, while most public schools and the two great universities persisted in teaching only the classical subjects. At the same time, the need for educating the public was keenly felt, as the vast majority of the middle classes and some of the lower classes were given votes and thus became political powers. However, education for the masses was left to motley private institutions of varying standards, with no supervision by the state. In this juncture, John Henry Newman, John Stuart Mill, and Matthew Arnold, three major spiritual and intellectual figures of the era, spoke strongly for liberal education, to raise the kind of men the times were desperately in need of--educated men with dignity of mind, far-reaching sight, and the power of balanced judgment, to counterbalance the narrow sectarianism and hasty zeal for this or that reform or policy. And, although they did not go so far as to argue that liberal education sufficed to form man's moral character, they were convinced that moral education is incomplete without the expansion of vision that can be achieved only through liberal education.