Notes on a Good Example

Even though he labors under the handicap of being an associate professor of education (at UCLA), Dr. Kneller writes competently, and is a good scholar. This is a valuable book, devoted principally to a discussion of the controversies over the ends and means of university education now in progress in England. (The title is somewhat misleading, for there are very few references to Scottish and Irish universities.) Anyone who reads it will perceive that the whole discussion of higher education is being carried on there at a level much above that of the similar debate in America; and that if we are to get anywhere in our argument, we shall have to penetrate to the heart of the matter, as the English scholars are doing.

The chapters on “Moral Man and Social Values” and “Education for Democratic Leadership” are particularly enlightening. The role of religious and ethical knowledge in higher education, and the function of the university in developing that aristocracy of mind and spirit without which no nation can long endure, are being examined by Michael Oakeshott, Sir Walter Moberley, Arnold Nash, F. R. Leavis, Bonamy Dobrée, Eric James, and others with a high seriousness. Mr. Kneller presents their several cases succinctly and fairly.

RK

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Russell Kirk

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Even though he labors under the handicap of being an associate professor of education (at UCLA), Dr. Kneller writes competently, and is a good scholar. This is a valuable book, devoted principally to a discussion of the controversies over the ends and means of university education now in progress in England. (The title is somewhat misleading, for there are very few references to Scottish and Irish universities.) Anyone who reads it will perceive that the whole discussion of higher education is being carried on there at a level much above that of the similar debate in America; and that if we are to get anywhere in our argument, we shall have to penetrate to the heart of the matter, as the English scholars are doing.

The chapters on “Moral Man and Social Values” and “Education for Democratic Leadership” are particularly enlightening. The role of religious and ethical knowledge in higher education, and the function of the university in developing that aristocracy of mind and spirit without which no nation can long endure, are being examined by Michael Oakeshott, Sir Walter Moberley, Arnold Nash, F. R. Leavis, Bonamy Dobrée, Eric James, and others with a high seriousness. Mr. Kneller presents their several cases succinctly and fairly.