In Defence of Liberal Education | Danube Politics

The battle against ‘progressive education’ is always ongoing.

This week in Britain, Michael Gove’s successor as Education Secretary, Bridget Philipson, introduced a bill that will take British education back, to a decolonised, knowledge-light world that “centres the learners”, as the jargon goes. 

Gove had established a more rigorous, conservative curriculum. It had proved astoundingly successful with learners – albeit less popular with the teaching unions. 

Now, the pendulum has swung back, and all the same discredited ideas will soon return to English schools. 

Few will have counted the tocks of the pendulum as well as Professor Anthony O’Hear. 

From the late 1980s, Anthony advised a number of British governments on education policy, and he set up the department of education at the University of Buckingham. 

As he explains to Dr Calum TM Nicholson, he wants to warn us about the dangers of forgetting. And to tell us about the redeeming power of a truly liberal education, in a world of hyper-liberal education. 

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Danube Knowledge is a podcast from the Danube Institute, showcasing research and ideas from the research department of the Institute.