Higher education: A platonic ideal

Abstract

What form should a non vocational, liberal arts education take in the 21st century? Three facets stand out. Curriculum should foreground those ways of thinking that young adults are capable of: philosophical and semiotic refl ection, interdisciplinary connecting, synthesizing and systemic thinking. Character should help to form the kinds of professional workers and citizens which are needed at the local as well as the global level. Context should model and epitomize the kinds of institutions that are worthy of admiration and encourage students to seek and to foster such contexts for the rest of their lives and for posterity. The key components of such an education should be valorized around the world, even as, consistent with the goals of the PLATO Project, it should be perennially adapted to changing conditions. While it is especially appropriate for young adults, it can and should be pursued across the life span.