ABSTRACT
The idea of liberal education came to America by way of the English colleges and universities, where the approach of the Renaissance humanists gained favor only in the eighteenth century. In Georgian England, "Humane learning came specifically to mean the direct study of the most renowned classical texts, and especially those authors who were literary figures." A liberal education was one suitable to a free man, who, it was assumed, was well born and rich enough to afford it. For most students a liberal education came to mean the careful study of a limited list of Latin and Greek classics, with emphasis on mastery of the ancient languages, but it was justified on new basis, not the Humanism of the Renaissance: this kind of learning cultivated and strengthened the intellectual faculties. The liberal education needed for the students of today and tomorrow, should require a common program of studies for all its students as part of the full curriculum.
