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Spring 1997

Liberal Education On The Great Plains American Experiments, Canadian Flirtations, 1930-1950

Kevin Brooks Iowa State University

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Brooks, Kevin, "Liberal Education On The Great Plains American Experiments, Canadian Flirtations, 1930-1950" (1997). Great Plains Quarterly. 1938. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1938

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KEVIN BROOKS

In 1929 the University of Chicago plan for cialized and disjointed in the first thirty years liberal or general education was first proposed of the century, although it was far from being by its young president, Robert Maynard the only general education experiment of its Hutchins. Sociologist Daniel Bell, in his his­ day. The Experimental School at the Univer­ tory of general education in America says, "The sity of Wisconsin and the General College at Chicago plan sought to draw together the dis­ the University of Minnesota are usually iden­ ciplines in three fields-the humanities, the tified, along with Chicago, as the three most social sciences, and the natural sciences-and significant general education experiments of Jo consider problems which, by their nature, the early 1930s. 2 These experimental programs could only be understood by applying concepts served as models, in whole or in part, for re­ from different disciplines. "1 Hutchins' proposal forms throughout the Great Plains region of became the most discussed plan for balancing Canada and the United States during the 1930s university curriculums that had become spe- and 1940s. In this essay I will identify two trends that emerge out of these initial experiments-a trend combining liberal education traditions and a trend combining liberal and professional education-and show to what extent those trends were taken up by the land-grant col­ leges, state universities, and provincial univer­ sities of the Great Plains. David R. Russell Kevin Brooks is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Iowa identifies three communities within the gen­ State University. He has articles on education in press eral education movement: those who saw util­ in Textual Studies in Canada and Rhetoric Review. ity and efficiency as the primary goal of education; those who saw culture as the pri­ mary goal; and those who saw social reform as [OPQ 17 (Spring 1997): 103-17) the goal. This paper will focus primarily on

103 104 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1997 the goals and actions of the first and second of liberal education and its manifestations in communities.3 I use "liberal education" here nineteenth-century Canada and the United to speak mainly of traditions in education. States, I will be able to formulate more clearly Twentieth-century experiments like those at the questions that need to be asked about gen­ Chicago, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are best eral education on the Great Plains. described as "general education experiments" because they attempt to offer a broad or gen­ LIBERAL EDUCATION IN THE EAST eral education. They are informed, however, by the liberal education traditions extending Bruce Kimball's Orators & Philosophers ar­ from Greek and Roman education to nineteenth gues that two distinct traditions ofliberal edu­ century versions of liberal education. To cation have, at various times, guided education clarify this distinction, I am arguing that this in the western societies. Liberal education in comparison of American and Canadian schools the Hellenic and Roman worlds was for the will show that western Canadian universities orator, the free citizen, and the curriculum that were more influenced by general education ex­ came to characterize this education-the seven periments on the Great Plains than by the nine­ liberal arts-was called the artes liberales. Stu­ teenth-century liberal education tradition in dents educated in the oratorical tradition were eastern Canada. The term "general education" not encouraged to discover new knowledge but was seldom used by Canadian educational re­ to support the knowledge and values of the formers, but was more common than "liberal ruling class to which they belonged. Not un­ education" in the US I will frequently refer to til the Enlightenment and the re-emergence of American general education experiments and the philosophical tradition of education in Canadian liberal education flirtations, but the the form of science did liberal education take two are synonymous. on the notion of being able to set its pupils I have limited my study of American schools, free through knowledge. Socrates and Plato besides Chicago and Minnespta, to those in represented the philosophical tradition of edu­ Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska because I am pri­ cation in classical times, while Isocrates repre­ marily interested in establishing educational sented the dominant oratorical tradition. patterns, not advancing research into the his­ Eighteenth-century university students in Eu­ tory of education or the curriculum at the rope and North America were still educated in American institutions. The archival research I the artes liberales and still admired the ancients, have done in western Canada, however, will Kimball says, "But their 'folk-hero' was Socrates shed some new light on the nature of Ameri­ with his uncompromising, never-ending search can educational and cultural influences on for truth." In contrast to the free-citizen of the western Canada. This comparison will also classical period replicating the values and show that much of the appeal of these Great knowledge of the ruling class, Enlightenment Plains experiments is their similarity to a Brit­ free-thinkers challenged conventional wisdom ish, Arnoldian conception of higher education, about science and society. The philosophical an issue that may complicate our understand­ ideal of education eventually began to influ­ ing of national and regional identity forma­ ence university curriculums by demanding more tion. attention be paid to the sciences, but those Before examining the general education demands were still made in the name of "lib­ experiments and flirtations on the Great Plains, eral education" generally.4 I need to clarify what I mean by "liberal educa­ Nineteenth century North American uni­ tion traditions" and provide a brief account of versities matured during the time when educa­ the history ofliberal education up till the twen­ tors were divided about the purpose of a liberal tieth century in the eastern regions of Canada education: to inculcate traditional values and and the United States. By sketching the history truths-the oratorical tradition-or to seek new LIBERAL EDUCATION ON THE PLAINS 105 truths and the clarification of values-the Hegelian and Arnoldian thought in Canada philosophical tradition. The Yale Report of extending through to the 1960s.9 McKillop, 1828, for example, was a defense of the ora­ however, is more sensitive to the turbulent and torical tradition and the classical curriculum transitional conditions of a westward expand­ against the onslaught of demands for practical ingCanada: and popular educaiton informed by the philo­ sophical tradition.5 Canadian historians of The English-Canadian university of the first education, most notably A. B. McKillop, ar­ quarter of the twentieth century, like the gue that this tension was not an important part society itself, was one in a state of precari­ of postsecondary education in nineteenth-cen­ ous balance between the weight of tradi­ tury Anglo Canada-"Virtually all English­ tion and the currents of change. Hence, the speaking educators in British North America academic could no longer be certain at mid-nineteenth century agreed that the prime whether his role was to safeguard social sta­ function of education was to instil into their bility or to facilitate social improvement. students sound principles of morality." Allan The first quarter of the twentieth century Smith argues that challenges to the traditional was not generally a happy time to be in Ca­ curriculum in Canada were made in the name nadian academic life. 10 of the stereotypically American myth of the self-made man.6 What McKillop and Smith One can certainly see vestiges of tradition in agree on is that Canada and the United States the curriculum and arrangement of the provin­ were both influenced by Scottish educators and cial universities of western Canada, but signif­ their Common Sense philosophy in the first icant attempts to provide a general education half of the nineteenth century and by Hegelian in western Canada, I will argue, were largely and Arnoldian idealism in the second half of influenced by American experiments and not the century.7 But where nineteenth and early nineteenth-century Canadian traditions of ora­ twentieth century Hegelian and Arnoldian torical liberal education. After the turbulent thought in eastern Canada largely curtailed the quarter century or more that McKillop de­ scient ism, pragmatism, and materialism that scribes, the North American impulse toward Canadians perceived to be dominating Ameri­ general education and liberal culture charac­ can education, idealism in the US was iso­ terizes the reform, experimentation, and flirta­ lated primarily to the eastern states and tion with liberal education in western Canada. traditional old schools like Yale and Princeton, What I am arguing, then, is that regional or to isolated pockets like the Hegelians of the differences in twentieth-century Canada par­ St. Louis School.8 The pursuit of knowledge allel regional differences in the US that were for its own sake, shunned in Canadian univer­ already visible at the end of the nineteenth sities, became the mission of graduate educa­ century. Veysey contrasts Midwestern and East­ tion at Johns Hopkins and other American ern schools: institutions. Liberal education of the oratori­ cal tradition held its ground in Canada; liberal By 1890 a distinctive Midwestern educa­ education of the philosophical tradition made tional spirit was coming into being. Utility great inroads at the research schools in the became a rallying cry in a regional rebel­ United States. lion. The East Coast was pictured as stand­ These characterizations of dominant trends ing for books, tradition, and "culture," in in nineteenth-century education often become, an effete, undesirable sense. The West, in particularly for Canadian scholars like Em­ contrast, meant action, practicality, realism, berley and Newell and Hubert, representative and progress. College studies, it was held, of all of Canadian education. Emberley and should reflect the difference of environ­ Newell and Hubert see the hegemony of ment.ll 106 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1997

This regional difference is clear and well docu­ we think of educational trends in continental mented in the United States. Edward Eddy, Jr.'s, and regional terms rather than simply national history of the land-grant colleges suggests that systems of postsecondary education. the agriculture and mechanic colleges were founded in the philosophical tradition of the AMERICAN GENERAL EDUCATION pursuit of knowledge, but they broke with the EXPERIMENTS spirit of liberal education generally in their attempt to be utilitarian. The Morrill Act pro­ The three most prominent general educa­ vided for "at least one college where the lead­ tion experiments in the Midwest during the ing object shall be without excluding other late 1920s and early 1930s were at the Univer­ scientific and classical studies, and including sity of Chicago, the Experimental School at military tactics, to teach such branches of learn­ the University of Wisconsin, and the General ing as are related to agriculture and the me­ College at the University of Minnesota. Chi­ chanic arts."12 There was no attempt to fuse cago and Minnesota in particular were looked classical and practical training; they could, if to as models for American and Canadian possible, co-exist. The pursuit of knowledge schools on the Great Plains.13 The state uni­ at land-grant colleges was not for the sake of versities in Kansas and Nebraska were influ­ knowledge itself, nor for the disciplining of enced by, or shared the same liberal culture the mind or spirit in the training of citizens. values as Chicago, and the land-grant colleges These colleges were drawn towards general in Iowa and Kansas had more in common with education in the 1930s, as we shall see, but not the philosophical but utilitarian program at until they had established a unique identity: Minnesota than with the artes liberales programs providing what I call "liberal-professional edu­ at Chicago. Brief vignettes of the experimen­ cation," a combining of the philosophical lib­ tal schools and the American Great Plains ad­ eral education tradition and vocational or aptations will provide a context for examining professional training. general education reform in Canada. It is this interest in general education on the An ideal general education, according to Great Plains in the 1930s and 1940s that is the Mortimer Adler, would not include vocational topic of this paper. The questions I am trying education, specialization, departments, elec­ to answer are: "What kinds of general educa­ tives, or separate courses. The faculty would tion reforms did schools on the Great Plains be responsible for the whole curriculum. Lec­ employ?" and "What traditions or schools were tures would be kept to a minimum, and when the models for reform?" Some of the reforms used would be general enough to address large seem to have been spearheaded by traditional­ portions of the student body. Oral exams would ists (orators), others by philosophers, but even be used to separate "facile verbalizers and these traditions become mixed in the twenti­ memorizers from genuine intellect," but there eth century. These two questions converge would be no failures. The intent of a general sharply when one considers the history of education would be to develop students' ca­ postsecondary education in western Canada. If pacities, not to rank their abilities. This ideal in fact the Universities of Saskatchewan, was never fully realized at Chicago, but the Alberta, and Manitoba took up the problem university was reorganized into four basic di­ of providing a general education for the first visions: the humanities, the biological sciences, time in the 1930s, what is the historical rela­ the physical sciences, and the social sciences. tionship between education in eastern Canada Milton Mayer's memoir of Hutchins describes and western Canada? among schools in the some of the other reforms that followed: "[Tlhe American Midwest, on the American Great elective system was invaded by year-long gen­ Plains, and in the Canadian Prairies? I think eral courses in the four divisional fields. The the answers to these questions will suggest that course-credit system was junked." Students took LIBERAL EDUCATION ON THE PLAINS 107 a series of comprehensive exams, administered tradition. The General College was, accord­ by an independent board of examiners, in or­ ing to Rudolph, "a two-year program of gen­ der to receive their baccalaureate. Frederick eral studies [that] addressed itself to the Rudolph's history of curriculums describes the challenging problem of what to do for and examination process in more detail: with young men and women whom the soci­ ety, with some degree of success, had labeled Completion of the work of the college was as losers." Edward Eddy, Jr., uses a quotation measured by the passing of seven compre­ to describe the program and its students more hensive examinations, of which five-En­ tactfully: "In 1932 the University of Minne­ glish composition, humanities, social sota established a general college for an 'over­ science, physical science, and biological view' of human learning, designed to fit 'the science-were required. The other two com­ individual abilities, interests, and potentiali­ prehensive examinations were second ex­ ties of a very considerable number of young aminations, calling for a greater depth and people whose needs were not being met else­ wider knowledge, in any two of the four where in the University,' in the words of Pres i­ general groups. dent Lotus D. Coffman." Although it was less grandiose in its designs, Eddy suggests that the Many of the Chicago reforms were not Hut­ Minnesota program had a greater appeal than chins' ideas, but what Rudolph calls "imagina­ Chicago's for land-grant colleges that found tive and liberating reforms" quickly came to little relevance in Hutchins' reforms. IS be associated with him and the University of Comparing Minnesota with Chicago, one Chicago. The ideals that Adler and Hutchins can see Kimball's two liberal education tradi­ both wanted-the Socratic method used to tions informing the different schools. Liberal learn from the greatest books of the Western education, as expressed by Minnesota's Dean world-were difficult, if not impossible to of the College of Science, Literature, and the achieve at Chicago. Yet these ideas held con­ Arts John Johnston, is "fundamental and pre­ siderable interest, if not sway, at other institu­ paratory to professional study." Johnston sounds tions struggling to regain an artes liberales vaguely like Hutchins when he qualifies the curriculum after a quarter of a century of spe­ importance of preparing for professional work: cializing in scientific or utilitarian education. "[liberal education] may relate its various sub­ The University of Chicago before Hutchins was ject-matter to its practical or professional uses, already immersed in liberal-free education, but it must in the last analysis serve organized but Hutchins, Adler, and the New Humanists society by putting in its hands the knowledge of the 1930s certainly did not recognize the necessary for human welfare." Yet Johnston's science curriculum as a liberal one. Adler, in overall purpose in his book is to discover "how "The Chicago School," explains liberal edu­ [a liberal college] can best perform the func­ cation as a critique of science: "just as Harper's tion for which society maintains it." In con­ Chicago reflected and formulated the 'religion trast, Chicago and its intellectual leaders of science' which dominated American cul­ -Hutchins and Adler-were accused, accord­ ture from the nineties to the thirties, so ing to Rudolph, of withdrawing from society Hutchins's Chicago, in the past ten years, has into a monastic community of scholars. If not focused attention upon-more than that, has withdrawing from society, we certainly see become the leading forum for-the crucial is­ Adler critiquing or questioning the role of sci­ sue of our day; whether science is enough, theo­ ence, among other things, in contemporary so­ retically or practically."14 ciety. This element of analysis and critique-a The University of Minnesota's General feature of liberal-free education-was one of College strove not for synthesis and unity of the compromises that oratorical traditionalists the Western tradition but an overview of that were making. to the demands of the modern 108 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1997 world in the 1930s. Among the compromises The University of Nebraska had a direct that twentieth-century inheritors of the ora­ tie to Chicago in Chancellor C. S. Boucher, torical and philosophical traditions made, former dean at the University of Chicago and Kimball specifically notes the Aristotelian, author of The Chicago College Plan. R. McLaran philosophical influence on Hutchins and Sawyer compares Boucher to the Chicago presi­ Adler. 16 dent: "Like Hutchins at Chicago, the chancel­ When we look at these influential general lor of the University of Nebraska denounced education experiments from the 1930s, we see those who sought a college degree for economic that Minnesota has combined the liberal-free or social reasons." Boucher's attitude was not ideal of education with the ideal of utility, representative of the college, but "the poten­ and that Chicago has combined the oratorical tial for vocational programs at the University and philosophical traditions of liberal educa­ of Nebraska was not realized because of the tion, but not for a utilitarian purpose. Minne­ economic situation and an unwillingness to sota provides a model for combining two discontinue established conventional aca­ distinct values, while Chicago provides a demic work." In the 1940s Boucher managed model for balancing the two historically op­ to establish a "Junior Division" similar to those posed traditions of liberal education. of Chicago and the University of Kansas, al­ The direct influence of these programs is though again Boucher's views on the purpose sometimes difficult to identify, but the two of this program differed from the views of fac­ general patterns represented by Chicago and ulty members. Boucher saw the first two years Minnesota can be discerned in the educational as part of a screening process for further study, reforms or values of various Great Plains while other faculty members welcomed the schools. Gerald Graff identifies a link between change as consistent with General Education Chicago and the University of Kansas, which and Liberal Culture reforms across the coun­ made significant curricular changes and try.IS adopted a Western Civilization Program in If the state universities on the Great Plains 1945. Clifford Griffin describes the Kansas between the 1930s and 1950s still felt a tie to curriculum. traditional liberal education-whether oratori­ calor philosophical-the land-grant colleges [Students] have to pass a comprehensive ex­ saw the need to strive for or claim liberal edu­ amination in Western Civilization, in most cation among their goals. Eddy notes that "a cases by the end of the sophomore year. trend had developed toward more liberal than They would prepare for it not by taking practical education" in the years that land­ courses, but by independent reading, supple­ grant colleges began to reach maturity, 1938 mented by general weekly lectures, atten­ to 1956. But what Eddy means by liberal edu­ dance at which would be voluntary. The cation is education of the Minnesota variety: reading [according to the Committee on liberal-professional education. The land-grant Curriculum] was to include a "fair sampling colleges had no intention of giving up their of the outstanding classics in our political, practical and scientific applications, but in­ economic, and philosophical tradition to­ creasingly participated in what Iowa State Col­ gether with the best of recent commentaries lege English professor J. Raymond Derby called to make that tradition clear." an "aesthetic awakening." Earle Ross describes the extra-curricular cultural life of the Ames This program outlived the Chicago Plan and, campus, including a "Literature and Life" lec­ according to Griffin, "by the early 1960s the ture series that brought Robert Frost to Iowa University and the College were offering about State College in 1934. Curricular changes did as good a liberal undergraduate education as not involve liberal education experiments, could be found in the United States."17 but, Ross says, "A balanced liberalizing of the LIBERAL EDUCATION ON THE PLAINS 109 curriculum was being made as a proper basis of provided a rationale for how universities could the sound development of technological edu­ meet traditional and modern needs. As much cation and without the old fears of encroach­ as western Canadian institutions were caught ment and neglect."19 up in the liberal education and liberal culture This sense of self-assurance that practical trends of the 1930s and 40s, those institutions and professional education had a rightful place could not afford to implement wide-scale lib­ within colleges and universities also charac­ eral education reforms until the 1960s, if at terizes the liberalizing of education at Kansas all. 21 State College. James Carey says that under the leadership of Milton Eisenhower (1943-50), WESTERN CANADIAN FLIRTATIONS "the goal of the College had broadened to in­ WITH LIBERAL EDUCATION clude development of the ability to solve theo­ retical as well as practical problems .... Eastern Canada's strong oratorical liberal Eisenhower's liberal views were in keeping education traditions were not easily trans­ with the broader interpretation of the Morrill planted to western Canada. Many of the early land-grant wording which had provided for an university presidents inwestern Canada came education that was both liberal and practi­ from the east, but most of them saw the need to cal."20 The notion of liberal education as the adapt their new institutions to the environment solving of theoretical problems suggests again of the Great Plains. The University of Sas­ that land-grant colleges drew heavily from the katchewan's Walter Murray had the strongest liberal-free or philosophical tradition of edu­ vision of postsecondary education among cation; their ability to combine that tradition early presidents, and he clearly was a product with practical education, however, is their dis­ of eastern Canadian and Scottish liberal edu­ tinctive reform: a liberal-professional educa­ cation ideals. His inability fully to realize his tion. liberal education goals during his twenty-eight Frederick Rudolph's observation that Chi­ years at Saskatchewan is indicative of the dif­ cago, Wisconsin, and Minnesota were "models ficulty of achieving traditional oratorical lib­ without imitators" seems questionable in light eral education values in a frontier region. R. of the success of the University of Kansas' C. Wallace, president of the University of Western Civilization Program and the ability Alberta, and Sidney Earle Smith, president of of Land-Grant Colleges like Iowa State and the University of Manitoba, both published Kansas State to forge liberal-professional their views on liberal education, the former's bonds. The experiments at Chicago and Min­ being a liberal-professional conception like nesota also influenced the thinking of educa­ Johnston's, the latter's a traditional artes liberales tors in western Canada. Ideologically, the conception influenced by American reforms. Chicago Plan was very much at home in Cana­ Wallace's views, accordingly, were encouraged dian institutions that still valued British tra­ only mildly by E. K. Broadus, head of Alberta's ditions and culture, but the Minnesota plan English Department, while Smith's program was a more realistic institutional arrangement reforms were encouraged by E. K. Brown and for fledgling universities. What the Canadian Roy Daniells, the English Department heads flirtations with liberal education reform illus­ during Smith's tenure. The Manitoba reforms trate, however, is that liberal education in its for liberal education resembled the Chicago traditional forms-whether oratorical, philo­ plan in some ways, and got as far as being listed sophical, or composite in nature-is not only in the University of Manitoba catalogue for for the free, elite, citizen, but is also primarily two years, but the proposed courses in Western for the elite or financially secure university. Civilization were never offered. Johnston's liberal-professional ideal of educa­ The story of liberal education in western tion required little or no curricular reform, but Canada is a story of flirtations with different 110 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1997 traditions of liberal education-eastern Ca­ more like the land-grant colleges of the nadian, liberal-professional, and American in­ American Great Plains. fluenced artes liberales-but ultimately a story A liberal education experiment was at­ of thwarted desire. What brief histories of tempted during the tenure of Saskatchewan's schools throughout the Great Plains-north second president, the Reverend J. S. Thomp­ and south of the forty-ninth parallel-illus­ son (193 7 -49). Patricia Jasen, in her history of trate, however, is that liberal culture and the the liberal arts curriculum in Canada, describes liberalizing of education generally were con­ Thompson as "a traditionalist who strongly sistent goals of this region during the 1930s resented 'the spell which science has thrown and 1940s. The liberal education values at­ over the minds of youth today.'" The univer­ tributed to Canadian postsecondary education sity created three separate streams were by no means solely the inheritance of a British colony but also the inheritance of the from which students would choose when they many conservative educators throughout entered the university: Language and Lit­ North America who wished to hold onto the erature, Social Science, and Natural Sci­ notion of an education of the mind and spirit ence .... [Tlhe student specialized in one distinct from utilitarian training. And the group of subjects and within that group took characterization of American education as four courses in one discipline .... The most pragmatic, utilitarian, and scientistic is clearly innovative part of this scheme was that stu­ an unfair portrait of the general education dents were required to take "General Intro­ experiments of the Midwest and Great Plains. 22 ductory Classes" in fields outside their own By 1930, even the "cow colleges" of Kansas group of subjects. State and Iowa State had reached such a level of curricular sophistication that they were rec­ This arrangement was used from 1941 to 1968, ognized, at least in Canada by Wallace, as of­ but it largely worked against J. S. Thompson's fering a liberal-professional education.23 plans to introduce liberal culture to Sas­ katchewan: "the science category attracted University of Saskatchewan. The University over half the students, another third entolled of Saskatchewan's first president, Walter in the social sciences, but, in 1951, only two Murray, was educated in the tradition of nine­ and a half percent of the faculty's students teenth-century Canadian and Scottish liberal were choosing to concentrate on languages education. His biographers, David and Rob­ and literature." 25 Although these curricular ert Murray (no relation to Walter), summarize reforms may be the most tangible products such speeches as "The Function of Philoso­ of the liberal education movement on the phy in a Liberal Education" and "Educational Canadian prairies, their limited success and Ideals" that Murray made early in his career. Saskatchewan's ensuing reputation for being He had hoped to bring liberal education tra­ a practical, scientific school overshadowed ditions to the prairies, but in his twenty-nine the liberal culture efforts. The failure of lib­ years (1908-37) as president, agriculture and eral education and Thompsons's liberal cul­ the sciences were always favored as the fields ture ideal for Saskatchewan challenges the that served the province. "Murray wavered in common assumption of Emberley and Newell his support of the humanities because of his and Hubert that nineteenth-century values desire to be 'practical'" says Michael Hayden.24 of education, formulated in eastern Canada The liberal education theories of eastern and the eastern United States, were trans­ Canada may have informed Murray's vision of planted on the Canadian prairies. The cur­ postsecondary education in Saskatchewan, but riculum and mission of the University of in practice the school at Saskatoon started out Saskatchewan, more so even than Alberta and LIBERAL EDUCATION ON THE PLAINS 111

Manitoba, reflected the environment of the in order that we may go forward into the place and times. future with a clear understanding of the is­ sues. University of Alberta. Henry Marshall Tory, first president of the University of Alberta Wallace's evaluation is that science has (1908-28), became a close friend of President brought the world new knowledge that, in turn, Murray from Saskatchewan. Tory, however, was has inspired a new curriculum. In light of these trained as a scientist and did not articulate the developments, he poses the question of what same educational ideals of liberal culture that should be included and what should be left Murray expressed. Tory probably held liberal­ out of a liberal, university education. His an­ free views of education; he encouraged the fac­ swer is: "Only if there are profound underlying ulty to contribute to the advancement of principles, for this time being, it may be sensed knowledge through teaching and research. rather than clearly enunciated, should any sub­ According to Walter Johns, himself a president ject be admitted to the rank of university of the University of Alberta in the 1960s, much standing." Wallace uses this definition to jus­ of that research had an unusually practical ap­ tify the inclusion of engineering, agriculture, plication: it was directed toward producing home economics, nursing, and librarianship texts for the university.26 The early years in within the university by pointing out the un­ Alberta, as in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, derlying principles of science in the first four were not about curricular experimentation, sci­ disciplines, and the arts foundation of a de­ entific research, or liberal culture; those years gree in librarianship.27 were about obtaining strong faculty members Wallace's lectures make much the same and building proper facilities to house students point that John Johnston of Minnesota had and staff. made two years earlier: that liberal education, Alberta's second president, R. C. Wallace drawing from its liberal-free and artes liberales (1928-36), like Saskatchewan's second presi­ traditions, was not incompatible with profes­ dent, turned the attention of the university to­ sional education. Wallace was not arguing that ward liberal education. He delivered a series universities should become training schools, of lectures in 1932 entitled A Liberal Educa­ but that liberal education accommodate the tion in a Modern World. Wallace was no tradi­ professions of the modern world. The land­ tionalist, however, like S. J. Thompson of grant colleges of the US provided a model for Saskatchewan. In these lectures he addresses Wallace. He traces the development of land­ the question of whether or not we can have a grant colleges from their beginnings as "strictly liberal education in this utilitarian age. He technical colleges" to their present status comes down primarily on the side of liberal­ within the university community as institutions free education and Thomas Henry Huxley, who that do research in "the sciences which under­ saw a need in education that artes liberales lie agriculture," among other things.2s The im­ supporters like Cardinal Newman and Matthew plication of Wallace's argument is that the Arnold did not see: University of Alberta, by building the profes­ sional programs he has focused on, is moving The need for man to understand the world in the right direction. Returning to a more tra­ in which he lives, in order to mold that ditionalliberal arts program-whether oratori­ world the more fully to his needs, came as cal, philosophical, or a combination-is not a challenge which could not be dismissed. only unnecessary, but a mistake in the context It is this viewpoint which has transformed of understanding contemporary needs. our outlook in education and has intro­ Alberta did have traditionalists on faculty, duced a utilitarian factor which it is our of course, and two letters to Wallace from E. K. responsibility now to evaluate and appraise, Broadus, graduate of Harvard and head of the 112 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1997

English department since the university's in­ literary appreciation. But Broadus' attitude also ception in 1908, articulate the traditionalist clearly reflects the elitism of traditional lib­ response to Wallace's vision. The first letter, eral education: "I must confess that what you dated 29 March 1932, fulfilled Wallace's re­ have to say in your later pages of the possible quest for "adverse criticism." Broadus takes is­ cultural and genuinely educational value of sue with the qualifying clause in Wallace's vocation~l subjects goes further than I can go­ criterion that only subjects of profound under­ or, shall I say?, is more open-minded than I lying principles, sensed or enunciated, should can yet bring myself to be."30 Such elitism en­ be included in university study. sured the limited success, if not outright fail­ ure, of traditional liberal education reform in If the "profound underlying principles" are western Canada. for the time being only "sensed" (by which I suppose you mean vaguely guessed at or as­ University of Manitoba. Founded in 1877 but sumed to be some day discoverable), the not organized as a teaching institution until given subject is not even on probation as a 1904, the University of Manitoba was actu­ university subject. When the subject, by ally much slower than its younger prairie coun­ independent development has reached a terparts to develop. Alberta and Saskatchewan point where it is seen to possess profound both had permanent sites and buildings be­ underlying principles susceptible of clear fore Manitoba, and their dynamic first presi­ enunciation, the University (conceived as dents-Tory and Murray-were able to attract a teaching body, not as a collection of iso­ quality staff in a way that Manitoba's first presi­ lated investigators employed by a Research dent, J. A. MacLean, was not. Historian of the Council) can admit it into the curriculum. University of Manitoba W. L. Morton writes that "There is no evading the conclusion that Broadus says he cheerfully admits the validity among the many disabilities of the University of Wallace's criterion witholl.t the qualifying of Manitoba was the personal failure of its clause, but he also adds that "the criterion, first president in character, purpose and will." strictly and remorselessly applied, would elimi­ Reports from two exemplary students who at­ nate most of us, and transform the university tended the University of Manitoba during the into what I gladly admit it ought to be-a years 1928 to 1935 testify to the substandard graduate school, presided over by philosophers teaching and scholarship of that period. Both of their subject."29 Harry Ferns and Marshall McLuhan were at­ Both in this letter and one on 19 January tracted to professor of history H. N. Fieldhouse 1934, Broadus openly questions the place of but found most other faculty members to be "Household Ec" in the university. In the later lacking in charisma and learningY letter, he is complaining of a time change re­ In 1932 the complete failure of Manitoba's quested by the department of Household Eco­ leadership surfaced. The honorary bursar, John nomics that would affect English 2 (a required A. Machray, had defalcated with almost English course). Broadus, in mounting his ar­ $1,000,000 of the university's endowment over gument for the priority of English in the uni­ a period of nearly thirty years. President versity, cites A Liberal Education in the Modern MacLean retired shortly after this scandal, and World to its author, although Broadus again in 1934 Sidney Earle Smith brought to leaves out Wallace' s qual ifying clause. Manitoba what Morton says it needed most: Broadus's dislike for Home Economics and "confidence, leadership and presence." But other professional courses had little or no im­ Smith also brought a Chicago-like interest in pact on the curriculum other than ensuring liberal education. Summarizing Smith's inau­ that English 2 would be a course primarily in gural address, Morton says: LIBERAL EDUCATION ON THE PLAINS 113

He began by stressing the need to preserve go to the University of Chicago itself, where the primacy of the liberal spirit in educa­ he ended his short career. tion, in all branches of study and especially Brown did not participate in the Western in the liberal arts, its native home. Without Civilization project at the University of the preservation and encouragement of an Manitoba (he left in 1937), but he and his suc­ able and devoted faculty, he declared, no cessor, Roy Daniells, were influential in pro­ university could flourish. But its inner life moting Sidney Smith's vision of liberal secured, the university must recognize and education. Smith formed the Western Civili­ fulfill its many responsibilities to the soci­ zation Committee in 1941. Brown wrote ety which it served and which maintained Daniells in 1942 about a general education it. curriculum he thought would excite Smith, and Daniells ended up chairing the committee on Smith immediately hired quality scholars to Western Civilization.34 The committee put bolster the academic standards at Manitoba. E. forth its proposal in 1944. Smith described the K. Brown in English and Robert McQueen in Liberal Arts Experiment in the spring 1944 political economy were Smith's crown jewels, Queen's Quarterly, but Jasen described it more and Brown showed an interest in the general succinctly: education reforms south of the borderY Brown had received a docteur es lettres of The plan which was eventually approved the Sorbonne, and had done a major thesis on at Manitoba involved a reduction of free Edith Wharton and a minor thesis on Matthew choice in the first two years and the addi­ Arnold. Although Brown returned to Toronto tion of four new courses in "Western Civili­ and then moved to Winnipeg upon comple­ zation," dealing with the sciences, social tion of his studies in Paris, he was also clearly sciences, literature and the visual arts. One attracted to Chicago. Laura Groening, Brown's of these would be included in each year of biographer, notes the similarity between a pub­ the arts program.35 lic lecture Brown delivered and a paper Hutchins had published: "[Brown's] paper, The influence of Chicago's four-part division titled 'The Higher Education: New Proposals,' is evident in the Manitoba plan, and Smith, was based on Robert Maynard Hutchins' 'The like Brown, was clearly attracted to the secular Higher Learning in America' and it was a forth­ religion of Arnoldian thought. Smith contin­ right advocacy of what was becoming known ued to champion the "unity of knowledge" af­ as 'the Chicago Plan.''' The appeal of Hutchins' ter he left Manitoba to assume the presidency work and the Chicago School for Brown came of the University ofToronto. He ended a 1952 not from an attraction to American values or speech on the unity of knowledge by arguing American education but because of the for the central place of religion in human life: Arnoldian strain in the Chicago Plan. Brown was also attracted to the more general New The unity of knowledge that we strive to Humanist movement associated with Irving attain will be no real unity if we leave out Babbitt and Norman Foerster and ended his the eternal realities. I am not injecting the talk on higher education with an endorsement notion of faith into this discussion. It is there of humanism: "Humanism is ready to admit already; it is part of the picture. Religion is the value of material comfort; it is not willing a word that we are apt to fight shy of, but we to regard the degree of comfort which exists in cannot do without it. It is derived, some sug­ society as any index whatever to the degree of gest, from religare-to bind again. Religion, ci vilization of that society. "33 To pursue his with literature, religion, with art, religion, Arnoldian, humanistic impulses, Brown would with philosophy, aided and abetted by the 114 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1997

sciences, can provide the cement where­ University established and developed several with to repair the walls of a badly shaken professional areas and starved the Arts Fac­ civil ization. 36 ulty. Public demand was, of course, appeased by this policy."38 We can see at all three pro­ Despite, or possibly because of, these lofty vincial universities a strong rhetoric of liberal goals for reviving the liberal arts and teaching education undercut by material conditions that a series of courses on Western Civilization, the did not allow for curricular experimentation Manitoba program was never offered. W. J. and demanded a focus upon the sciences and Waines, a member of the committee develop­ professional education. ing the Western Civilization program, says that he and other members "had little expectation LIBERAL EDUCATION ON THE GREAT that the courses would ever get off the ground PLAINS because of the cost of providing competent tutors. The courses were listed in the calendar The answers to the questions I posed early for a few years and then were quietly dropped." in the paper should now be more apparent. Twelve years after the defalcation scandal of Some schools, like the universities of Kansas 1932, financial and human resources were, not and Nebraska, stayed within the realm of surprisingly, a huge stumbling block. N. R. traditional liberal education, although they Smith, who had been at Chicago in the early combined the oratorical and philosophical tra­ Hutchins years, wrote of similar problems in a ditions more thoroughly than educators of early letter to Roy Daniells, explaining that centuries. Canadian schools, and Manitoba in particular, seemed to strive for a similar real­ The primary difficulties are cost, time-table, ization of traditional liberal education values. and distance. The sole definite information But the interesting and innovative addition to that we have on the first is that even Chi­ our understanding ofliberal education that the cago, with all its resources, finds it a heavy land-grant colleges and western Canadian uni­ burden. A similar programme on a more versities provide is what I have been calling modest scale was considered in 1926-7 by a liberal-professional education. This combina­ small committee of which I was a member. tion, from the perspective of a traditionalist It was abandoned because of these three like President Hutchins, violates the limits of obstacles. Conditions are worse now than a liberal education. But invoking a liberal edu­ then. cation in the name of the professions conferred upon these practical schools some of the status His recommendation was that the plans not be and legitimacy that only a liberal education put into effect until money and tutors became tradition possessed. When we hear presidents available.37 of contemporary land-grant colleges claiming The most ambitious Canadian plan of the that liberal education is still at the core of edu­ liberal education era, and the plan most clearly cation in America we can now see the nature influenced by the Chicago Plan, did not get and composition of that liberal education: out of the committee stage. Waines suggests principles behind practices. that Smith may very shrewdly have been play­ The University of Chicago most clearly in­ ,ing both sides of the fence, appealing to edu­ fluenced the reforms at the state universities, cators' and the public's sense of tradition, while the General College at the University of while in fact serving the material and modern Minnesota influenced or shared the same val­ needs of the province: "In his inaugural ad­ ues with the land-grant colleges and the dress he made a strong plea for liberal edu­ liberal-professional schools in Canada, par­ cation but in fact, during his regime, the ticularly Alberta. The source of influence is LIBERAL EDUCATION ON THE PLAINS 115 an important issue for understanding the de­ NOTES velopment of postsecondary education in Canada. Those who support the view that lib­ 1. Daniel Bell, The Reforming of General Educa­ tion: The Columbia College Experience in Its Na­ eral education in Canada has a continuous, tional Setting (New York: Columbia University Press, unbroken tradition assume that the educational 1966), p. 32. values of nineteenth-century Anglo-Canada 2. Bell's Reforming of General Education (ibid.) were simply transplanted on the prairies. I am identifies the Chicago plan, Columbia's Great Books arguing that a sensitivity to the continental course (1919), and Harvard's General Education in a Free Society (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, trends in education suggests a period when lib­ 1945) as the three most prominent general educa­ eral education held limited sway anywhere tion experiments in the United States during the (1900-1930), followed by a revival in the twentieth century, but during the interwar period 1930s and 1940s, largely catalyzed by the lib­ Chicago, Wisconsin, and Minnesota drew the most eral education experiments at Chicago, Wis­ attention. See Laurence R. Veysey, "Stability and Experiment in the American Undergraduate Cur­ consin, and Minnesota. riculum," in Content and Context: Essays on College While there is considerable evidence to sug­ Education, ed. Carl Kaysen (New York: McGraw gest that Chicago and Minnesota were direct Hill, 1973), pp. 1-64. influences on the educational theories if not 3. David R. Russell, Writing in the Academic practices of other schools, the two important Disciplines, 1870-1990 (Carbondale and Edwards­ ville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991), pp. trends to notice are the blurred lines of his­ 135-235. torical influence and regional rather than na­ 4. Bruce Kimball, Orators and Philosophers: A tional similarities. Although Canada and most History of the Idea of Liberal Education (New York: of its regions have strong historical ties to the Teachers College Press, 1986), pp. 13, 116. British Commonwealth, the American influ­ 5. See Frederick Rudolph's The American Col­ lege and University: A History (New York: Knopf, ence on Canadian education and culture has 1962), pp. 130-35 for a lively discussion of the Yale always been significant. The importation of Report. traditional liberal education from the United 6. A.B. McKillop, A Disciplined Intelligence: States, however, is ironic: Canadian educa­ Critical Inquiry and Canadian Thought in the Victo­ tors seemed to be strengthening their ties to rian Era (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1979), p. 12; Allan Smith, Canada: An the British Empire through relations with the American Nation? Essays on Continenwlism, Iden­ republican nation to the south. A more ap­ tity, and the Canadian Frame of Mind (Montreal: propriate metaphor than influence for under­ McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994), pp. standing historical developments might be 325-28. "articulation."39 Schools in western Canada 7. For the Canadian history, see McKillop, Dis­ ciplined Intelligence (ibid.) esp. pp. 23-58, 171-204; and throughout the Great Plains drew from Henry Hubert, Harmonious Perfection: English Stud­ various educational traditions and attempted ies in Nineteenth-Century Anglo-Canadian Colleges to articulate-to voice, and to "yoke to­ (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, gether"-a vision of education suitable to their 1994); Peter C. Emberley and Waller R. Newell, environment. Bankrupt Education: The Decline of Liberal Educa­ tion in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto The similarity of many of these articulations, Press, 1994), pp. 137-65. For the American his­ and their differences from nineteenth-century, tory, see Douglas Sloan, The Scottish Enlightenment eastern views of education also suggests that and the American College Ideal (New York: Teach­ regional identities are as or more significant ers College Press, 1971); Laurence R. Veysey, The than national identities. Looked at from an Emergence of the American University (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965); pp. 182-251 even larger perspective, continentalism rather and William H. Goetzmann, "Introduction", The than nationalism may provide a key for under­ American Hegelians: An Intellectual Episode in the standing trends and patterns not only in educa­ History of Western America, ed. William H. tion but in other areas of study.40 Goetzmann (New York: Knopf, 1973), pp. i-xi. 116 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1997

8. For the Canadian history see McKillop, Dis­ University Archives, Ames; Earle Ross, A History ciplined Intelligence (note 6 above), esp. pp. 205- of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic 28; Emberley and Newell, Bankrupt Education (ibid.), Arts (Ames: Iowa State College Press, 1942), pp. pp. 14-29. For the American history, see Veysey, 346,368. Emergence (note 7 above) pp. 180-251; James Ber­ 20. James C. Carey, The Kansas State University: lin, Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instr·uction in The Questfor Identity (Lawrence: The Regents Press American Colleges, 1900-1985 (Carbondale and of Kansas, 1977), p.179. Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 21. Rudolph, Curriculum (note 14 above), p. 260. 1987) pp. 32-57; and Goetzmann, "Introduction" According to Michael Hayden, the humanities at (ibid.). the University of Saskatchewan did not receive any 9. Hubert, Harmonious Perfection (note 7 significant funding until the 1950s when the new above), p. 178. federal Canada Council provided support for the 10. McKillop, Disciplined Intelligence (note 6 humanities and the social sciences. Seeking a Bal­ above), p. 229. ance: The University of Saskatchewan, 1907-1982 11. Veysey, Emergence of the American Univer­ (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, sity (note 7 above), p. 109. 1983), p. 202. 12. Quoted in Edward Danforth Eddy, Jr., Col­ 22. Emberley and Newell, Bankrupt Education leges for Our Land and Time: The Land-Grant Idea in (note 7 above), p. 4. American Education (N ew York: Harper and Broth­ 23. R. C. Wallace, A Liberal Education in a Mod­ ers, 1956), p. 33. ern World (Toronto: MacMillan, 1932), p. 53. 13. Frederick Rudolph describes the Wisconsin 24. David R. Murray and Robert A. Murray, The "Experimental College" as "out of this world" and Prairie Builder: Walter Murray of Saskatchewan says its influence on other schools was very limited. (Edmonton: NeWest Press, 1984), pp. 21-24; Frederick Rudolph, Curriculum: A History of the Hayden, University of Saskatchewan (note 21 above), American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636 p.208. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1977), p. 277. 25. Patricia Jane Jasen, "The English Canadian 14. Mortimer J. Adler, "Liberal Education­ Language Arts Curriculum: An Intellectual History, Theory and Practice," (1941), rpt. in Reforming 1800-1950" (Ph.D. diss., University of Manitoba, Education: The Opening of the American Mind, ed. 1987), pp. 290-92; see also Hayden, University of Geraldine Van Doren (New York: Macmillan, Saskatchewan (note 21 above), pp. 178-79. 1988), pp. 112-13; Milton Mayer, Robert Maynard 26. Walter Hugh Johns, A History of the Univer­ Hutchins: A Memoir, John H. Hicks, ed. (Berkeley: sity of Alberta, 1908-1969 (Edmonton: University University of California Press, 1993), p. 99; of Alberta Press, 1981), p. 21. Rudolph, Curriculum (ibid.), p. 278; Mortimer J. 27. R. C. Wallace, A Liberal Education (note 23 Adler, "Chicago School," (1945), rpt. in Van Doren, above), pp. 4, 54-61. Reforming Education (above), pp. 32-33. 28. Ibid., p. 53. 15. Rudolph, Curriculum (note 13 above), p. 277; 29. E. K. Broadus to R. C. Wallace, 29 March Eddy, Colleges for Our Land (note 12 above), p. 1932, Accession No. 3/2/4/3/1-6, University of 156. Alberta Archives (UAA), Edmonton. 16. John B. Johnston, The Liberal College in 30. Ibid., see also, E. K. Broadus to R. C. Wallace, Changing Society (New York: The Century Com­ 19 January 1934, Accession No. 3/2/4/3/1-6, UAA. pany, 1930), pp. ii, v; Rudolph, Curriculum (note 31. W. L. Morton, One University: A History of 13 above), p. 279; Kimball, Orators and Philosophers the University of Manitoba, 1877-1952 (Toronto: (note 4 above), p. 180. McClelland and Stewart, 1957), p. 159; Henry 17. Gerald Graff, Professing Literature: An Insti­ Stanley Ferns, Reading from Left to Right: One Man's tutional History (Chicago: University of Chicago Political History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987), p. 164; Clifford Griffin, The Univer­ Press, 1983), pp. 35-36; Philip Marchand, Marshall sity of Kansas: A History (Lawrence: University Press McLuhan: The Medium and the Messenger (Toronto: of Kansas, 1974), pp. 559, 568. Random House, 1989), p. 15. 18. R. McLaran Sawyer, Centennial History of the 32. Ferns, ibid., p. 48; Morton, ibid., pp. 148-51, University of Nebraska, vol. 2, The Modern Univer­ 153-54,159-60,160-61. sity, 1920-1969 (Lincoln: Centennial Press, 1973), 33. Laura Smyth Groening, E.K. Brown: A Study pp. 69,120-21. in Conflict (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 19. Eddy, Colleges for Our Land (note 12 above), 1993), pp. 51, 52. p. 212; J. Raymond Derby, "The Esthetic Awaken­ 34. E. K. Brown to Roy Daniells, 6 March 1942, ing ofIowa," WOI radio address, 22 November 1938, Box 4, Folder 3, Roy Daniells Papers, University of English Department Personnel Files, Iowa State British Columbia Archives (UBCA), Vancouver. LIBERAL EDUCATION ON THE PLAINS 117

35. Sidney Earl Smith, "The Liberal Arts: An 38. Waines, ibid., p. 6. Experiment," Queens Quarterly 51 (1944): 1-12; 39. Articulation theory is often associated with Jasen, "Language Arts Curriculum" (note 25 above), the Birmingham School and Stuart Hall. See Stuart p.293. Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies, ed. David 36. Sidney Earl Smith, Unity of Knowledge: The Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen (New York: Sciences and the Humanities (Toronto: University Routledge, 1996). of Toronto Press, 1952), p. 12. 40. Allan Smith's essays in Canada: An Ameri­ 37. W.J. Waines, "University of Manitoba Pres i­ can Nation? are clear expressions of the con­ dents I Have Known: Recollections and Impres­ tinentalist perspective, that "Canada cannot be sions,"n.d.,MssSc58,p. 7, University of Manitoba understood apart from its continental context." Archives, Winnipeg; N. R. Smith to Roy Daniells, Canada: An American Nation? (note 6 above), p. 6. 8 October 1943, Roy Daniells Papers, UBCA.