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LETTERS ON LIBERTY: THE LIBERATING POWER OF EDUCATION
https://archives.battleofideas.org.uk/2022/session/letters-on-liberty-the-liberating-power-of-education/

Open debate has been suffocated by today’s censorious climate and there is little cultural support for freedom as a foundational value. What we need is rowdy, good-natured disagreement and people prepared to experiment with what freedom might mean today. Faced with this challenge, the Academy of Ideas decided to launch Letters on Liberty – a radical public pamphleteering campaign aimed at reimagining arguments for freedom in the 21st century.

In his Letter – The liberating power of education – writer, lecture and education publisher, Harley Richardson, argues that education has always held a tension between the practical and the technical application of skills and the broader appreciation of a liberal approach to knowledge. Our contemporary aversion to teaching ‘the best that has been thought and known’, he argues, represents a long-standing fear of what the masses might do with unbridled access to education. Teaching is an act of faith, he says, one which must be free to produce new and exciting ideas.

Join Harley and respondents as they explore why we tend to direct education to such narrow ends like teaching to the test. Should we direct funding to subjects that are perceived to be good for the economy? What do we mean by an open-ended liberal education today?

SPEAKERS
Dr Ruth Mieschbuehler
senior lecturer in education studies, Institute of Education, University of Derby; author, The Racialisation of Campus Relations

Harley Richardson
blogger, historyofeducation.net; organising committee, AoI Education Forum; author, The Liberating Power of Education

Dr Adam Simcock
senior lecturer in education, University of Derby; former faculty lead and assistant headteacher

CHAIR
Dr Vanessa Pupavac
translator; associate professor, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham; author, Translation as Liberation

Battle of Ideas 2022

Letters on Liberty: The liberating power of education

Listen to recordings of our discussions and debates. Our aim is to expand the boundaries of public debate, to break out of today's echo chambers and challenge orthodoxies.