Education as a liberal study

The discussion about the relative merits of a specialist or non‐specialist education, whether at school or at university, is no new one, though to read some of the contributions to the debate one gets the feeling that many believe this to be a problem peculiar to the 'fifties and 'sixties of the twentieth century. The form of specialisation may have changed, but the nineteenth century was littered with debates about the evils or otherwise of an education given over entirely to a study of classical languages and literature. Even with the introduction of science subjects into the curriculum, specialisation as between the Humanities and the Sciences remained a characteristic feature of grammar school sixth forms, which, depending on whether one follows ‘The Abominable Snowman’ or ‘The Doctor’, may or may not have contributed to a Two‐Culture society.