Three Thousand Years of Educational Wisdom

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Education is not only one of the greatest contemporary enterprises in human planning: it is also a long-enduring process of cultural self-evolution which finds expression in the works of men who have looked most deeply into the nature, the needs, and the aspirations of human beings. It is the purpose of this comprehensive anthology to represent the ideas of the great thinkers on education, and to illustrate at the same time their relation to the main periods in the development of civilization.

The various sections of the book deal, therefore, with the ancient Asiatic cultures (Hindu and Chinese), the educational philosophies of ancient Greece and Rome, early and medieval Christianity, Islam, and the development of modern education since the Renaissance. New material (several documents published for the first time in English) and extremely rare documents are included. Each extract is long enough to give the reader real insight into the thought and character of the author, and Robert Ulich’s prefaces to the extracts relate each author to his time and bring out his importance to the history of educational thought. This important work will be welcomed by all who are interested in the history of education, in its philosophy, and in the history of civilization.