What can liberal education provide for citizens of liberal democracy?

Abstract

When one looks at the history of higher education in Canada and the United States it is striking to note that at one time every university regarded liberal education as its central purpose. Moreover, that purpose was connected to, though not entirely limited to, citizenship broadly conceived. With some notable exceptions, most of our contemporary publicly-funded universities have drifted from these original goals. I would argue that unless this purpose is recovered by our institutions of higher education, our society and the individuals who make it up will be culturally, politically, and spiritually malnourished, citizenship will be compromised, and debate about difficult issues will continue to become intellectually thinner and simultaneously shriller.