In his book The Paideia Proposal, Mortimer Adler argues for single-track, liberal, and humanistic schooling for all American youngsters. Discussing these ideas with Adler are Thomas Houlihan, Pamela Mayer, Penelope Smith, and Donald Stedman. They address points such as how the reforms set forth in Adler’s book would affect higher education in America, elitism and competition in the schools, the desirability of a national approach to local issues in education, and how the book might shape Americans’s notions of democracy and citizenship.
In the second segment [21:50], Hal Crowther comments on long-standing social and cultural problems with prisons and the penal system in the United States.
At the time of this interview, Adler was director of the Institute for Philosophical Research and chairman of the editorial board for Encyclopedia Britannica. Houlihan was principal of the Clayton (NC) high school. Mayer was the superintendent of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro (NC) School System. Smith was named North Carolina’s outstanding secondary teacher in North Carolin in 1981. Stedman was associate vice-president for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
At the time of this recording, Crowther was a writer for Spectator Magazine (Raleigh, NC).
This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
