Education and the Higher Life

For John Lancaster Spalding, education begins with the ideals a person chooses to live by. Addressing young people at the end of their studies, he asks what should guide a life when money, recognition and pleasure compete for attention. His answer rests on Christian faith, moral purpose and the development of the mind. The opening chapter treats ambition as a force that shapes character, while questioning whether public success can provide a worthy aim for everyone.

Eight chapters carry these reflections through mental exercise, excellence, culture, duty and university education. In the section on growth, Spalding moves from the energy of spring and childhood to the promises and tensions of modern society. He admires expanding freedom and education, yet worries about material progress leaving individual character weak. Readers interested in the aims of schooling will find a religious argument for connecting learning with personal responsibility and continued growth.