Amy Gutmann's The Purpose Of Higher Education

Amy Gutmann serves as the 8th president of the University of Pennsylvania, she wrote the book Democratic Education in 1987, which focuses on the theory of democratic education in the United States. In chapter six of Democratic Education “The Purpose of Higher Education,” Gutmann discusses academic freedom, autonomy of a university, utilitarianism, academic association, and the politics of government and university. Gutmann believes that higher education and the pursuit of higher education is not likely to thrive without lower education, and the issue she notes is that the quality of education needs improvement and all levels of schooling should be made “free and compulsory” (Gutmann 172). Academic freedom is defined as the freedom to discuss controversial issues without consequences from authorities. Gutmann further discusses the “community of learning” (Gutmann 188) and the ivory tower not being the democratic way of academics, and how individuals can learn for their own sake but also within a community and take the knowledge they gather to better society. There is no university out there that can apply all the characteristics of the democratic approach but “nonrepression and nondiscrimination” (Gutmann 193) remains a top virtue for all universities. …show more content…
Newman explains the church’s interest in the university and how university is a place of teaching and exchanging information, he believes Protestants have more cultural knowledge of intellect than the Catholics. Newman suggest it is important to focus on the students attending the university and the power of a university education enables people to make wiser