The Educational Legacy of Romanticism

Louis M. Buchanan is a professor of English at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute in Toronto.

This book is a collection of 14 papers given at a seminar of the same
name at the Calgary Institute for the Humanities in 1988. It “focuses
on the process of intellectual transfer, as various elements within the
spirit of Romanticism have influenced educational thinking and
practice.” The essays attempt to evaluate the Romantic roots of a wide
range of educational ideas, from Montessori schools to recent
alternative school systems.

The problem with the term “Romanticism” is that no one definition
satisfies everyone. Thus, the papers have different working definitions
of Romanticism, and cover a wide range of topics, which make them quite
separate entities. There is no single point running through the essays
except for their reconsideration of Romanticism’s influence on
education.

As in any anthology, the quality of the papers varies, but there are
some excellent essays here. Ann McWhir’s “Teaching the Monster to
Read: Mary Shelley, Education and Frankenstein” is a most interesting
look at the books that Shelley has the monster read. As well, Diana
Korzenik in “The Artist as Model Learner” examines the work of
Francis Parker in nineteenth-century American education.

The audience for this book is difficult to determine; probably no one
person would be interested in all the papers. The collection could be
useful for larger library collections that emphasize educational theory
and history.