This is a short volume interpreting TS Eliot’s views on Education. Based on a number of his writings, Bantock makes the case that Eliot was chiefly interested in Education as a means to convey high cultural traditions to the next generation, to cultivate their appreciation of our greatest cultural achievements, and enable them to go beyond these and make their own contributions to high culture for posterity. However, for this to be understood correctly, it is important to note that Eliot did not think this was a direct route – that culture could not be aimed at directly. Rather that culture (arts, literature, poetry, etc.) should be studied for its own rewards, its own sake, to enrich life, and that further contributions and development would emerge organically with each generation.

There is also a pragmatic elitist strand to his thought, stressing that this type of cultural education was not for everyone (who after all is going to keep the economy going), and that it will always be the preserve of the minority who are intellectually equipped to understand it, or personally predisposed to be interested in it.

He also has some very similar views to those of the more recent philosopher Roger Scruton, with regard to tradition. Here he stresses the moral obligation that we have to preserve cultural traditions. Firstly out of duty to our predecessors, and the great minds of the past, whose great cultural contributions we can choose to preserve, or let decay and be lost. Secondly, our duty to future generations, to whom these great works will be lost if we don’t convey them forward. And he believes that education, in the present time, mediates this link between past and future generations. Further to this he cites the important role that the family or immediate social unit plays in conveying and preserving culture, in a sense that the educational institution cannot. Acting from a younger age, with a closer emotional and psychological bond, he believes the family can be of a greater importance in passing forward cultural traditions than the more rigid organisational entities of formal educational. In this way he states that cultural education is a duty not only for educative establishments, but also a moral responsibility of the family. This moral obligation is then extended further, to cover our duty to preserve the culture of our country. As, without that effort, national cultures (think of indigenous art and literature) can easily become lost, squished out of the picture by colonisation, globalisation, or internal purges such as China's cultural revolution. Again, this view that education is important in maintaining local colour and preserving the native culture of all culturally distinct populations, is very similar to that of the Conservative philosopher Roger Scruton.

Overall an interesting book, but focusing much more on the idea of culture than on education itself. ( )