A Comparative Analysis Between the Nile Valley’s Liberal Arts Tradition and the Development of Western Education

Abstract

This article is an analysis of the original purpose of studying the seven liberal arts in the context of contemporary higher education. Nile Valley theorists in ancient Africa tied the purpose of studying liberal arts to the conceptualization that all humans are born divinely natured. In order to cultivate a learner’s divinity properly, the student studied the seven liberal arts. Greek theorists embraced and promoted liberal arts along Mediterranean Europe. However, Rome’s ascendency and eventual collapse created an educational void in the West until the Moors reintroduced liberal arts curricula into Europe during the medieval period. Medieval schools featuring liberal arts eventually incorporated Western cultural trends of male superiority, upper class privilege, social inequality, and ethnic-group discrimination into the academic environment. American higher education institutions followed the European model but included racial discrimination, segregation, and financial accumulation, which contrasted the original purpose of investigating the seven liberal arts.