As a precaution to slow the spread of Covid-19, we have decided to cancel all SMSA’s public events and member groups in March. Talks will be rescheduled to a future date TBC. The Library will remain open and Venue Hire is business as usual. Please watch this space for new information.
When Henry Carmichael arrived in Sydney in 1831 he was on a ‘mission of educational reform’. An indefatigable educational activist, he saw education as a means of developing individual habits of mind and the key to social reform. Carmichael’s progressive educational ideas and practices drew on the works of Jeremy Bentham, Pestalozzi, Lancaster and von Fellenberg.
Dr Lesley Scanlon will explore how Carmichael actualised these ideas at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, the Normal Institution and the Porphyry Lyceum.
Carmichael’s commitment to the ideal of liberal education is also evident in his advocacy of a national, secular education system and his championship of technical education. Sadly, on his death in 1862 the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts merely noted, ‘The committee have heard with regret of the death of Rev. H. Carmichael.’
It is time to reappraise the work of this early educational thinker whose ideas remain relevant today.
Dr Lesley ScanlonLesley has spent her career as a practitioner, researcher and author in adult education. She has published three books on education, written numerous articles for peer reviewed journals and presented at international conferences. She has taught and researched in schools, TAFE and universities and has recently retired from the University of Sydney where she remains an honorary lecturer. Lesley is the Vice President of the Innovation and Programs Committee at Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts and the coordinator of the ‘Towards 200’ anniversary project for the School.
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Henry Carmichael with Dr Lesley Scanlon
Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts
280 Pitt Street, Sydney
POSTPONED until further notice
Please watch this space for new information.
SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)