A Lecture on Lectures

A Lecture On Lectures was published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, in 1927, as the introductory volume of the Hogarth Lectures on Literature Series.

It is an attack on passive learning, in which students are expected simply to absorb information and reproduce it for exams. Q was passionately against this type of education, believing it to be damaging to all those involved and ultimately harmful to society as a whole.

1927 not only saw the publication of A Lecture On Lectures, looking at university education, but also the Cornwall Education Week Handbook, a celebration of primary and secondary education, with the preface by Q, chairman of the Cornwall Education Committee. In the preface to the Handbook Q wanted to 'expose the fallacy of immediate results in the market place', education being a process of 'awakening and enlightening', the releasing of a child's instinct to learn through exploration and experimentation. 

At its best, Q’s writing displays an exhilarating curiosity about the world. In this lecture he makes the case for university education being one of the channels through which enthusiasm for learning can be passed on to the next generation.

For a fuller discussion of this lecture, see 'A Lecture on Lecture: a study'. You can also read the lecture for yourself on the Internet Archive site.