Liberal Arts and Career Focused

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Recommended: ing a college education contributes to many aspects of a persons life

There is constant back and forth on whether or not liberal colleges should add career focused courses to their institutions. Mark Rose author of “Making Sparks Fly”, Victor Ferrall, author of the article, “Can Liberal Arts Colleges Be Saved?”, and John B. Bennett author of “Liberal Learning as a Conversation”, immensely discuss on education and their opinions on how it should be run or corrected. Taking a closer look into the author’s views and opinions, there is clear problem they all mention that colleges face, the division between liberal education and career-focused courses. Though the authors disagree on this topic, I believe there is a bridge between liberal and career focused courses because of the influence and combined beneficial education the two can give to students. Colleges should consider including liberal and career-focused education in their curriculum because of the personal growth reached in the two educations, the combined enriched education provided by both styles, and the common outcomes the two educations can offer.
Liberal arts and career-focused courses are pushed apart for the different reasons a student pursues a type education but in fact personal growth becomes the sole purpose for both methods of education. Ferrall claims “a purely materialistic motivation for getting an education is now the norm, not the exception” (par 4), Rose on the other hand claims that money is not the only factor, but reasons such as growing or becoming a better person are high factors for a student to pursue career focused courses (2). Although Ferrall is correct in money becoming a purpose to pursue education, Rose proves that personal growth is the primary motive in career-focused coursed and can be seen in a liberal educat...

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...ypes of courses. Students enter these educations in hope for personal growth, once again connecting not dividing the two educations. Bennett, Rose, and Ferrall might disagree on whether or not there should be a separation, but from reading their articles I have come to believed that there is bridge between the educations and colleges should highly consider offering liberal arts and career focused courses in their curriculum.

Works Cited

Bennett, John B. “Liberal Learning as Conversation.” Liberal Education 87.2 (2001): 32-39
Association of American Colleges and Universities. Web. 28 Aug. 2013.

Ferrall, Victor. "Can Liberal Arts Colleges Be Saved?" Can Liberal Arts Colleges Be Saved? Inside Higher Ed. Inside Higher Ed, 11 Feb. 2008. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
Rose, Mark. "Making Sparks Fly." The American Scholar:. The American Scholar, Sept. 2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.

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