The Great Conversation by Robert Hutchins, Statement of Liberal Education by Association of American College & University, What Is a 21st Century Liberal Education by Association of American College & University (AAC&U’s), and Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire’s are four articles that explains what liberal education stand for and what has been accomplished over the years. They explained how liberal education has helped empower students and helped then deal with complexity, diversity, and change. But most important it has helped students keep an open-mind so they could progress and understand new material that is presented to them.
In The Great Conversation by Robert Hutchins, states “The liberal education man has a mind that can operate
It makes us curious to find out what thing mean and how things work that on the process we have the opportunity to expand our knowledge. Statement of Liberal Education by Association of American College & University and Freire contradict each other on common conceptions. For instance, Freire illustrates that education has become an act in which the “students are the depositories and the teachers is the depositor” meaning that students are just receiving, memorize and repeating the information
The Liberal Arts College is a small institute that consists of close interactions between teachers and students. Artes Liberals is the historical basis from modern liberal arts, which deals more with grammar, logic, and rhetoric. General Education is more of a curriculum, which is shared by all students. In AAC&U it states that General Education “provides broad exposure to multiple disciplines and forms the basis for development essential intellectual, civic, and practical capacities.” They are all different because they focus in a specific area such as a specific disciplines, a particular type of institution, historical basis, and or a curriculum shared by all students. Also, they all contribute to having an impact in everyday live today in the 21st century. Could liberal education be all around us? The answer is yes in AAC&U’s it states that liberal education today is called “general education.” Meaning that it gives you a broader understanding of several topics instead of just one simple one. Which Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire’s explains how liberal education today is a “banking education” because students are just recording, memorizing and
All though “The New Liberal Arts”, Sanford J. Ungar uses seven misconceptions about liberal arts on why learning the liberal arts. And explain why is still relevant and will be for coming years. The first misperception that he advocates is that a liberal arts degree is no longer affordable. Vocational training is better alternative to liberal arts in today. In this recession it is a financially wise decision to obtain a career oriented education instead. Students may not able to find jobs in the field that they are training after graduate. Ungar argues that especially collage students find it harder to get good jobs with liberal arts degrees, which is not the case. Which is the second misperception is that graduates with liberal arts degrees
In Chapter 2 of In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria titled “A Brief History of Liberal Education” Zakaria does just that he begins chapter 2 giving a history lesson on the history of liberal education. From its beginning in Ancient Greece, where lessons consisted of the studying of Homeric poetry to codes, values, and physical training. In the start, the people of Greece did not like the need for this liberal education. Zakaria talks about how Plato and Isocrates both had different outlooks on what should be taught. Plato “considered education a search for truth.” (Pg42) Where Isocrates believed that studying rhetoric, language, and morality (Pg43). Zakaria also talks about the liberal education in the Roman empire along with
If they are taught correctly, liberal arts classes have the potential to help “students cross social boundaries in their imaginations. Studying a common core of learning will help orient them to common tasks as citizens; it will challenge or bolster… their views and, in any case, help them understand why not everyone in the world (or in their classroom) agrees with them,” explains Gitlin in his article “The Liberal Arts in an Age of Info-Glut.” By exposing students to this in high school, they will be more prepared when this moment occurs in their careers. I, along with many students throughout the country, have been exposed to incorrectly-taught liberal arts classes. Students taking English, for instance, must read specific novels while assessing a theme that is already pointed out to them. Then, they must answer a question that has only two answers. This type of curriculum not only eliminates the development of opinions, but it keeps the students from being exposed to most of the author's beliefs and the author’s point of view, which is the main purpose of liberal arts classes. Without this exposure, students are left incapable of working with others and accepting their opinions in order to develop solutions to
Liberal educations benefit students in the long run, long after students have paid their loans. People are able to be informed on national topic, while also being able to be self dependent. Two qualities that are essential in the modern society. I believe it is important to have such a basic understanding of education and knowledge, just like what Nussbaum agreed too in her essay. However, I also believe the curriculum should be centered around making students a better person. Institutions should try to produce good people with the right intentions instead of just focusing on testing intelligence, similar to what Cronon focused on in his essay. If we can incorporate both of these important features into our liberal education system, then and only then, will we be thriving as a society. Graduates will have a good understanding of knowledge from an array of different fields, as well as having important traits that will carry on for the rest of their
But the best argument against a liberal education is perhaps the simplest. When students go to any college, they choose a major and take classes that are related to that major. However to get to those classes they have to take courses in , reading, writing, and history. I don’t think that Zakaria realises this. By the time these students graduate, they will be able to understand all of the technical aspects of their field, as well as being able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly. All of this without a traditional Liberal
Mark Edmundson’s essay really resonated with me. His essay “On the Uses of a Liberal Education,” explains that at Universities, college students and teachers who are at these universities, focus on how much the students like the classes, rather than the information found in the class. For example, he explains this when mentions giving his students the course evaluations. Some of the comments were, “the teacher was interesting”, or, “he was funny”. Not one student commented on the information they got in the class. He describes how students have become like customers. The teachers accommodate them and are willing to do anything that meet their needs. This is consumerism. Colleges are concerned with attracting the wealthiest
In the article “The New Liberal Arts,” Sanford J. Ungar presents the argument of why liberal arts schools are still competitive and useful today. The beginning of the article immediately addresses the problem that Ungar is defending, “Hard economic times inevitably bring scrutiny of all accepted ideals and institutions, and this time around liberal-arts education has been especially hit hard.” The author provides credibility through his time of being a liberal arts presidents, applies statistics about the enrollment and job security outside of liberal college, he addresses the cost factor and how a student may find compensation, and that a liberal arts college is not preparing students for success. The article “The New Liberal Arts,” addresses
Sanford J. Ungar, a journalist and president of Goucher College, is one of those faculty members actively trying to disprove the accusations against liberal arts colleges and educations. In his February 2010 article from the academic journal The Chronicle of Higher Education, Ungar gives readers many examples of common misunderstandings about liberal arts and then informs them why those examples are incorrect. Appropriately titled, Ungar’s “7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts” is an easy go to guide when a person wants to learn more about liberal arts. These readers, mainly students and parents looking towards a higher degree of education, can read Ungar’s essay and find new knowledge about the liberal arts discipline.
Liberal arts education produces analytical thinking, and professions are looking for that as an alternative to just specializing in one subject. “Who wants to hire somebody with an irrelevant major like philosophy or French,” but in reality, everyone is finding it harder to find a job in this economy, not just liberal arts majors. He then answers the question about “being a low income, or first generation college student,” and Ungar begins to state that it is ignorant to consider that just because an individual is the first generation that they cannot be given the same kind of education as someone else who is not a first generation. Some may believe that liberal arts does not take part in the mathematical and scientific side of education, but it does in the broadest parts. Sanford Ungar has the right idea that more people should major in the liberal arts, and I definitely like how he put his essays into the “seven misconceptions.”
In recent years, many have debated whether or not a college education is a necessary requirement to succeed in the field of a persons’ choice and become an outstanding person in society. On one hand, some say college is very important because one must contribute to society. The essay Three Reasons College Still Matters by Andrew Delbanco shows three main reasons that students should receive their bachelor’s degree. On the other hand, many question the point of wasting millions of dollars on four years or maybe more to fight for highly competitive jobs that one might not get. Louis Menand wrote an article based on education titled Re-Imagining Liberal Education. This article challenges the main thought many americans have after receiving a secondary education. Louis Menand better illustrates the reasons why a student should rethink receiving a post secondary education better than Andrew Delbanco’s three reasons to continue a person’s education.
The commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace in the autumn of 2005, is a very deep speech that examines the whole idea of a Liberal Arts education at an extremely deep and intellectual level. In the 22 minute long speech Wallace talks about how higher education not only teaches you to think but “how to exercise some control over how and what you think.” (Wallace). Wallace later in his speech stresses the importance of this level of thinking by saying “if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed” (Wallace) What he means by saying this is that if you cannot think at a higher level and make sense of real world problems your life will become meaningless and you will become dead inside your head.
In Charles Murray’s essay entitled “Are Too Many People Going to College?”, he discusses the influx of Americans getting a college education. He addresses the topic of Liberal Arts education, and explains that not many people are ready for the rigorous challenges a liberal-arts degree offers. In addition, Murray explains that instead of a traditional degree more people should apply to technical schools. He believes that college should not be wide spread, and that it is only for those who can handle it. These viewpoints harshly contrast with Sanford J. Ungar’s views. Ungar believes college education should be widespread, because a liberal-arts degree is, in his opinion, a necessity. He argues that a liberal-arts college is the only place that
“A high school graduate who has acquired Hirsch’s core knowledge will know, for example, that John Stuart Mill was an important 19th-century English Philosopher who was associated with something called Utilitarianism and wrote a famous book called On Liberty. But learning philosophy in college, which is and essential component of a liberal education, means that the student has to be able to read and understand the actual text of On Liberty”. (Murray
We live the truth every day, working to keep the ideal of democratic education alive. The best reason to care for college, who goes,and what happens to them when they get there, is not what it does for society, but what it can do for individuals.like the elder guy said, you thought me how to enjoy life. What he meant is college helped him read, help him crave for works of art, heightened his alertness to color from melody. He was grateful for such an education given to him. As a person regardless of what kind of origin we have, we have the right to pursue happiness. In america today at every kind of institution education is at risk. Student are persuade and program, trained to live from task to task. To many colleges do to little to save them debilitating frenzy that makes liberal education marginal if it is offered at
In modern times, the importance of liberal arts is questioned. The article “Myth: A Liberal Arts Education is Becoming Irrelevant” by Carol T. Christ makes the argument that a liberal arts education provides a broader range of knowledge which is useful because it produces a critically thinking student. Obtaining a career is the main focus of college education. Knowing this, Christ emphasizes how a liberal arts education is useful when looking for employment. She refutes the conception that a liberal arts education is irrelevant in today’s society by identifying the useful qualities it provides the employers look for such as, “Flexibility, creativity, critical thinking, strong communication skills (particulary writing)” (Christ,