Liberal Arts Degree

In “Preparing for a Career”, Derek Bok, president of Harvard Law School and author, argues how universities, more specifically liberal arts colleges, should include training for a certain occupation with regular college classes to better prepare a student for the real world after college. Considering that Bok has earned his degrees at some of the most well-known universities like Stanford University and Harvard, he has a better understanding at what students are missing and what they need to be successful. However, on the other hand, not many professors and students see or agree with Bok’s point of view. They do not agree that students need the vocational training during their years in a liberal arts college, even though students need both; an education that helps them become critical thinkers and skilled communicators as well as skilled workers in a certain career. So why not help students with their career along with their regular core courses?

Divergent and analytical thinking are vital skills. Humanities and Liberal Arts majors encourage critical thinking, and a broad knowledge of diverse topics. For example, English majors work well with analysis, grammar, and writing. Those skills can be applied to politics, law and business. Liberal Arts and Humanities majors learn to form strong opinions, evaluate, reflect, and problem solve because they are given opportunity to experiment, create, and collaborate with others. The Liberal Arts and Humanities can also be a great foundation for students who are determined to become leaders. Students will acquire all sorts of abilities that are necessary for leadership success like critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and communication skills. These majors teach students how to think critically, and this is a key skill needed in all disciplines. A Liberal Arts degree does not equal total ignorance of how a computer or the economy works, nor does it mean that those students are missing out on critical knowledge. As a matter of fact, they have very important skills to offer. All the STEM in the world is useless without context. People need the ability to interpret data and incorporate humanity. It is important to have all aspects of education, STEM, liberal arts, and humanities. While STEM degrees may appear more translatable into a paycheck six months from now, some of the most successful people I have known were Liberal Arts majors. If you ask any employers what skills they would like to see in recent graduates, its communication skills, the ability to write well, and the ability to work well in groups. Liberal arts focused on reading, language and writing are equally important to society as STEM subjects are. Liberal Arts and Humanities graduates may not go on to jobs that are as profitable as engineering of physical science careers, but they fill jobs that are important to a

The essay “A New Liberal Arts,” which was written by Sanford Ungar, first appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education on March 5, 2010. In his essay, Ungar uses many different rhetorical strategies to convince his reader that a degree in the liberal arts is not a lost cause but can actually be very beneficial and lead to success. In Ungar’s opinion, there are many wrong ideas and misunderstandings about the usefulness of a degree in the liberal arts. In the essay there are seven specific misperceptions that he addresses specifically. By listing out these misperceptions, Ungar is addressing them individually in order to give each one proper attention. He offers explanations to why people may think these things and why he believes that they are incorrect. Ungar’s use of style, format, and emotional and logical arguments help him to create a persuasive and influential essay for his audience and convince them to agree with his opinion.

In his essay, The New Liberal Arts, Sanford Ungar addresses common misperceptions related to a liberal arts education. He speaks to their usefulness, the employment opportunities after graduation, their value despite the cost of tuition, and other misconceptions. His overall message is, despite the recent emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math degrees, as well as technical or vocational training, liberal arts degrees are still important and are a valid option to consider when deciding on your educational future. While his essay could easily apply to anyone with these misperceptions, it appears to be targeted directly towards students in high school or early college who are trying to decided on the direction of their education

In fact, the matter goes beyond that reason. Why would someone choose a major that only focuses on conceptual ideas, and is not required in the job market unless it is for teaching the humanities? It seems like a never ending loop. One person can give a lecture to a hundred people, but not each one of them will be able to teach another hundred. While other majors that are demanded in the market are more vast and broad. An engineer can work in a company, on their own inventions, and even teach subjects related to their majors for instance. Brooks needed to see the matter from a realistic point of view, since the reason is, after all, economic in the first place. When he argues that a 19-years old freshman will see the humanities as a boring and useless major, he forgets – or misses to mention, that people go to universities to prepare themselves for the job market. And there is no point of going to the market with a certificate that will lead them nowhere. With that being said, Brooks also insists on quoting a history teacher, transmitting to the reader his own perspective of the reason he thinks is causing the

Sanford J. Ungar, a journalist and president of Goucher College, is one of the 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 multiple 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 toward a higher degree of education, can read Ungar’s essay and find new knowledge about the liberal arts discipline.

Sanford J. Ungar’s article “The New Liberal Arts” identifies multiple misperceptions there are about earning a liberal arts degree, showing the inaccuracy in each.

As the world becomes more specialized it raises the question, should undergraduate institutions change their curriculum requirements to better equip students? The goal of a liberal arts education is to enlighten individuals and prepare them for the complex and diverse world by requiring the study of literature, philosophy, mathematics, and sciences. As professional careers evolve into more specialized fields the argument that a liberal education is no longer needed rises. Some educators feel that future professionals would be better primed for the future by focusing specifically on subjects that deal with their intended field. However, a liberal arts education provides benefits that go beyond the classroom. The experience of studying a

Today many argue that changing the Liberal Arts is essential to creating a better society. Mulcahy argues the Liberal Arts should look to empower students (pp. 478 Mulcahy). It should try to give students the confidence to lead, the skills to organize, knowledge to fix problems, or change their world. Some colleges have this as part of their goals within their liberal education programs. This is vastly different from the traditional Liberal Arts education that is still prevalent today. Where traditional Liberal Arts educations taught to inform and give students the skills to work in society, the new version also looks to set students up with the ability to change their society. The newer version of a liberal education creates students who are

Charles Murray’s essay Are Too Many People Going to College discusses how people should be going to college but not to study general education. Murray firmly believes that the core knowledge should be taught in elementary and middle school. He also believes that college isn’t as a platform to learn about history, art, and music rather than learning what is actually needed for your career choice. I agree completely with Murray. I don’t believe that getting a degree should require you to learn about subjects that won’t help you with your career choice.

“Misconception No.1: A liberal arts education is a luxury that most families can no longer afford. ‘Career-education’ is what we must now focus on.” (Ungar, 2010, pp.191) As Ungar has claimed, there is a recent misconception that a liberal arts education is no longer a necessity but luxury because it doesn’t provide an instant career launching education. With so many people having to a need to spend as little money as possible, they are determined to only spend money on preparation for their future career. For this reason they go to college only to take courses that are necessary for their future. “She is in college to take vocational training. She wants to write computer code. Start a business. Get a job in television. She uses college to take vocational courses that pertain to her career interest.” (Murray, 2008, pp.228) Murray explained the story of a girl who is in college solely for preparation for her career. Because of this, she isn’t interested in a liberal arts education. If the course doesn’t directly pertain to her desired career, she prefers not to take it.

In the article, “Why we undervalue a liberal arts education”, written by Adam Chapnick posted March 6, 2013 explains people to understand the importance of liberal arts degrees. He wants people to how the importance is the same as STEM degrees. Most people believe STEM degrees are not successful life choices. He believes people don’t know what they learned so they need to teach liberal arts better and different so the people who graduate actually know what they learned. This article is not a credible source it is just his claims. Adam Chapnick’s article “Why we undervalue a liberal arts education,” needs more facts and reasons to back up his claims because his article is not factual mostly opinionated and to be credible facts must back up

First and foremost there needs to be an established understanding of what liberal arts are. In the article “Why Choose Liberal Arts?” Mark William Roche explains that liberal arts were originally intended for free men, those who weren’t being educated for the sole purpose of gaining a livelihood, but rather for the sake of being educated and included things like grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, music and astronomy. He then goes on to clarify the meaning of liberal arts today as “a general education that is a broad grounding in the diverse disciplines.” Furthermore, in his article, “The Liberal Arts Bubble” John Agresto writes that today liberal arts are still called liberal not

Liberal Arts are academic subjects such as literature, philosophy, mathematics, and social and physical sciences as distinct from professional and technical subjects. This approach to education provides students with specialized ability in a chosen major as well as builds a foundation of skills and knowledge that can be applied among many career paths and academic pursuits. Employers value the ability to solve problems, adapt to change, work across disciplines, and collaborate with others, which are distinctive tenants acquired when you pursue a major in liberal arts. Clearly, all successful careers require critical thinking, teamwork, sensitivity to cultural, demographic, economic and societal differences and political perspectives. A

“Too many students aren’t sure what job they could get after four, five, or even six years of studying a certain major and racking up education loans”(255). Singletary is given the fact that numerous students are confused on their own majors even though they have studied for years. And parts of the students even start realizing their majors might be in a hopeless employment situation after they graduate from that particular field. Therefore, before choosing a field of study, it is necessarily worthwhile for students and parents to check out the majors whether in the highest or the lowest unemployment. According to new statistics on unemployment for recent college graduates by The Huffington Post this June, majoring in social science and creative fields, such as anthropology, film, fine art, etc. have earned the top three of the unemployment rate. In contrast, engineering technologies, math, and computer science remain at the top of the employment chart. Alex Tabarrok mentions the harsh unemployment rate in his article, “…More than half of all humanities graduates end up in jobs that don’t require college degrees…”(250). The society has never shown mercy to students who are unlikely to be employed with the majors they have. Graduating without employment must be one of the biggest nightmares for most students; however, selecting an in demand major can surely decrease the chances of being