The Liberal Arts and the End of Education Essay

In recent discussion of the purpose of a liberal arts education, a controversial issue has been whether it is “just filling you up with knowledge”. On one hand, some argue that it is just a good prerequisite to have. From this perspective, the point of earning a degree is to get a better career. On the other hand, however, others argue that a degree “has actual human value”. In the words of David Foster Wallace, one of this view’s main proponents, “a liberal arts education is not so much filling you up with knowledge as it is about ‘teaching you how to think’”. According to this view, having a degree affects how you think. In sum, then, the issue is whether a liberal arts education teaches you how to think positively or not through your banal “adult life”

Edmundson, Mark. "On the Uses of a Liberal Education." From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and a Reader. Ed. Stuart Greene and April Lidindsky. Bedford/ St. Martin’s: New York, 2008. 322-337. Print

In a time when human endeavor was being redesigned, as industries, philosophies, and sciences were growing and affecting the world, Newman wrote an essay explaining the ideas and goals for seeking a liberal arts education. He states in his thesis that the function of such education, “is that of training good members

There is a reason why my college counselors always pushed for us to look into liberal arts colleges. With liberal education, you get to experience much more than you think is possible. Not only does one take classes that are specific to their major but they are also required to explore other fields that they might have thought was wrong for them. As the reading, “Only Connect…” The Goals of a Liberal Education by William Cronon phrases, liberal education not only deals with what a student learns in their classroom but it also involves the concepts of an individual’s freedom and growth. At first, I thought I only like the idea of studying abroad in South Korea because I watched Korean dramas and listened to their music. But during my time at Denison, I had the opportunity to take classes about the eastern world. I’ve learned about their culture, their history, and even their language. I’ve expanded my knowledge far wider than I thought I would ever. This opportunity to study abroad through CIEE is not just me trying to get my own satisfaction, but it is an

To discuss the value of liberal education, there should be a mutual understanding that investing in college means to invest in oneself. Furthermore, while some consider this investment to be a critical stepping stone to success, others dismiss it, explaining that school simply cannot prepare someone for the “real world.” Sanford J. Ungar and Robert Reich explore both of these subjective values in their essays “The New Liberal Arts” and “College is a Ludicrous Waste of Money.” Ungar, the president of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, discusses why a liberal education should be sought after; he does so by introducing common misconceptions about liberal arts and, using argumentative persuasion, proves their insignificance. On the other hand, Reich, the former secretary of labor, argues against the conventional belief of college being the only road to financial wellbeing; rather, he explains why a two-year education may better accommodate many college students, especially those in need of immediate work or those that simply cannot afford a four-year education. In all, although both Reich and Ungar generally discuss liberal education, their perspectives differ when it comes to its practicality in the current economy. Also, to express their different views about liberal arts, the authors use contrasting tones to present their ideas to different intended audiences.

“The New Liberal Arts” is an article written by Sanford J. Ungar, who is a president of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. In the beginning of his article, Ungar wrote, “Hard economic times inevitably bring scrutiny of all accepted ideals and institutions, and this time around the liberal arts education has been especially hard hit.” In other words, Ungar means that recent economic recessions have made a huge impact on what people think of going for a liberal arts degree. In his essay, Ungar lists seven misperceptions and how he reacts to them. The most common misperception that Ungar identified is that liberal arts degrees are no longer affordable. The cost for liberal arts education is very expensive while

A Liberal Education? Not According to Cronon. A Critical and Rhetorical Analysis of Cronon's Only Connect.

Me and my classmates were in English class and the teacher gave us article to read title "Why We Need the Liberal Arts" by Joseph R. Urgo from The Baltimore sun. This article was about how our nation brightest nation students, contemplating the dedication of four years to the highest level of cognitive and how the student are being told not to do four years of college that is useful in the the world by there parents and elder people. Also why it is so important to use the liberal arts in the world.

A Liberal Arts education has helped people to lead a life of great circumstances. The message established in “The New Liberal Arts” by Sanford J. Ungar is clear. Throughout the article it talks about the misperceptions of going to a liberal arts school and how it affects the outcome of ones future. Throughout the passage Ungar states misperceptions of a liberal arts education and then after he gives his response on why he disagrees. When addressing “The New Liberal Arts” I agree with Ungar when he states the misperceptions throughout the article. The misperceptions are what society has developed about people who graduated from Liberal

Broadly speaking, a liberal arts education is concerned with the pursuit of knowledge as an end in itself, rather than for the sake of acquiring skills targeted at a career. The liberal arts philosophy is traced to the Greek philosopher Socrates, who famously proclaimed that the “unexamined life is not worth living”. To that end, traditional liberal arts education emphasizes the scholarly, the gentlemanly and the liberating. However, contemporary liberal arts education is marked by the integration of liberal and practical education. Consequently, a Christian liberal arts education should provide knowledge and intellectual skills to help students become functional and capable of

In the time surrounding the 1950s, intellectualism was hostilely viewed by most, and was a subject towards which division and ambivalence were pointed. Book-smarts and intellectualism were contrasts to regular life. The article “Hidden Intellectualism” is written by a man named Gerald Graff, an English and Education professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. In his article, Graff argues with a compelling case, that not only is intellectualism found in the academic world, but can also be discovered in wider cultures not necessarily associated with the intellectual crowd. He strongly believes that the scope in which society considers material intellectually enhancing, is unreasonably narrow. Based on the historical facts of division between so called book-smarts and street-smarts, Graff illuminates the impairment caused by complete separation, as well as the possibility of greater success by integrating societal interests with academic study. He argues that worlds of a wider cultural domain and acclaimed non-intellectual interest such as sports, rather than competing with scholastic development, could possibly be the route to it. Graff is convinced that the amount of educational depth of a text or subject is in no way connected to the text or subject itself. For the longest time Graff was bought into the idea of the immutable separation between intellectualism and recreational interests, but he later discovered the reality of

Due to the popularity, class, education, and influence of authoritative Romantics, Romantic ideology affected the structure of scholarship. Across Europe, schools had introduced new education models emphasising language, both ancient and modern. In addition, curriculums modelled on Greek forms intended to develop character and values were widespread. To satisfy the demand for a more authoritative and restricted community, classical study became specialised in the University of Gottingen, which established an Altertumswissenschaft (science of antiquity) course. This collated the many aspects of study or appreciation of ancient culture into one degree – inaccessible to many. What had been a disparate field open to amateur enthusiasts and professional linguists or theologians alike became a more rigid and dogmatic expert community. This community still retained the ideals it had been founded upon; elitism, mysticism, projection, and an obsession with language and its burgeoning racial implications permeated the new professional

For many centuries, the principles of the classical education were in the spotlight. The good of the individual, realizing his/her own potential were the purposes of the learning process. Cultural development is the aim of the classical education. It stands above everything, including religion. (Nietzsche, n. p.). Referring to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to interpret the classical education in modern society, we can say that

Further immersed in this controversy, the word liberal in liberal arts has been embraced by both ends of the political spectrum, and can scarcely be uttered without turning the conversation into a verbal duel between conservative reformists on one side, and liberal traditionalist on the other. However clear we present the term, the thrust and parry continues as the nation's leading academia and political activists attempt to separate liberal education from an education that indoctrinates students in the values of political liberalism (Horowitz, In Defense, 3).