We have all heard that a principal college pursuit is often in the Liberal Arts. This, as most of us think, would be the more general college education, unlike a pre-engineer, medical student, or hopeful nuclear scientist. But what is liberal arts, and do we need it today with all the specialty fields like AI and the computer science?
Higher education has been facing some hard times over the last few years. Some experts warn that the coming years may bring a so-called the “demographic cliff,” a decline in college enrollment with fewer high school graduates going to university. It is believed by many that higher education has eroded over the last decade. It is commonly thought that college has become too idealistic, too expensive, and very elitist. Can a liberal arts college education justify itself today?
Well, let’s start out by defining a liberal arts education. It is believed by many that liberal arts can provide a well-rounded education. It equips the student with transferable skills such as effective communication and the ability to think.
I went to a small private college for my pre-law training. There was and is no set pre-law undergraduate required curriculum. My fellow law students had majored in political science, history, foreign language, philosophy, or even chemistry, to name a few. But the idea of that pre-law training was to gather the skills of communication, problem solving and to widen one’s scope of the world. The majority of the classes in what we call a major can vary widely.
If you go back to the times of Plato, there were two levels of liberal arts. Those words, liberales artes, meant “the arts and skills suitable for a free person.” It was opposed to serviles artes, meaning the vocational and practical skills necessary for survival, such as farming or construction. In other words, this liberal arts education was to prepare citizens to be free to take on responsibility, including self-government rather than rule by a king. It was also meant to consider and evaluate leaders, laws, and policies so that one could pass judgment on leaders to be elected. In brief, the goal was to make the student as smart as possible within his or her world.
Later, the traditions of this type of education were divided into seven areas. The first three were known as Trivium and consisted of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The other four were called Quadrivium and consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Grammar was the proper use of language. Logic was the coherence of thinking. Rhetoric was for effective presentation. These were the most basic. The others included numbers, shapes, celestial bodies, and harmony with the heavens. Not all that different from what we hope the liberal arts major achieves today.
Going again to ancient history, Plato’s Republic addresses personal desires such as approval, wealth, comfort, power, and even revenge. If one seeks to satisfy such desires before considering what he should do in his own life, he risks becoming enslaved to these desires. How true today for so many. For Plato, learning was to turn the souls and abandon the recklessness of those desires for what is good for the world. I cannot say that we have those pure of hopes driving the current student.
High school graduation is upon us. As parents, right or wrong, we believe that we have a pivotal role in helping that 18-year-old define the rest of his or her life. Many are overly encouraged to “go to college.” I remember my parents approached the subject with “when you go to college,” not “if you go to college.” There was pressure with that presentation.
Today not everyone is meant to go there. Trade schools can offer lifelong careers at a fraction of the cost. Sure, being a truck driver will not be recognized at the same community level of respect as the doctor or lawyer, but that is all about elitism. If the worker likes the job and can live at the level of life that he or she enjoys, what difference does it make? Not all college graduates achieve their intended goal.
Well, some college life can make a difference. The side benefits of a college life are the interchange with more people having different aspirations and goals. The thinking process is enhanced to help make wiser decisions being made, be it in the line of work, the election of our leaders, or the acceptance of those parts of lives over which we have little or no control. In addition, what a place to meet a future spouse.
The value of education was further stated quite clearly by African-American author Frederick Douglass when his owner and enslaver, Thomas Aild, declared that education would forever make him unfit to be a slave. Duh.
Freedom should be the result of education as well as enabling one from enslavement. Even if it is not college, it could be the kind of knowledge Douglass had experienced, or just being able to think the best for oneself and what life could lead to.
Regardless of the diploma achieved, life starts right after that, so let’s hope our future graduates will attain all types of knowledge as they go forward.
· Dennis Marek can be contacted at llamalaw23@gmail.com.