A Liberal Education: Education for Life

Just as soon as high school graduation draws near for the present generation of seniors, plans for higher education begin to surface. I remember the near end of my high school education quite vividly. The famous question that seemed to be of interest to almost every young adult in the school was indeed “What are you going to do after high school?” Likewise, the overwhelming majority of the students as well as I knew that we wanted to continue on to either a community college or a university even though we didn’t even really know why. Perhaps it was to prepare for a career later in life or something similar. Others decided to head off to vocational or technical institutes of some kind. However, among the chaotic array of pathways to higher education, one very important type of education seemed to have slipped by my arsenal of choices. In fact, out of the myriad of life plans that I had heard from students’ dreams and teachers’ recommendations, there was not a single mention of a liberal arts education. Having presently learned much about liberal education and its importance, I am appalled at the fact that most of the high school and college students that I know can describe very little if not nothing at all about it. Furthermore, at the present moment, the meaning, purpose, goals, and importance of liberal education seems as unknown and unclear to young students like myself as the theoretical origins of the cosmos itself. However, as it is much more tedious to explain the nature of dark matter, quasars, and singularities, explaining liberal education will be a much easier task. If we can understand what a liberal education is and what it entails, we can become open to its glorious benefits that have been hidden but readily available to us for many years. If anything, we can be sure to grasp a solid understanding for its own sake. Perhaps, after reading this and maybe even seeking out further materials on liberal education, one may decide to tap into the world of liberal learning for him or herself. In the best interest of intellectual evolution and the progress of statecraft, I strongly believe that liberal education is a very important issue and should be understood and considered by everyone as a choice for their source of education. Thus, if we are to glorify the importance of liberal education in one’s life, we must first provide a useful definition. Firstly, for the sake of contrast, we will briefly inquire into the nature and purpose of the standard college or university.

Upon this inquiry, one may associate vocational, technical, and professional classes each having a prerequisite to the next. Most of these classes will initially contribute to general education credits. Later, classes will be geared towards one’s chosen major, double major, or minor. Ultimately, college freshmen students, returning adults, and gifted youngsters seem to aim for the same goal: career skills and a means to economic security or wealth through some type of status by degree or certification in one to a few confined fields of interest or knowledge. Once the desired degree or certification is acquired, the process of education seems finite with the few exceptions of teachers and professors who may continue acquiring knowledge in their specific field, or doctors who must renew their licenses through required classes. Moreover, as textbooks expire and technology advances, vocation and soon to be outdated know-how can only take the individual so far. Thankfully, a liberal arts education offers a much different and more radical alternative to vocational colleges or universities. In addition, liberal education may indeed fulfill a much greater purpose.

Historically, the liberal arts birthed from the ancient Greek and Roman philosophical “reflection into the heart of things” (Schall 7). A general definition from the Encyclopedia Britannica states that a liberal arts education is a “college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities” (“Liberal Arts”). Today, most commonly in modern colleges or universities, the study of literature, language, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science serves as the basis of liberal education. This is opposed to the former in medieval Europe in which the common studies consisted of grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy (“Liberal Arts”). The Association of American Colleges and Universities holds the contemporary liberal art studies to be the humanities, the creative and performing arts, the natural and social sciences, and mathematics (Schneider and Shoenberg 28). Each of these studies is essential to a liberal arts education but where the studies of any other educational institution seeks knowledge for “doing”, a liberal education more commonly seeks knowledge for the sake of purely “knowing” (Schall 4-5). This is very fortunate for intellectual hopefuls for the philosophy of education seems to have strayed into the territory of vocations leaving behind classical concepts of universal learning.

Likewise, these liberal arts studies have a much broader aim than mere vocation and career preparation. Just as well, the liberal arts may bring about great wisdom or intellectual ability but they can never be one-hundred percent mastered. Robert M. Hutchins stresses the importance of the common liberal arts practice of reading and re-reading the great works of literature such as that of Plato, Dante, or Montaigne repeatedly throughout the life span so as to continually exercise, enlighten, and challenge the intellect without end (74-82). This would be in contrast to attending college only for a degree or certification in which the mind is left afterwards only to rot and decay for the remainder of life. Hutchins states that “every man’s mind ought to keep working all his life long; every man’s imagination should be touched as often as possible by the great works” and further along he remarks that “liberal education ought to end only with life itself” (75-76). Here it is pointed out, although one may attend a liberal arts university for any given period of time, the essence of liberal education itself is a lifelong education for the mind. And so it is impossible to seek understanding from someone who has completed a liberal arts education. Instead, understandings of some of the endless goals of liberal education will have to do. As we are attacking a very broad and equivocal subject, let us inquire further into the ultimate goals of liberal education and their importance to the individual by hearing the thoughts of a few great minds.

With a skillful and insightful argument, Thomas Jeavons states in Learning for the Common Good: Liberal Education, Civic Education, and Teaching about Philanthropy that the goals of liberal education ultimately involve “developing in students the capacities for judgment: for assessing the merit of claims to truth; for evaluating the validity and significance of evidence and argument” and “for being able to see the salience and meaning of what is learned in the context of whatever larger issue one is exploring” (12). Of course, liberal education and its goals are fairly difficult to summarize completely, but many great minds have conceptualized fair and just generalizations. Just as so, the AAC & U creates a fair description of a liberal education’s learning goals explaining that they aim to acquire intellectual skills or capacities, understand multiple modes of inquiry and approaches to knowledge, develop societal, civic, and global knowledge, gain self-knowledge and grounded values, and concentrate and integrate learning (Schneider and Shoenberg 7-8). John Henry Newman describes in The Idea of a University that one’s education can be called “liberal” when:

He apprehends the great outlines of knowledge, the principles on which it rests, the scale of its parts, its lights and its shades, its great points and its little, as he otherwise cannot apprehend them (101).

This kind of education creates a well-rounded citizen with the ability to think critically. This is why liberal education is so important, not only because it benefits the individual by which greater happiness, aesthetic experience, and intellectual freedom becomes more freely available, but because it creates an ideal citizen for democracy that can exercise his individuality, cultivate his mind, and make better and more intellectual choices in life. If the majority of people in a democracy are uneducated, the system may meet an unfortunate end, but a democracy filled with intellectual and cultivated minds will undoubtedly thrive. Hutchins says that the democratic enterprise is in danger if anyone of us says, “I do not have to try to think for myself” (80). The AAC & U upholds that when liberal learning is engaged in collectively, it “cultivates social responsibility” and “contributes to the renewal of social values in human organizations and to the sustaining of a productive, democratic, and pluralistic society” (Schneider and Shoenberg 28). And so a liberal education builds a man who is inclined to make the best decisions for himself and for his democratic government.

As we have thoroughly reviewed the subject of liberal education, we may now show example through evaluating an actual liberal arts college. Surely, the more than qualified AmherstCollege will serve as the candidate.

Amherst is a liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, it was founded in 1821, it is one of the premier liberal arts colleges in America, it is currently enrolling some 1,600 students, and it is a 1000-acre campus (“About Amherst”). Based on this information we can assume that a fair number of students have indeed had the chance to partake in a liberal education. The college offers the Bachelor’s Degree in 33 fields of study and the classes are “characterized by spirited interchange among students and acclaimed faculty skilled at asking challenging questions.” The college website claims:

Amherst's open curriculum allows each student — with the help of a faculty adviser — to chart an individual course through the more than 800 courses offered at the college; there are no distribution requirements. Honors work is encouraged and in recent years has been undertaken by nearly half of the graduating class (“Amherst College Profile”).

At first glance, the college may appear very similar to that of a normal college or university, however, if we take a closer look we see it is the teaching methods of the professors and the learning methods of the students that make the difference.

Amherst College’s mission statement ensures:

Working with faculty, staff, and administrators dedicated to intellectual freedom and the highest standards of instruction in the liberal arts, Amherst undergraduates assume substantial responsibility for undertaking inquiry and for shaping their education within and beyond the curriculum (“Mission of Amherst College”).

Here we can more clearly see the distinction that sets the educational practices apart from other vocational colleges or universities. Although the school offers degrees, the learning methods involve the practices of liberal learning so as so cooperate with vocational needs while maintaining a sense of universal learning. As only seventeen and one half percent typically make their way past merely applying, the school obviously chooses students with previously shown high school academic potential and high testing scores (“Enrollment Statistics”). The tuition does not greatly surpass any other traditional college averaging in at about fifty thousand dollars(“Financial Aid and Tuition”).

Overall, the school seems a fine choice in terms of practicing liberal learning and intellectual freedom while remaining economically safe by attaining a degree. As there are many other liberal arts schools, you may wish to inquire into others at another time if you so wish.

Now that we have explored liberal education and emphasized its importance, the opportunity is open to seek further knowledge about the liberal arts and perhaps embrace the concepts in our own lives. More importantly, it is now the duty to educate others about the importance and prospects of liberal education for the sake of the human intellectual betterment, better overall choices, and the progress and prosperity of democracy. We will now close with a quote by Diane Schaub that we may personally ponder in the spirit of liberal learning from “Can liberal education survive liberal democracy?”:

By humanizing man, the liberal arts provide guidance throughout the affairs of life. To be the land of the free – in the full sense, in the sense made possible by liberal education – would be a new birth of freedom indeed (45).

Works Cited

“About Amherst”. Amherst College. 2007. 3 Dec. 2007 <https://cms.amherst.edu/aboutamherst>

---. “AmherstCollege Profile”. Amherst College. 2007. 3 Dec. 2007 <https://cms.amherst.edu/aboutamherst>

---. “Mission of AmherstCollege”. Amherst College. 2007. 3 Dec. 2007 <https://cms.amherst.edu/aboutamherst>

---. “Enrollment Statistics”. Amherst College. 2007. 3 Dec. 2007 <https://cms.amherst.edu/aboutamherst>

---. “Financial Aid and Tuition”. Amherst College. 2007. 3 Dec. 2007 <https://cms.amherst.edu/aboutamherst>

Hutchins, Robert M. The Great Conversation: The Substance of a Liberal Education. Chicago: William Benton

Jeavons, Thomas. Learning for the Common Good: Liberal Education, Civic Education, and Teaching about Philanthropy. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges, 1991.

“Liberal Arts." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 Dec. 2007 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9048113>

Newman, John H. The Idea of a University. London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1907. Newman Reader. 2007. The National Institute for Newman Studies. 20 Nov. 2007 <http://www.newmanreader.org/works/idea/discourse5.html>

Schall, James V., et al. A Student's Guide to the Liberal Arts. Ed. Wilburn T. Stancil. Kansas City, MO: Rockheart UP, 2003.

Schaub, Diane. “Can liberal education survive liberal democracy?”. Public Interest. Washington: Spring 2002. Iss. 147, p.45-60 (17 pp.)

Schneider, Carol G., and Robert Shoenberg. Contemporary Understandings of Liberal Education. Washington, DC: AAC&U, 1998.