ipl-logo

Analysis Of The New Liberal Arts By Sanford J. Ungar

793 Words4 Pages

When students set out for higher education and prepare for their future they usually have an end goal in mind. When most students come to college, they typically have an idea of what degree to pursue or what they are interested in studying. In Sanford J. Ungar’s article “The New Liberal Arts” he quoted that “The responsibility of higher education today is to prepare people for jobs that do not yet exist” (657). However, whatever job a student ends up in is significantly helped through higher education. With this in mind, college students need to have the skills needed to adapt to any situation and perform in many different ways. In Sanford J. Ungar’s article “The New Liberal Arts” Ungar explores a liberal arts education and how specialized …show more content…

Following his ideas, he lists multiple misperceptions about a liberal arts education. His first misperception is that a “liberal arts degree is a luxury that most families can no longer afford” (657). He points out that because businesses and industries are looking for people with basic skills needed to perform a certain job, shortcuts are created. This shortcut or as he refers to it as a social experiment, will eventually lead to a dead end. This aspect of his article appeals to emotion and the fear most students have that they will end up in a job that is no longer needed. Ungar points out that students need to be able to adapt and change for any of the many jobs they may end up having. Although these programs and institutions work to a degree, they leave out a liberal arts education. This will eventually lead to a future workforce that is incapable of understanding literary text and scientific concepts. Because of Ungar’s position as the president of a liberal arts university his ethos is immediately established. With this, it is easier to see his point of view and gather that although a liberal arts education may be more expensive than an education that will prepare you for an immediate job. A liberal arts education will prepare you for the jobs that you may not have intended to end up …show more content…

Although all of the misperceptions he lists are valid and help to further prove his point, Ungar is only arguing in favor of a liberal arts education and doesn’t show the other side of it. Many students would benefit from a liberal arts education, but they would only be able to be in a job field that would require it. If they wanted to be an engineer or architect, liberal arts is not going to take them very far, because they need the training and skills that students would learn in those

Show More
Related

  • Caroline Bird Case Against College Education

    900 Words  | 4 Pages

    Recently, many have begun to attack and degrade higher education in the United States. In the book How College Works, authors Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs claim, “As state support has eroded, and as more students attend college in an increasingly desperate attempt to find viable jobs, the price to students of attending an institution of higher education has gone up, especially at more selective institutions” (172). So is college even worth it? Caroline Bird’s excerpt from her book Case Against College “Where College Fails Us” is an adequately written article that agrees with those who question whether college is a good investment. Bird argues that although some students would benefit from college and succeed, many fall short, wasting

    Read More

  • Liberal Education In William Cronon's Only Connect

    252 Words  | 2 Pages

    In William Cronon’s essay “Only Connect” he poses the question to his audience on trying to deduce the concept of liberal education. Cronon makes it clear within his essay that a liberal education goes beyond earning a degree and fulfilling credit hours; to him there's something more deeper in a liberal education that helps shape an individual’s life. He discusses some historical background information on where liberal education came from by citing how the word “liberal” developed throughout time and he even mentions how the liberal arts curriculum developed. Throughout, the majority of the essay Cronon makes a valid argument on what the purpose of a liberal education does for individuals pursuing college. In his opinion, he believes a liberal

    Read More

  • Charles Murray's Down With The Four-Year College Degree

    633 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Charles Murray’s article, “Down With the Four-Year College Degree”, he discusses how he believes the four year degree is ruining college education. Murray exemplifies the ludicrousness of the four year degree when he says: Imagine that you have been made a member of a task force to design America’s post-secondary education system from scratch. One of your colleagues submits this proposal: First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that often has nothing to do with what has been learned.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Charles Murray's Essay 'Are Too Many People Going To College'

    1353 Words  | 6 Pages

    People go to college to get a good paying job, have job security, and get a degree. Well at least that’s what it should be about. That’s what Charles Murray believes in his essay “Are Too Many People Going to College.” Murray counters the argument of Sanford Ungar who believes colleges should have a more liberal approach towards its classes and have students actually learn a broad range of real life skills instead of just going into a career just because it pays well. In Ungar’s essay he explains the misperception that Americans have on obtaining a liberal-arts degree and how they believe it doesn’t translate well to the real world.

    Read More

  • Caroline Bird College Is A Waste Of Time And Money Summary

    1356 Words  | 6 Pages

    As a college student who is currently spending thousands of dollars to further my education and achieve a career goal, it was, at first, disheartening to read Caroline Bird ’s essay “College is a Waste of Time and Money”. However, after thoroughly examining her points, I now see that her essay is illogical. In her piece “College is a Waste of Time and Money”, Caroline Bird argues against the idea that “college is the best place for all high-school graduates” (1); in other words, college isn’t for everyone. Throughout her writing, Bird supplies her readers with evidence that explains how, for some individuals, college is a waste of not only time and money, but of intellectual effort, as well.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Ungar's Theory Of Attending College And Earning A Degree

    127 Words  | 1 Pages

    Ungar’s theory of attending college and earning a degree, is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problem of many people debating whether or not going to college and earning a degree is the correct decision after graduating college. I agree with Ungar, that graduating high school students should go on and earn a higher education, which is a point that needs emphasizing, since so many people believe that without a college degree they will be successful. High school graduates that have entered the work field after high school graduation, of course, may want to dispute my claim that in order to become successful person you do not need a college education. Many may argue that they have become a successful without a college

    Read More

  • Charles Murray Are Too Many People Going To College Summary

    786 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Charles Murray’s essay “Are Too Many People Going to College,” he believes that the concept of college has changed over the years. According to him, a four-year college is no longer as necessary as it was when it was first created because most jobs requires more on job training. He also adds to his reasoning by mentioning that because of the advancement of internet, physical libraries and the physical proximity of student and teachers is less important. Because of the changes he noticed he believes that people should go to college but not for liberal education. He makes the claim that the basic core knowledge of liberal education should be learned in elementary and middle school and that only people with high academic abilities should be encouraged to go to college.

    Read More

  • Charles Murray Are Too Many People Go To College Summary

    955 Words  | 4 Pages

    In my opinion, I agree with Murray’s claim that four year college is not worth, job satisfaction for intrinsic reward, and the dark side of the Bachelor's degree. In my view, Murray’s is right, because college requires student to take 32 courses in four years or longer and not all courses are relate to the field they study with. More specifically, I believe that four years college will take more time to achieve our goal and knowledges doesn’t teach us how to make a living in our society. Murray described in his article, “More people should be getting the basic of a liberal education. But for most students, the places to provide those basics are elementary and middle school” (235).

    Read More

  • College At Risk Summary

    545 Words  | 3 Pages

    Going to college for many students is just a normal part of life. It is what will enable them to get an education that eventually will lead to get a well-paid job and the resources and the status to live a comfortable life. But for college professor, Andrew Delbanco, the American college has a higher purpose. In the article “College at Risk”, Delbanco states that colleges should be promoting critical thinking among students, through knowledge of the past and the interaction with each other; as well as, help them discover their talents and passions and figure out what they want to do in life. This type of education is called liberal arts and for Delbanco, it represents the ideal education.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The New Liberal Arts By Sanford J. Ungar

    1242 Words  | 5 Pages

    I am confident that with a B.A. degree and my broad range of knowledge, I will have flexibility if I choose to pursue a different career. Employers will also realize that someone with a liberal arts degree has that range of knowledge of different subjects. Murray believes that “most students go to college to acquire

    Read More

  • Charles Murray's Essay Are Too Many People Going To College

    1090 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the essay, Charles Murray stresses the idea that college is the wonderland of finding oneself and to find the career that one would want to follow for the rest of their lives. “College is seen as the open sesame to a good job and a desirable way for adolescents to transition to adulthood. Neither reason is as persuasive as it first appears.” Murray, C (2008) Practically spoken, this is not normally the case. College is a fair amount of work, much more work than one would normally acquire through any course of a high school or secondary school setting.

    Read More

  • Are Too Many People Going To College? By Charles Murray

    680 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Are Too Many People Going to College?” Charles Murray offers his opinion on the number of students that pursue a B.A. He believes that two year or four year colleges are not needed for a majority of students who could instead pursue other life paths. He discusses the ability for the general knowledge needed to be learned in primary and secondary school, and for a lessened need for a “brick-and-mortar” institution the problems with the current secondary and higher educational issues including the lessened need to acquire a B.A. All members of society need certain skills in order to be productive members of society. They need to know general facts about the country they live in, general history, and general geography.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Pursuing A Liberal Arts Education

    325 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within the realm of traditional education, there are many opinions against pursuing a liberal arts education. However these are mostly all unfounded, as they relate to failure of future success. In fact, employers recommend to have a liberal arts degree as one helps prepare for life beyond a single field. Then by following the misconceptions, young students will be at a disadvantage with their highly specific field, unprepared to be multifaceted in the future. As Ungar says it, “Through immersion in liberal arts, students learn not just to make a living, but also to live a life rich in values and character.

    Read More

  • Evaluating Liberal Arts Education Essay

    1605 Words  | 7 Pages

    Defining Education: Evaluating Liberal Arts Education Education has been a cornerstone of human civilization since ancient times, but defining what constitutes a vital education has always been a matter of intense debate. The Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines education as: “The action or process of educating or of being educated also: a stage of such a process, the knowledge and development resulting from the process of being educated, the field of study that deals mainly with methods of teaching and learning in schools.” (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, s.v. "education"). These are all basic definitions barely scratching the surface of the elaborate concept of what education entails.

    Read More

  • Liberal Arts Colleges Advantages

    1210 Words  | 5 Pages

    For instance, Daniel Arndt suggests that being less likely to get employed, liberal arts graduates seem to find themselves in a difficult financial situation right after college. They cannot pay off the expensive colleges in which they studied to get a job and they cannot get a job because of the expensive college they chose. This vicious circle makes Liberal Arts Colleges seem to be too expensive for the quality of education it offers. The broad knowledge these institutions provide are only useful in terms of life, while one should have the ability to do a specific task in terms of their jobs. With the development of the Internet anyone has access to information which makes liberal arts institutions outdated.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of The New Liberal Arts By Sanford J. Ungar

Open Document