The term liberal arts derives from the Latin words liberales, which means “to liberate or free”, and artes, meaning “skills.” Therefore, liberal arts means the skills that are essential for a person to be free. A liberal arts education means taking courses in the general area of study, rather than immediately taking courses in specialized fields. Taking courses in liberal arts can be very beneficial to a person. There are many benefits to having a liberal arts education as a student and as a working person. First, a liberal arts education teaches a student how to think. Rather than getting information from one specific source (specialized fields), our brains needs to obtain information from multiple sources (general area of study) to help
The article “The New Liberal Arts” by Sanford Ungar argues that the people who have studied the liberal art are not beneficial for the society, however the author states several facts to prove against it. The author believes not only the Liberal art major is valuable in America, but also other countries have special consideration to this field. These students have strong communication skills and they catch up very fast, in addition they study science and math beside art. A lot of people immigrate to America every year, so they are considered as a second language, thus their communication skills are weak. Liberal art students have been trained to raise the society communication skills, moreover they gain variety of abilities such as:
“The New Liberal Arts” is written from the author's point of view. The author, Sanford J. Ungar, writes strongly on “Misperception” of Liberal Arts. He writes down each misperception and gives his reasoning, backed up with facts as to why he, the author, considers each one a misperception. The author writes about each misperception by numbering them and also gives reasoning. For example, “Misperception NO. 1: A liberal-arts degree is a luxury” and reasoning, “families can no longer afford… depths of the recession” (p. 227).
The liberal arts education allows students
Jobs are looking for you to be well rounded, and having a liberal arts degree opens the door for you to be able to accomplish that. Ungar goes on to explain how there is a misperception about college graduates not being able to find jobs with a liberal arts education. Ungar uses a survey to show that companies actually prefer employees that have the skills and knowledge that a liberal arts education offers. Ungar states that some believe a liberal arts education is unsuccessful.
In the article "The New Liberal Arts", author Sanford J. Ungar takes a stance on the benefits and the need for students to pursue a liberal arts education. Ungar argues that despite modern day critique of liberal education, from his point of view as a liberal arts college president the criticisms and naysayers are futile. He swiftly and authoritively defends the affordable cost of a liberal education, employers desiring graduates with liberal education degrees, and the ability for those holding liberal arts degrees to compete with those pursuing science and mathematics majors. While Ungar's work has a great general idea, some of his specified points lack the evidence to truly stand on their own two feet. A liberal arts education is a useful
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
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.
Things like that is what student these days see and find unappealing. So let's take Adam Chapnicks’ advice and conceive and developed more way to appeal students to think about the liberal arts. Teacher should learn how to make it fun to learn. One thing Adam does not mention, which seem to be a great idea is that students should not be required to take intensive classes of liberal art. Once you enter high school you start to think about your career.
There are advantages to this though, someone who gets a liberal arts degree might be better at certain things such as comprehension, problem solving, and critical thinking. Many of those skills are wanted by employers when they are looking to hire a college graduate. On the other hand, Murray believes pursuing a liberal arts degree is a waste of time. Murray, claims are mostly valid because on average it takes longer for a liberal arts graduate to find a job, and they start off making less than the average professional career. He believes people are looking for innovators not just
In his essay, “The New Liberal Arts”, Sanford J. Ungar expresses the importance of a liberal arts degree although there is a new found attraction to career education. Ungar addresses seven common misconceptions that the American people believe to be true. He shares that when students are immersed in a liberal arts education they learn to make a living, live a life rich in values and character, show diversity and complexity, and develop patterns to keep learning everyday for the rest of their lives. The first misperception states that a Liberal arts degree is a luxury most Americans cannot afford, but Ungar states that a liberal arts education is the best investment even in light of these financial circumstances. He believes career education
One specific item that was brought to my attention from the article was the purpose of the liberal arts education, and the “requirements” as noted from an institution but interpreted in my understanding. It is competency in communication, using the modes of thought characteristic of the major areas of knowledge, a knowledge of our basic cultural heritage, and a thorough understanding of at least one subject area (Cronon, W., 1998). My interpretation of this would be agreeing on the importance/competency of communication, but emphasizing the knowledge of culture as it applies from a global perspective, critical thinking as it should be applied and accentuating the understanding of at least one subject area. After reading the article, my understanding of the meaning of a liberal arts education, is heightened by the learning outcomes and prominence of the breadth areas as they are applied to my knowledge and life
The Purpose of a Christian Liberal Art Education As I was reading the article I found all the topics to be very important in life. I feel all the topics in the article are a great resource to know that we use all these in everyday life and how the topics show that Liberal Arts Education is important to my future. The most important topic I found was that a liberal arts education enhances wisdom and faith. The reason I found this important is because wisdom and faith are very important in life because both topics contribute to knowledge and happiness. Wisdom helps a person by helping that person gain knowledge about every aspect of life and to get an understanding of life.
With the year-round pressure pertaining to college applications on high school seniors follows the impending decision of choosing an appropriate college major. Generally, the decision-making process involves prioritizing one field of interest over another, however, due to globalization and constant innovation in technology determining a college major has increasingly become the modern day equivalent of the metaphorical line between life and death. Even so, the obvious choice would be the prestigious STEM fields over liberal arts due to the instant job opportunities which are seemingly ludicrous to a recent graduate. Nevertheless, liberal arts education should be encouraged to be pursued at higher education institutions in USA because it helps
I have always been someone how if I believe in something or believe I can do something I will do. Reading these articles, it showed be that I can do it no matter how hard it gets. I’m choosing the Career Project to connect to the three articles because the Career Project has showed be a lot of what I will have to do to achieve by goal of the career I want. With William Cronon’s Only Connect article about freedom to choice was you want in your education. Is a big part that is involved in the Career Project because I am given information that I will need to do to get the education I need to get the career I want.
First let me define what I think a liberally educated person is. In theory, a liberally educated person is someone who has received a well-rounded education, but I consider it to be more defined than that. I believe a liberally educated person is simply someone who is constantly using their skills to improve themselves and their communities. In order to do this, you need to have some sort of education. When you want to become a better writer, you study great writers, when you want to become a better artist, you study great artist, and so if you want to become a better person, a liberally educated person, you study great heroes, superheroes.