Pertaining to persons of superior social station...who so is vertuous [sic]...gentle, curteous [sic]...a soft meeke [sic] patient, humble tranquill [sic] spirit (318B)." I am the only daughter of four who chose an education in liberal arts rather than communication or business. I am also the least favorite daughter. You should note in the picture below that I am not in it. Those are my other three sisters and my mother...Ouch
But, from the reading I have built a strong case against the favoritism of my parents after reading these articles. They think that because I am not in business or some type of media major that I am wasting my time. Little do they know that I will graduate with a general knowledge of EVERYTHING. Science-check, government/economics- check, arts/humanities-check, business-check, readin'/writin'/'rithmetic-check. Newman says that "Liberal- freedom from narrowness of mind...all branched of knowledge are connected together; therefore, to give undue prominence to one is to be unjust to another." (319).
The COLA at UT does exactly that. They make sure that they seven parts of a liberal education are fully covered. While I may complain that I hate the 18 hours of natural science, or 16 hours of Italian, I have noticed an increasing curiosity for everything. I like how JP included Goldberg's statement about curiosity--that curiosity enables us to access for information and different ways of doing things, and when Goldberg says "The greatest value of an education is a strong sense of curiosity" (326) I couldn't agree more. Curiosity didn't kill the cat, mediocrity did.
Or I killed the cat...?
I've noticed in many previous posts that people mention how the liberal education is one that is deemed less worthy or important than say engineering or business, but we are the people who put those two areas together. People with liberal educations are the ones who will be the top dogs--others will be servile to us. "Following completion of their undergraduate studies at liberal arts colleges, graduates often do obtain specialized training..." (318d). We aren't done learning ever. If liberal arts is "appropriate for the free man" and "contrasted with the servile arts" (318d), then aren't we, the liberal arts students, the ones who will eventually top all of the brown-nosing b-school kids? YES.
One thing I love about the liberal education is that it forces you to socialize. While you are great as one, you are much greater as many. In his Yale freshman address, Giamatti says, “So a process moves an individual to membership in a community; so a though, begun in the seminary of a single mind, participates in the construction of a citadel of living ideas…we make a city out of green thoughts…of ideals tempered by application, a civilized life not alone but in concert.” (321). I think that quote could be the motto of this class… “A civilized life not alone but in concert.” For some reason I really love that quote. Liberal arts forces you to work together in groups and learn to work with others while still maintaining your ideas and opinions. This class also seems to live out what is stated in the Daily Report from The Chronicle of Higher Education. “More and more of the goals of liberal education, such as analytical thinking and communication skills, require technological proficiency,” (328).
“All knowledge of the inner nature and feelings of others must come through the imagination” (339b). This quote is also one of my favorites because it is so true. We have no idea how other people are feeling, so we must imagine what it is like to be them in a certain situation. “Though our brother is upon the rack, as long as we ourselves are at our ease, our senses will never inform us of what he suffers,” (339c). I hate to be cliché, but its like for Christians, we can never know how Christ felt nailed to the cross, but we are supposed to live every day like it was us up there and live in his image. Though hard to do, putting yourself in others shoes (even though they might not be the designer ones you wanted) is most important. What I took from the “Sympathetic Imagination” article was that in order to truly understand something or someone you have to be fully committed to your imagination and immerse yourself in their world.
So, mom and dad, love me. (I'm totally kidding they love me...sort of...who wouldn't love this?)
Yes, sometimes I sit for hours playing with the iPhoto photobooth. It's both entertaining and socially satisfying.
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