Schlag, James. (2009). General and Liberal Education

The American author Sherwood Anderson once said, "The whole object of education is...to develop the mind. The mind should be a thing that works.” The purpose of an education is to strengthen minds for the future and to prepare them for any plans they might make in the realm of a career. This educational responsibility lies not only within individuals themselves, but with their schools or universities as well. Students must possess the drive to learn more, while the university must provide the impetus to challenge them and shape their ever-growing minds. Universities cannot expect this impetus to come from general education alone. Universities should seek to challenge their students with a combined general-liberal system.

General education is a form of learning that exposes students to fundamental ideas. With a general education, students are only prepared for basic understanding of the fundamentals in their classes. Naturally, everything must be brought down to basics in order to fully understand and comprehend advanced concepts; long-division cannot be performed without an understanding of basic division, nor an intelligent essay composed without a general understanding of its form. However, only through in-depth discussions and promotion of critical thinking can a greater understanding be attained. What do students know when they work a certain mathematical problem yet never learn how it can be applied outside their studies? Or what about students who are versed in the form of essays but never instructed in regards to their substance? Students can only learn so much from basic instruction. They require additional instruction to learn the priceless skills of analysis, evaluation, and persuasion necessary for advanced situations in their fields of study. Basic information is definitely required for a full understanding, but it is a broad comprehension that enables a student to achieve the most useful form of education.

According to W. Robert Connor in his article “College Makeover: Give Majors an Overhaul”, liberal education is composed of “crafts, skills, cognitive capacities…[that] have included forms of quantitative reasoning, systematic ways of thinking about truth and values, and the means to express ideas clearly and persuasively.” It is based on the medieval concept of the liberal arts and was greatly promoted during the Enlightenment. Liberal education was meant to take education a step further past general education, teaching students analytical and persuasive skills that are quite practical in most careers. That being said, liberal education allows students to become more involved in their subjects. The skills they would take from a course crucial to their major could also be applied to other classes, helping them to receive an even broader comprehension than is “required” for their future. Students involved in the analytical dissection of poetry can then apply this analysis to their scientific studies, enabling them to work out the reasoning behind a theory. Liberal education can be very influential to a student’s overall educational experiences, yet it cannot provide a total education.

The best approach would be to combine general education with liberal concepts into one: a more comprehensive education in the basics. This approach would require faculty to become more involved in their classes. They would need to poke and prod at their pupils, challenging them in such a way as to help them acquire understanding and leave them with something more valuable than merely basic skills. These broad introductory courses will facilitate student understanding in the more advanced courses that are present both in undergraduate and graduate curricula. In the long-run, a more liberal approach will provide more lasting benefits than ever could be accomplished with general basics. Thought-inducing skills provide students with attributes that will surely allow them to progress to their fullest potential in their not-so-distant futures.

A general education influenced by liberal thinking can only provide even more benefits to university students. Thought-provoking classes that actually examine concepts thoroughly would challenge students in ways that general education could not. Students have only to gain from such classes. Analytical, persuasive, and comprehensive skills can be used throughout an individual’s life, both in future study and future careers. Such skills are everlasting and only serve to benefit the individual in such ways as to expand their mind and make it “work”, as Sherwood Anderson said. Liberal education can only help to nurture the already eager minds that are willing to expand and grow.