Gabby Leahy

Professor Cripps

English 110 B

14 October 2019

The Liberal Arts

     Liberal Arts. Although there is a variety of definitions to explain this area of education, in very general terms it can be defined as an “academic course of instruction at a college intended to provide general knowledge and comprising the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, as opposed to professional or technical subjects.”  The idea of the Liberal Arts has become a very controversial topic throughout the system of education. Some argue that it is warned to have a great decline in the school system while others believe that it is still so important throughout the curriculum of many educations.  Jeffrey Scheuer (author of “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts”) and Sanford Ungar (“7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts”) both wrote articles to spark their own debate about the liberal arts and where this education stands for today’s students . Ungar focuses on talking about the benefits and misperceptions of students receiving a liberal arts education. He also touches upon how some people believe that the current education system isn’t the best financial choice to receive a liberal arts degree and how quite frankly it can be a waste of time.  Meanwhile, Scheuer emphasizes how liberal arts promote critical thinking and that both are essential to humanity and the current education system.  Personally, I believe that the liberal arts is a key component of today’s education and it should still be present throughout the curriculum. It helps you to diversify your skill set, build your personal brand, and use skills such as critical thinking to “think outside the box.” The job market is changing quickly and the skills that will be in demand the most in the future is where the liberal arts major will excel because of their ability to communicate and story tell.

    So why are so many people increasingly bothered by the concept of liberal arts? And why is the selection of a major within the liberal arts becoming “frowned upon” and seen as a waste of time? Just like a tweet, a post on Instagram, the front page of a magazine, or anything else that is popular, once something such as the liberal arts has been discredited whether that be in an accurate or inaccurate manner,  the aftermath of this inevitably begins to spread. As more information that is not always factual is being spread throughout the education system and community, many liberal arts colleges have begun to take the fall and backlash from those receiving or contributing to the false evidence. In efforts to rid the negative views of the Liberal Arts, Ungar produced the article “7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts” which gives readers multiple examples of common misunderstandings or “misperceptions” about liberal arts and then backs up the statements he is making about why these misperceptions are in fact false.  In my opinion, Ungar’s article can help those who don’t understand what the liberal arts are and broaden the mindset those who may be against having it as part of the core curriculum.

    In Jeffrey Scheuer’s article “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts”, he promotes the notion that the liberal arts education also promotes civic citizenship, economic citizenship, and cultural citizenship. These 3 ideas include but are not limited to things such as voting, volunteering, collaborating, helping others, campus activities, and cultural events. Although we need professions such as doctors, engineers, and managers it is also important that we obtain skills that help us be active, thoughtful, humane, and productive citizens in our society.  Further in his article, Scheuer compares the idea of liberal arts to citizenship in that both are complex and key to an education. He states that while education is important, it again is equally important to have people being active and productive members in their society and culture. Like Ungar, he dives into critical thinking and defines it as a “set of mental practices that makes thinking truly public and accessible.”  Scheuer can be seen arguing that improving one’s learning and communication skills through critical thinking will also aid in someone’s success in being a team player and citizen. He adds that critical thinking involves critical inquiry which is an even bigger process of higher learning. Scheuer ends his article by stating that the world is beginning to recognize the vitality of the liberal arts and the ability to think critically and  it is his hope that people will continue to do so to maintain a population of active and productive citizens.  I agree with Scheuer’s argument, and I think that more students should consider incorporating liberal arts into their STEM career. Many people don’t realize that STEM and the Liberal Arts can work together in perfect harmony and that this would allow for more critical thinking and creativity by using both in the core curriculum. 

    Both Scheuer and Ungar can viewed to be argumentative as to how the Liberal Arts is defined. Starting off with Ungar he takes the idea that the liberal arts is politically oriented and begins to explain that the entire system is so much more complex than it seems to be and has nothing to do with politics whatsoever. “It promotes the idea of listening to all points of view and not relying on a single ideology, and examining all approaches to solving a problem rather than assuming that one technique or perspective has all the answers,”  (Ungar, Paragraph 14) it may be “described as a conservative approach to preparation for life.”. Similarly, in his article, Scheuer confronts the misconception that the liberal arts are dead or dying and explores its history. He explains that the conceptions and diversity of liberal arts form a complex yet flexible system that evolves and adapts to people and the times. He finds the idea of the Liberal Arts to be “grasping the different forms and divisions of knowledge and how they are acquired (but the forms of knowledge and ways of acquiring them evolve); seeing distinctions and connections beyond the obvious… In the end, critical inquiry is not a map or a list of firm rules but a set of navigational skills.” The statements given by both authors shows that the idea of the liberal arts can be described and used in many different aspects and it is not a single idea set into stone. While some may argue that this is in fact encompassing ideas that go along with politics, I agree with Ungar and Scheuer that it is more about being able to think critically and have multiple viewpoints for one idea.

     The “Core Handbook”, even though it gives more of a solid definition than an actual explanation introduces the CAS core values as well as the general curriculum required of all students in the college. Scheuer, Ungar, and the Handbook fall hand in hand and combined they open up an idea to make sense of the liberal arts. Before reading these articles and after my argument that the Liberal Arts are an extremely important part of today’s higher education remains the same. However, not everyone holds the same view.  The views of the liberal arts that our society currently has outside of mine can pretty negative. As I stated previously, most people believe or are convinced to believe that we should follow the STEM route without realizing that these two can work in perfect harmony and there is space for them to do that. I agree with Ungar and Scheuer more than the handbook because they go more into depth about what the Liberal Arts truly means. I think that the Core Handbook has a good basic definition on what the Liberal Arts but it could be revised to be better and eventually be emphasized throughout the curriculum because it is key to the current education and future of today’s students.

Work Cited

Scheuer, Jeffrey. “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts.” AAUP, Nov. 2015, www.aaup.org/article/critical-thinking-and-liberal-arts#.XbJYEm5FxYc.Ungar, Sanford J. “7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts.” Chronicle.com, 28 Feb. 2010, www.chronicle.com/article/7-Major-Misperceptions-About/64363.