Brandon Colcord
Professor Frank
English 110
October 17th, 2021
So What And Who Cares About Liberal Arts?
Money spent towards a Liberal Arts education is never a waste and will benefit you in every sense. In the article “7 Major Misconceptions About The Liberal Arts” by Sandford J. Ungar, who happens to be a liberal arts college president, Ungar explains all the misperceptions people have towards a liberal arts education. He helps students like me understand that although it costs money just like literally everything in the world, it will produce benefits that go way beyond just the education in itself. Another article by Jeffrey Scheuer, an author of two liberal arts and critical thinking books, “Critical Thinking And The Liberal Arts’ ‘ explains how a liberal arts education, although difficult to pursue, it’s worth every bit of struggle due to the countless benefits, like expanding one’s mind and outlook on life. It is in my belief that any knowledge is beneficial. Usually, people don’t want to receive a liberal education because of the amount of money it costs, yet money comes and goes, and everything costs money so why not get benefits from something you buy for once?
A Liberal Arts education benefits you beyond the classroom. This is proven when Scheuer states “The assimilation of facts, ideas, and conceptual frameworks, and the development of critical minds, are equal parts of a liberal education. Or almost equal: at least outside the hard sciences, the intellectual tools and standards of rigor may have more lasting value than accrued factual knowledge. Precisely because they transcend the knowledge bases of the various disciplines, critical-thinking skills enable students to become lifelong learners and engaged citizens—in all three senses of citizenship—and to adapt to change and to multiple career paths. Thus, as William Deresiewicz observes, “The first thing that college is for is to teach you to think.” (Scheuer 5). I’m with Scheuer on this because he is pretty much saying a liberal arts education is worth pursuing because unlike stem classes, the knowledge learned in liberal arts is “lifelong” knowledge that will be useful even after college. He is also going on about how it’ll make you a great citizen\productive societal member.
A student should mainly focus on a Liberal Arts education above all other priorities. This becomes obvious after Scheuer tells us “The STEM disciplines are obviously important to economic productivity, but so is the entire rainbow of human knowledge and the ability to think critically. That’s why nations around the world are beginning to embrace the liberal arts idea that American education has done so much to promote, even as we question it. We need skilled thinkers, problem solvers, team workers, and communicators, and not just in the business, scientific, and technology sectors. The liberal arts embody precisely the skills a democracy must cultivate to maintain its vital reservoir of active, thoughtful, humane, and productive citizens” (Scheuer 6). Scheuer is explaining that he isn’t trying to completely tell us STEM knowledge is useless or not worth pursuing, it is just as important as any knowledge given to someone. He is just trying to say it would be a better use of your time if you focused on liberal arts considering the benefits afterwards. Also explaining how everyone is useful along with all knowledge, yet you could always become a better citizen by taking the time to embrace a more open education. This leaves me to believe STEM knowledge is incorporated within a liberal arts education which makes it worth pursuing above all other priorities.
There are a lot of misperceptions about receiving a liberal arts education, but that’s all they are, not facts. Reading Ungar’s piece about the misperception “that no one wants to hire a college student with a useless degree” makes it so college students with liberal arts degrees have difficulty finding a job. Ungar states “Yes, recent graduates have had difficulty in the job market, but the recession has not differentiated among major fields of study in its impact” (Ungar 2). He is trying to explain how finding a job is hard for everyone at the time and the degree you held made no difference in that matter. In fact, Ungar talks about how the job market was actually looking for personnel with a liberal arts education due to the abilities these students would hold among others. Which makes me curious myself if my liberal arts degree that I’m currently pursuing will do the same by the time I graduate in 2025, because this took place back in 2009.
In Conclusion, I believe both authors got their points across and got students thinking about how they want to go about receiving their higher education. Personally, I believe that was their true purpose behind their articles, to give students an outside look on what is being conducted within their schools. I agree with the fact that a liberal arts education is worth pursuing because of the countless benefits outweighing the cost. It’s up to you to decide for yourself if you want to work the same dead end job or do you want something that makes you think outside the box and pursue a job that actually interests you. This is why a liberal arts education is inexpensive in my eyes, because it opens the door for endless opportunities.
Work Cited
Scheuer, Jeffrey. “Critical Thinking And The Liberal Arts” American Association of University Professors, November-December, 2015, No Pg.
Ungar, Sanford. “7 Major Misperceptions About The Liberal Arts” The Chronicle Of A Higher Education, February 28th, 2010, Pg. 6.
