Brandon Colcord

Professor Frank

English 110

November 7th, 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..” (Scheuer 5). He is telling us as students, the benefits of a liberal arts education, all of which you can use after graduation. Some may say, “it’s still not worth the money” but to me having benefits outside the classroom is great. Scheuer also says “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). Telling us that not only does a Liberal arts education provide us with knowledge for good jobs, but it makes us better citizens in general. Which to me sounds like in the long run all the money spent in order to pursue this kind of education would be worth it.  

Some people may think that a liberal arts education is in fact too expensive, and that it doesn’t make sense to spend money on something so uncertain. In fact, I personally skipped college right after highschool because I was thinking the same thing everyone else was, so I decided to join the workforce. Yes, I can say there were some financial benefits for avoiding the student loans right out of highschool, but I would argue that it wasn’t really a benefit at all when I could’ve been using my time more wisely. So far though, as I begin my freshman year of college trying to receive my own liberal arts degree, it has given me both more flexibility in the workforce, and more opportunities, like entrepreneurship, none of which would be possible without spending money advancing my education. 

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” (Scheuer 6). He is saying that all knowledge is important, but the liberal arts is worth chasing above all others because it is proven just by looking at how other cultures are trying to pursue it. Some people may think they won’t get a good job if they strictly focus on liberal arts. This isn’t true, which is shown when Scheuer says “ We need skilled thinkers, problem solvers, team workers, and communicators, and not just in the business, scientific, and technology sectors” (Scheuer, 6). Society actually requires people to have these basic skills, which are easily learned through a liberal education.

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.