The Idea of a Christian College

Arthur Holmes

Chapter 3: Liberal Arts: What and

Why?

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The wrong question

What do philosophy, history, art, and literature (e.g., liberal arts) have to do with real life?

What can I do with it?

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The right question

What will philosophy, history, art, and literature (e.g., liberal arts) do to me?

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The goal of education

Prepare us for a job? No.Vocational training = job preparationFalls into the productivity principle

trap (the idea that worth is measured by productivity)

Prepare us to adapt, think, and be creative? YES!

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What is a liberal arts education today? “A broad, general education that

ranges across the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities” (p. 26)

The liberal arts are the arts “appropriate to persons as persons, rather than to the specific function of a worker or a professional or even a scholar” (p. 27)

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John Henry Newman’s distinction

19th c.: The Idea of a University

The liberal arts versus useful arts Intrinsic versus instrumental value

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What is a person and how should that shape education? 1. A reflective, thinking being2. A valuing being3. A responsible agent

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What is a person and how should that shape education? 1. A reflective, thinking being

Goal: “ignite our native inquisitiveness” (p. 30)

Implications:1. interdisciplinary approaches are vital2. theoretical questions are necessary3. worldviews must be examined and

shaped

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Bertrand Russell on Education

2 purposes of education1. form the mind2. Train the citizen

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What is a person and how should that shape education? 2. A valuing being who judges &

actsGoal: “teach values as well as facts”

(p. 32)Implications:

1. expose students to ethics, social problems, aesthetics, and other areas of value

2. expose students to the logical structure of value judgments

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What is a person and how should that shape education? 3. A responsible agent

Goal: prepare students to be responsible stewards in all of life (p. 32)

Implications:1. provide a critical evaluation of the

past2. prepare for creative participation in

the future

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What about the physical self?

Evaluate this statement:“excessive emphasis on athletics without literature or philosophy produces a pretty uncivilized type with no use for reasoned conviction, whose life is one of clumsy ignorance unrelieved by grace or beauty; whereas a purely academic life without athletic training leaves one with little backbone” (p. 34, summary of Plato)

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What about the social self?

The liberal arts education should include the following:Self-understandingUnderstanding of other peopleUnderstanding of social institutions

and processes

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What about specialists?

Evaluate this statement:

“The liberal arts college has no business producing narrow specialists who see no further than their laboratory, have no larger sense of responsibility, and little understanding of science as an essentially human cultural undertaking” (p. 35)

Chapter 4: Liberal Arts as

Career Preparation

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What students don’t know when they enter college . . . Most students don’t yet know . . .

themselves their abilities Their options

⅔ of students change their career plans during college

Most college graduates change jobs at least 1 in the first 5 years after college

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Liberal arts = career preparation

Career mobility is the norm today Vocational training that focuses on

particular job information and skills will likely be soon outmoded

Liberal arts offers Larger understandingsMore transferable skillsRicher personal qualitiesLasting values

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The Benefits of a Liberal Arts education Attitude toward work

Not Greek aristocratic, anti-work attitude Work is part of stewardship in service to others

Breadth of education A well-rounded background

Cognitive and communication skills The ability to think and communicate

Imagination Fresh insights and new ways of looking at things

Value development Firm values; a reformer’s approach to life

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Specialization vs liberalization

Albert Speer, Hitler’s minister of munitions: It is only in the study of history,

philosophy, and the like that “fundamental questions are asked—what is a person, what is a good society, what are the proper ends of civilization, and so on” (p. 40)

Germany education was specialization (= knowledge without adequate foundations)

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Career preparation = life preparation “The same understandings, skills, and

values that constitute good career preparation make good life preparation as well” (p. 41)FamilyLifeFriendshipsCommunity serviceChurch involvementThe use of leisure

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But what about vocation?

1. vocational courses should be minimized rather than emphasized

2. most college grads will need additional training for jobs in our highly specialized and technological society

3. undergrad colleges can build bridges to occupations within liberal arts courses

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Wrap up:

How is liberal education good career preparation?

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Coming up . . .

October 18: Holmes, Chapters 5,7,9On the horizon:

1. Exam 2 on 10/252. PLP due 11/1