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what is the purpose of a liberal education

by Nikolas Koch Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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A liberal arts education offers an expansive intellectual grounding in all kinds of humanistic inquiry. By exploring issues, ideas and methods across the humanities and the arts, and the natural and social sciences, you will learn to read critically, write cogently and think broadly.

Full Answer

What is the point of liberal education?

A liberal arts education builds students into freethinkers, open communicators, knowledgeable citizens, and respectable individuals. Many liberal arts colleges are focused on creating critical, creative thinkers that transform into citizens devoted to service, education, and acceptance of others.

What is the purpose of liberal?

Liberals have advocated gender and racial equality in their drive to promote civil rights and a global civil rights movement in the 20th century achieved several objectives towards both goals. Other goals often accepted by liberals include universal suffrage and universal access to education.

What are some examples of liberalism?

The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the separation of church and state, the right to due process and equality under the law are widely accepted as a common foundation of liberalism.

What is the meaning of liberal in history?

Liberalism, the belief in freedom, equality, democracy and human rights, is historically associated with thinkers such as John Locke and Montesquieu, and with constitutionally limiting the power of the monarch, affirming parliamentary supremacy, passing the Bill of Rights and establishing the principle of "consent of ...

What do Liberal Democrats stand for?

The Liberal Democrats have an ideology that draws on both the liberal and social democratic traditions. The party is primarily social liberal, supporting redistribution but sceptical of increasing the power of the state, emphasising the link between equality and liberty.

What is the meaning liberal democracy?

Liberal democracy emphasizes the separation of powers, an independent judiciary and a system of checks and balances between branches of government. Multi-party systems with at least two persistent, viable political parties are characteristic of liberal democracies.

What were liberals political and social views?

Explanation: Liberals was a group of people qho wanted a nation which tolerated all religions. They opposed the uncontrolled power of dynastic rulers. They wanted to safeguard the rights of individuals against government.

What did liberal nationalism stand for?

Civic nationalism, also known as liberal nationalism, is a form of nationalism identified by political philosophers who believe in an inclusive form of nationalism that adheres to traditional liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, individual rights and has no ethnocentrism.

What is liberal education?

The term liberal education describes a set of outcomes from college learning, no matter what the major course of study, and as AAC+U says , “general education is that part of a liberal education which provides a broad exposure to disciplines shared by all students, no matter what their major.”

What are the goals of global education?

The objectives for global education were well expressed by the Atlantic Council in 1989: 1 To provide students with a sense of time and place 2 To challenge students to appreciate the complexity of issues and interests that bear on relations among nations, regions, and power groups 3 To prepare students to take account of the new and changing phenomena that affect international relations 4 To encourage critical thinking and inquiry about contending concepts and theories of international relations 5 To “de-parochialize” students’ perspectives on international affairs 6 To heighten understanding that international relations are not static, but subject to constant change 1

What do undergraduates learn in college?

In addition to majoring in a subject, and in order to fulfill the purpose of a university education, undergraduate students must learn about and consider the natural world of air, water, and soil we meet upon birth; the world we make, including literature, history, business, architecture, and manufacturing; and the means by which we mediate between the world we meet and the world we make, including philosophy, ethics, religion, psychology, and stories of compassion. This is advanced education, a liberating education, a transformational experience of questions, not training focused on answers. This is the foundation of general education because, as James Baldwin said, we must find the questions hidden by answers.

What is a civic degree?

This is a program for citizenship, a civic degree. It is liberal in its form of inquiry; it honors no revealed truth but intellectual growth. This curriculum is a preparation for living, for wondering why and reflecting on meaning. It purports not just to teach one how to earn a living, but how to live. It offers instruction and experience in both technique and vision.

How can we reduce the effect of departmental and school silos?

By organizing the curriculum in this way, we can reduce the effect of departmental and school silos, and encourage cross-disciplinary study, critical thinking and analysis, and a focus on writing. By the way, one of the complaints I hear from faculty is that they are not prepared to teach writing. To that I say, “don’t”. Teach thinking and then assess the ability of students to express their thoughts with clarity, comprehensiveness, persuasiveness, and logic. Doing this, focusing on thinking and the written and oral expression of thinking, will assist students in becoming better writers.

How many years of college should I go to for general education?

There have been many attempts to define the optimal freshman year and four-year General Education program. After years of experience and consideration, I have formulated my ideal approach. It would consist of three clusters of topics to be addressed in the first year of college study and then extended over the four years as part of the General Education curriculum.

Why is history important?

Therefore, history is an essential subject if we are to know about the past and the foundations of the present, and to understand the different ways people “know” the truth, whether by evidence, by epiphany, by emotion, and how they challenge assumptions and validate assertions.

How can liberal education help us?

In ways large and small, liberal education prepares us to make the world better, whether we do that from selfish or egotistical or humanitarian motivations. Whether Marie Curie sought to aid humanity by identifying radium or simply to discover, whether Brahmagupta sought to change the world by creating zero as a number or simply to create mathematical order, is immaterial to the value of their contributions. We need problem solvers, people who think creatively and boldly, people from all walks who can wrestle with the question of how to combat terrorism, eradicate disease, reduce poverty. Some of them will be architects or doctors or engineers, but some of them will be linguists or philosophers or scientists. For we cannot teach people to keep their children healthy just by treating the diseases as they present, we cannot teach people to protect the environment just by building green buildings, and we cannot combat radical terrorist organizations just by eliminating their leaders.

Why is liberal education outdated?

On the one hand, therefore, liberal education seems outdated because it is primarily about thinking rather than doing, and does not provide the clear, job-ready training that, for example, nursing and engineering do. On the other hand, it inculcates precisely the broad habits such as critical thinking, effective written and oral communication, ...

What did the founding fathers believe about education?

They believed that an informed and knowledgeable population was the surest protection against despotism and anarchy.

What is empowerment in college?

Empowerment is an overused word, and one that seems to have little value when thinking about the future a 22-year-old faces when he or she graduates from college.

What was Jefferson's vision for education?

The most important value of education, for our Founding Fathers, was that it ensured the development of good citizens who could contribute to society and care for their country.

Can liberal arts get you a job?

Job training can get you a job. The liberal arts can ensure you make the most of it. Demand both from education. About the author: Andrea Talentino, PhD, is a political scientist and dean of NU's College of Liberal Arts. She was educated at Yale, UCLA, and Princeton. Prev.

Who was the first person to advocate for public education?

Thomas Jefferson, one of the most active proponents, advocated for an early system of public education by introducing a bill for the “More General Diffusion of Knowledge” to the Virginia Legislature in 1779. Although that bill was never passed, Jefferson’s vision led to the founding, in 1825, of the University of Virginia.

What is liberal education?

A liberal education provides students with a broad set of capabilities such as critical thinking, effective communication, quantitative reasoning, creative thinking, problem-solving, integrative thinking, and personal and social responsibility. While not monetarily quantifiable at graduation, there is no question of the value ...

What is the role of arts and sciences in education?

An education in the arts and sciences plays a powerful part in the shaping of human capabilities and the unfolding of human possibilities. Recent effort to evaluate student learning in higher education has focused attention on what are typically called student “learning outcomes.”.

Is higher education a problem?

As a marketing consultant might say, higher education has a problem with its value proposition. With tuitions soaring at many state institutions and at painfully high levels in private ones, the public at large and many government officials want to know the value of education, especially in preparing people for jobs.

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1.What is the Purpose of a Liberal Arts Education? | Lyon …

Url:https://www.lyon.edu/what-is-the-purpose-of-a-liberal-arts-education

19 hours ago A liberal arts education exposes you to the arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, and natural sciences. It teaches you how to learn, and how to evaluate arguments and …

2.What Is Liberal Education? | AAC&U

Url:https://www.aacu.org/trending-topics/what-is-liberal-education

17 hours ago Liberal education is an approach to undergraduate education that promotes integration of learning across the curriculum and cocurriculum, and between academic and experiential …

3.The Meaning of Liberal Education - Adelphi University

Url:https://www.adelphi.edu/news/the-meaning-of-liberal-education/

36 hours ago  · A Liberating Education. For liberal education is intended to encourage free inquiry about life and meaning through a variety of lenses, not expertise in a discipline as a first step. …

4.Essay: The Value of a Liberal Education - Norwich University

Url:https://www.norwich.edu/news/news-feed/236-essay-the-value-of-a-liberal-education

30 hours ago  · The purpose of liberal education is to produce the good man and the good citizen. The good man here means the man of good taste and good feeling, an interesting and …

5.Liberal Arts Education: What It Is and Why It Matters

Url:https://www.carleton.edu/provost/ai-seminars/liberal-arts/

20 hours ago  · The purpose of a liberal education is thus twofold—to nurture personal freedom by inspiring and challenging intellectual thought, and to nurture our community, local and …

6.What Is the Value of Liberal Education? | HuffPost College

Url:https://www.huffpost.com/entry/liberal-education_b_2083994

2 hours ago As a first statement of the matter, it can be said that the purpose of liberal education is to produce gentlemen and gentlewomen. The questionableness of this purpose comes into view …

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