What is a Liberal Arts Education?Taken From:

www.lycoming.edu/careerservicewww.aacu.org/leap

Liberal Arts presentation by Robert Johnson, FC College, August 2007

What is “liberal” About the Liberal Arts?

“Liberal” comes from the Latin root “liber” which means “free.” The “Liberal” Arts are those Arts which are appropriate for Free people.

What do “free people” do with their minds?

• Realize that knowledge is power• Crave learning• Quest for truth• Accept no limitations on what they

may think• Seek out new perspectives• Scrutinize conventional wisdom• Dare to know

. . . the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach [people] how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.

---Dorothy Sayers in “The Lost Tools of Learning”

What is a Liberal Arts Education?

A Liberal Arts Education stresses the importance of acquiring the critical transferable skills of research and analysis, as a prerequisite to the acquisition of factual information.

The goal is to create individuals who are prepared to grow, change and progress throughout their lives by using skills learned in their Liberal Arts education experience.

These persons, then, are never at the mercy of the times, or trapped by the age of their training, since their skill is in the renewal, not just the retrieval, of knowledge.

What is a Liberal Arts Education?

A Liberal Arts Education:• empower individuals,• liberates the mind from ignorance, and • cultivates social responsibility

A Liberal Arts Education is characterized by:• challenging encounters with important issues,

and• more a way of studying than a specific course or

field of study Adapted from a statement by

The American Association of Colleges and Universities

A Liberal Arts Education Is Supposed To Teach You

Something about Everything, and Everything about Something.

Dr. Donald Knuth, Professor Emeritus of the Art

of Computer Programming, Stanford University

A Liberal Arts Education is the BEST

preparation for a career / life path

The Changing Workforce

• 28 million new jobs by 2020

• A great majority of jobs require a Bachelors Degree or Higher

• All but a few of the highest paid jobs require a Bachelors Degree

• 5 of 6 job categories with largest growth require a Bachelors Degree or higher

• The new economy has dramatically changed the ground rules of business and industry

• The workforce has become global

The Changing Workforce

Why A Liberal Arts Education Works

An education in the Liberal Arts provides professionals with the skills needed to successfully negotiate within rapidly changing business and economic realities.

Diversification of Workforce

• Work population is getting old

• Employees 50+ years old make up 55% of workforce

• Minorities make up 15% of workforce

• Women make up 18%

Diversification of Workforce

Why A Liberal Arts Education Works

Supervisors must have a strong understanding of people who are unlike themselves. They must have strong communication, teamwork, and leadership skills to motivate a diverse workforce to produce.

Job/Career Movement

• Change jobs every 2 - 5 Years

• 3 - 5 career changes

• 40% of workforce returning for additional education

• 18 year olds cannot accurately predict their long range career direction

Job/Career Movement

Why A Liberal Arts Education Works

• A broad based education provides a better foundation for a lifetime of employment changes

• Liberal Arts education does not require a concrete connection to employment by the age of 18

• A liberal Arts background is best preparation for life-long learning

What Employers Want

1. Communication Skills (Written and Verbal)

2. Honesty/Integrity

3. Interpersonal Skills

4. Motivation/Initiative

5. Strong Work Ethic

6. Teamwork Skills

7. Analytical Skills

8. Flexibility/Adaptability

9. Computer Skills (MS Office, Email, Net)

10. Detail-oriented

What Employers Want

Why A Liberal Arts Education Works

• Employers are looking for skills that are at the very core of a Liberal Arts education

• Employers want leaders who can think critically and possess the ability to respond and adapt in a rapidly changing work environment

The Essential Learning Outcomes of a Liberal Arts Education

• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World– Through study in the sciences and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the artsFocused by engagement with big questions, both contemporary and enduring

• Intellectual and Practical Skills, including– Inquiry and analysis– Critical and creative thinking– Written and oral communication– Quantitative literacy– Information literacy– Teamwork and problem solvingPracticed extensively, across the curriculum, in the context of progressively more challenging problems, projects, and standards for performance

• Personal and Social Responsibility, including– Civic knowledge and engagement ---- local and global– Intercultural knowledge and competence– Ethical reasoning and action– Foundations and skills for lifelong learningAnchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real world challenges

• Integrative Learning, including– Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general and specialized areasDemonstrated through the application of knowledge, skills, and responsibilities to new settings and complex problems

The Essential Learning Outcomes of a Liberal Arts Education

We can ---- and should ---- provide all students with

the decisive advantage of a Liberal Arts education ----

not just some of them.

“The Liberal Arts represents the best kind of education for meeting the

complex demands of the 21st century.”

Dr. Richard HirschPast President, Hobart and William Smith CollegesOver 25 Years Experience in Educational Research

A very brief History of the Liberal Arts

THE SPIRIT OF THE LIBERAL ARTS IN ANCIENT GREECE

“PAIDEIA” (FROM “PAIDEION” MEANING CHILD) WAS THE GREEK IDEAL OF PASSING THE CULTURE, AND THE VIRTUOUS HABITS THAT PERPETUATED IT, TO THE YOUNG,

FREE CITIZEN

THE TRADITION CONTINUES

THE IDEA OF HABITS, AND NOT KNOWLEDGE FORMING CHARACTER INFORMED THE MEDIEVEL NOTION OF THE “ARTES LIBERALIS” WHICH

ENABLED THE STUDENT TO UNDERSTAND AND ANALYZE THE WORLD, NOT JUST EXPAIN IT WITH

AVAILABLE IDEAS

Grammar Rhetoric Music Astronomy Logic Mathematics Geometry

THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS

TRIVIUMGRAMMAR, LOGIC, AND RHETORIC

QUADRIVIUMMATHEMATICS, GEOMETRY, MUSIC AND ASTRONOMY

TRIVIUMGRAMMAR, LOGIC, AND RHETORIC

The Trivium (or, the three roads in Latin) was regarded as the basis for educating the free person, because these three disciples enabled a person to comprehend, analyze, formulate and communicate ideas. These form the basis for a Liberal Arts education.

The Purpose of the Trivium. . . modern education concentrates on “teaching subjects,” leaving the method of thinking, arguing, and expressing one’s conclusions to be picked up by the scholar as he goes along; mediaeval education concentrated on first forging and learning to handle the tools of learning . . . --- Dorothy Sayers

• On language: To be able to read and write well is the first tool of knowledge. We need to give our students this first liberal art. Let us be clear: The [person] who has not mastered [the art of clear written expression] cannot claim to be educated. --- Herve de la Tour

• On Logic: The students must know the basic rules of logic. They should be able, when reading a text, to disengage the essential from the accidental, to see what the author is trying to prove. They should also learn how to draw conclusions from principles and refute false reasoning. --- Herve de la Tour

• On Rhetoric: To be able to express oneself considerately, clearly, concisely, and convincingly is not a parlor-trick with words, but the mark of a well-educated person who is concerned and competent enough in relation to others to tell them of her or his ideas.

A Liberal Arts Education is all about getting your

own tools

A Liberal Arts Education is all about getting your

own tools __________________

and using them !

Finally, a Liberal Arts education is not just about analysis --- tearing things

apart

it is also about putting things together: synthesizing, synergizing and

integrating knowledge.

Liberal Arts Education

A broad-based education devoted to instruction in a broad curriculum of the arts and sciences rather than in applied or specialized fields.

A Liberal Arts education is not intended to train you for a job.

A Liberal Arts education prepares you for the world of work and a lifetime of personal and professional choices.

More than anything else, being (a liberally) educated person means being able to see connections that allow one to make sense of the work and act within it in creative ways.

A liberal education is about gaining the power and the wisdom, the generosity and the freedom to connect. --- Prof. William Cronon