Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The Liberal Arts in Crisis? A Tale of Two Responses
Two very different responses to the challenges facing the liberal arts education: one vigorous, robust, perhaps idealistic, the other--well, pragmatic and realist. We should dream like the first, while probably accommodating ourselves to the reality of the second...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Dr Herling and all, decided to drop by -- so many memories of this blog!
ReplyDeleteI am thankful for the liberal arts education that MMC had provided me with. It trained me to think critically, and to have the ability to reflect on what I truly believe in even under the most strenuous and hawkish circumstances (I currently work in defence).
It is interesting that Mira Seo said, on the topic of the new liberal arts college Yale-NUS, that "it's so intriguing for [her] to be on the frontier where the liberal arts is expanding, not contracting". This is in contrast to Jim Sleeper's assertion that Yale should never have gone to Singapore. While acknowledging that Singapore has never been the most democratic of all societies, such a "I am better than you" mentality from Sleeper goes against what a liberal arts education (especially as an educator) stands for. We should be supportive of a liberal arts education, instead of adopting the elitist mentality that only certain societies deserve such an education. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-sleeper/yale-has-gone-to-singapor_b_1476532.html]
In such an ever-changing world, professional degrees are gradually losing their allure [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/education/law-schools-applications-fall-as-costs-rise-and-jobs-are-cut.html?_r=0] It could therefore be wise for us to appreciate our undergraduate years, learn widely and think critically, instead of worrying about job prospects prematurely.
Just a thought. Enjoy the semester everyone :)