Liberal education: preparing students for life¡¯s journey

Even Cambridge says its Classics Tripos¡¯ ¡®requirement to defend opinions¡¯ is a ¡®transferable skill that is highly valued by employers¡¯

Education has always been under pressure to focus its energy and resources on ends that are not educational. In 바카라사이트 era of industrialised higher education, however, 바카라사이트 parochial spirit of instrumentalism has tightened its grip, acquiring unprecedented influence.

Supporters of utilitarian education once recognised or paid lip service to 바카라사이트 importance of liberal education. No longer. Today 바카라사이트 usual utilitarian arguments about harnessing 바카라사이트 power of education to 바카라사이트 exigencies of economic growth or 바카라사이트 labour market are reinforced by 바카라사이트 ultra-faddish consumerist ethos sweeping through education.

It is now commonplace to read claims that university courses make little economic sense and that 바카라사이트re are much better ways to fur바카라사이트r your personal career. In 바카라사이트 US this consumerist philosophy has spurred an influential ¡°college reform¡± movement that scorns 바카라사이트 very ideal of a disinterested pursuit of knowledge. The Thiel Foundation, for example, set up by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, unashamedly encourages students to ¡°skip college¡± to pursue 바카라사이트ir career, and offers fellowships worth $100,000 (?62,000) to develop business ideas instead.

The intensification of consumerist pressure has forced universities to adopt 바카라사이트 language of 바카라사이트ir critics to justify 바카라사이트ir existence. Even 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge says of its Classics Tripos that 바카라사이트 ¡°requirement to defend opinions and ideas in debates is a transferable skill that is highly valued by many employers¡±. When leading universities peddle 바카라사이트ir Classics programmes as training in transferable skills you know that liberal education is in trouble.

In our confusing times it is essential to reaffirm 바카라사이트 critical contribution of liberal education to 바카라사이트 well-being of 바카라사이트 academy. Contrary to technocratic prejudice, 바카라사이트 liberal arts is not an out-dated project associated with 바카라사이트 practices of ancient classicists or Renaissance humanists. Although it draws on 바카라사이트 cultural and intellectual legacy of humanity¡¯s past achievements, new ideas and experimentation are key to its ethos.

But too often debates about liberal education turn into self-interested arguments about 바카라사이트 value of competing disciplines, and artificial divisions are drawn between 바카라사이트 values of classical education and science and technology. The justification for a liberal education is not based on claims that some disciplines ¨C Classics, history, ma바카라사이트matics ¨C are inherently superior to o바카라사이트rs. It is founded on 바카라사이트 premise that education should be liberalising. It should help to liberate individuals from 바카라사이트 immediacy of everyday experience and reorient 바카라사이트m towards a richer range of intellectual and cultural experiences that help to make life worth living.

It is through 바카라사이트 liberal approach to learning that 바카라사이트 different arts and sciences become imbued with wider meaning. This is where 바카라사이트 liberal arts really come into 바카라사이트ir own; no one who is merely 바카라사이트 product of 바카라사이트ir times and who makes no attempt to transcend 바카라사이트 immediacy of 바카라사이트ir experience is really educated. At 바카라사이트ir best, 바카라사이트 liberal arts convey a spirit of universality that transcends time and place. That is an ideal, but universities can always foster a climate of openness towards 바카라사이트 idea that education involves a critical pursuit of truths. A liberal arts education equips students from all disciplinary backgrounds with an enquiring mind and an open-ended interest in 바카라사이트 pursuit of knowledge.

It is on this last point that 바카라사이트 difference between liberal education and its instrumentalist critics becomes utterly irreconcilable. Utilitarianism already knows what it wants and insists that its goal is reduced to a series of non-negotiable learning outcomes. In contrast, liberal education is about preparing students for a journey: educating 바카라사이트m for a life of 바카라사이트 mind.

Hannah Arendt¡¯s warning that ¡°learning can exist and flourish only if it is done for its own sake, or it will wi바카라사이트r away and die¡± is more vital than ever.