Score One for the Liberal Arts
Despite my previous disgust with the quality of the editorial writers at the Purdue paper, I'm forced to admit that they have at least one person on staff who seems to have his head on straight.
That's right, in the midst of this bubble filling, degree churning, assembly line of an engineering school, Mr. Evan Kelsay is advocating for the liberal arts. Since coming to Purdue I've sworn up and down that no child of mine will be attending a large state school for undergraduate work; too little professor contact and too much emphasis on grades over learning. So hurrah for Mr. Kelsay for renewing my hope in the large university. Apparently it is possible to get (or at least try to get) a liberal arts education here. Watch out HU, you may not be quite so unique after all.
Read Mr. Kelsay's excellent editorial here.
That's right, in the midst of this bubble filling, degree churning, assembly line of an engineering school, Mr. Evan Kelsay is advocating for the liberal arts. Since coming to Purdue I've sworn up and down that no child of mine will be attending a large state school for undergraduate work; too little professor contact and too much emphasis on grades over learning. So hurrah for Mr. Kelsay for renewing my hope in the large university. Apparently it is possible to get (or at least try to get) a liberal arts education here. Watch out HU, you may not be quite so unique after all.
Read Mr. Kelsay's excellent editorial here.
posted by Victoria at 8:44 AM
8 Comments:
Hurrah!!! The man sounds like a kindred spirit :)
I'd say maybe he'd be a possible candidate under consideration for a position in our liberal arts college, but I don't know what he'd teach. What kind of degree do you get from the School of Management? Someone fill me in...
Plus, he'd have to get at least one more degree, but he's got time, and the groundwork is definitely there. Yes, a kindred spirit, indeed.
Business maybe? I'm not really sure. I suppose to could go over to the website and find out, but I really don't feel like it. :-)
The article author wrote:
"What happened to our 'classical liberal education,' as it was phrased long ago, that I was promised when I went to college?"
My ENG 101H (Freshman Composition) professor at Central Michigan University answer that one: at many schools it no longer exists. He told us that all universities used to have broad core curriculums, but since the 1960s, liberal arts core curriculums have been largely tossed out of higher education. Now, instead of taking a number of courses in different content areas, such as in the core curriculum at Huntington University, it is my understanding that many large universities have smaller core programs populated by fluff classes. My favorite from CMU was a course called "Armchair Chemistry", with which one could satisfy his university program science requirement. Comparing the number of credit hours is striking. HU has a somewhat strict core curriculum of 52 credit-hours (64 for BA degree candidates) with limited choices of coursework. CMU has a 30 credit-hour university program, comprised of ten content areas, each with probably fifteen or more courses to choose from. (I was very worried about the core curriculum when I was considering transferring to Huntington College. It seemed so big! How would I have time to study in my major?) Even at HU--a small school that prides itself on its liberal arts core--there are definite weak points. Exhibit A is the foreign language requirement. Oh, wait, there isn't really a foreign language requirement; rather, there is a political process for getting other non-language-related courses to count as language alternatives. Exhibit B is the science division, or whatever they call it now. The introductory courses in the core curriculum in biology, chemistry and physics are high school-level courses. The time that students waste on repeating high school material could be much better spent getting an even broader (more subject areas) or deeper (harder coursework) education.
The bottom line is that liberal arts vanished from many schools long ago. The social revolution of the 1960s swept core curriculums right off campus. Or so said my English professor.
To close, I would like to mention that one of the best parts--if not the best part--of my Huntington College experience was eating dinner at the DC on many, many evenings with Dr. John Sanders and my friend from back home, John Wait, and talking about God. Funny--the thing that may have meant the most to me in college is the very thing that Dr. Sanders' detractors did not want students to have. And by "funny", I mean, "not funny".
I think Jay's got a very good point. Even at so-called liberal arts colleges/universities, the most meaningful discussions really seem to happen outside of the classroom or sometimes even in spite of the classroom.
Like in the Sweet Suite, for example? I'll bet I did as much learning there and in the history offices as anywhere. Maybe more.
Hooray for Mr Kelsay!
I heart Liberal Arts. PS: I'm making a blogspot guys.... I don't think it could ever be as cool as yours, but that's ok. You'll have to visit it sometime once I get it going. :o)
It's too bad they don't have some sort of system for rating how much students have learned out of the classroom. Seriously though, how much of pchem am I going to remember ten years from now?
And Jay, in defense of the science department; yes, the 111 classes are ridiculously easy, but that's not a function of the department or professors. It's a function of the unprepared students that are being admitted to the college for the degree rubber stamp. Selling the idea of a true liberal arts education has to happen much earlier than college. If children are taught to value education for its own sake instead of for where it can get them, everything else falls into place. If not, then you start turning out vocation majors who've failed chemistry at least twice. (I'm not bitter at all)
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