Combining Educational Aspects
Essay title: Combining Educational Aspects
People question whether to work towards a liberal or specialized degree. It is not uncommon for a person to question what it is they need to know to for their educational success. In John Henry Newman’s article, ”The Idea of a University”, he discusses some of the advantages in acquiring a degree in the liberal arts. He explains that it gives people an understanding about the world in which they live in (49). Similarly, Jon Spayed, who is a well- known editor and interviewer, discusses in his article, “Learning in the Key of Life”, about the disadvantages of a specialized training. He implies that specialized education inadequately trains a person for what is ahead of them. It will not get them through life (61). To the contrary, Adrienne Rich, a writer and a teacher, talks about the advantages of specialized studies, particularly Woman’s Studies courses for woman, in her speech, ”What does a Woman Need to Know?”. It gives them an awareness of womanhood in today’s society (66- 68). Finally, in “How to Get a College Education”, Jeffery Hart, discusses the goal of educating people (129- 130). A liberal education is unlimited to the amount of learning one chooses to receive. While specialized studies are limited to the specific subject, deep understanding is learned about these areas of study. Perhaps if students learn both aspects of learning, by educating themselves through the liberal arts and specialized studies, then they possibly could gain a higher understanding about their own community.
Receiving a liberal degree gives a person a well-rounded education. They are not limited to one area of knowledge. Newman discusses University knowledge and what it does for society. He writes, “…a University training is the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at cultivating the public mind…it is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them…it teaches him to see things as they are” (49). It gives them the humanities of life. The humanities give people a clearer understanding of the world around them. Webster states that “humanities are the branches of learning as in philosophy, arts, or languages that investigate human constructs and concerns as opposed to natural processes as in physics or chemistry, and social relations, as in anthropology or economics” (Webster’s Universal College Dictionary 349). If people focused on specialized subjects for their education, instead of a liberal education, then they would not receive the humanities needed for intellectual confidence. Spade quotes, in his article, John Ralstan Saul, a Canadian historian and a critic in the business world, saying, “technical training is training in what is sure to be obsolete soon anyway; it’s self-defeating, and it won’t get you through the next 60 years of your life… training [is] learning to fit in as a passive member of structure… that’s the worst thing for an uncertain, changing time” (61) A person would be better suited if they had knowledge in a wide variety of subjects to better adapt to different and new situations. Perhaps when a person’s job is downsized because of technology advancement, they are now no longer educated or qualified to advance their career. There is, however, anther side to this spectrum.
Some believe that specialized schools are necessary. Specialized studies gives a student a deep understanding of their major course of study and a greater awareness of their culture. Rich spoke as the commencement speaker at Smith, a woman’s college, in 1979. She asks many thought provoking questions about what a woman really needs to know about herself, her history, and how to survive in the world she grew up to know. Rich states, “without such education, women have lived and continue to live in ignorance of our collective context, vulnerable to the projection’s of men’s fantasies about us as they appear in art, in literature, in the sciences, in the media, in the so-called humanistic studies.” She continues by adding, “I suggest that not anatomy, but enforced ignorance, has been a crucial key to our powerlessness” (66). With such studies, a woman would better understand herself and the world in which she lives. My own father tried to force ignorance upon me. He set up a college fund for my younger brother but he had nothing to give toward my educational experience. He even refused to help me fill out the financial aid forms necessary for my enrollment because he said I did not need to go to college. I would get married