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I have been putting a lot of thought into this subject recently as I am fairly concerned that I have made a wrong decision. My long term goal is to make a living as traveling journalist and I obviously assumed that the best way to reach this goal was to enroll in an urban oriented, 4 year university. So I picked a school located near downtown seattle because I figured it would provide opportunities for me to grow intellectually and further advance my career. However, I will admit there were also hedonistic reasons involved such as the abundance of vibrant, eclectic neighborhoods at my fingertips.
Anyway, I attended orientation recently and I must say that if it is an accurate depiction of what I will be experiencing for the next four years, I will not be pleased. The excessive bs speeches about "developing the whole person, "exploring your spirituality," "learning how to think like a true scholar" etc, seemed to be quite non essential to me and didn't do much to rouse my intellectual appetite.
Anyway, the point of this thread is that I believe the concept of a liberal arts education suppresses free thought. I say this because you are essentially paying for an elaborate tutorial on how to think and it is a product of the specific agenda of the school. I figure that I could immerse myself in a liberal arts cirriculum at one school and then immerse myself in another and find that each school has a different agenda and overall a different idea of what constitutes a "well rounded person."
Truthfully, I don't understand why it is necessary to be taught how to be a deep and analytical thinker. Independent research can always be conducted on subjects of interest so essentially the only reason to fork over the money for a degree is for professional credentials. You can read Plato all you want, but when it comes down to it it won't make any difference in your job.
Basically, I think that it should be up to the individual to progress intellectually and should not be up to said institution. An effective solution to this would be a creative and flexible schedule that is constructed by the student. I don't think that any institution has the right to say that there is a superior cirriculum that everyone needs to know. Is the present educational system really so bad that today's youth need to be taught how to think? What are your thoughts/opinions?
All that's going to matter is that you're getting what you personally want to get out of your education. The liberal arts philosophies may be meaningless to you, but completely worthwhile to someone else.
As I noted on your previous thread about this same topic, if you find the atmosphere to be a poor fit, you're probably not in the right place - the more you write, the more clear it becomes that you didn't really understand very much about the school you chose to attend.
Worth is completely subjective. If it's worthless to you, it's worthless to you. You'll never find personal value or meaning in something that you could care less about, or to which you are actively opposed. I don't think your perspective of what a liberal arts education entails necessarily matches my experience, personally but I also strongly suspect, based on your posts, that you and I think in very different ways, and likely have very different preferences and priorities regarding intellectual pursuits and academic approaches. I did work for the first half of my career as a print journalist, interestingly, though. A solid education from a liberal arts school was an asset in that, and truthfully, has been in really every undertaking since obtaining it. It all depends on what you value.
Anyway, the point of this thread is that I believe the concept of a liberal arts education suppresses free thought...
Truthfully, I don't understand why it is necessary to be taught how to be a deep and analytical thinker.
Agree with the other response: Doesn't sound like a liberal education is your cup of tea.
Liberal education can be useful in a variety of fields as well as in life itself but you do have to be open to it. Journalism however, FWIW, is (sadly) a dying profession so I'd be careful about setting your sights on that.
Critical thinking skills (what most liberal arts schools try to teach) is useful in many careers. Many young adults do not have those skills, thus college is one way to attain them.
But college is not for everyone.
A liberal arts education (or any education for that matter) is only worthless if you let it be. It sounds like you think you have it all figured out - going into a program thinking you have nothing you need to learn from it is likely to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nobody's holding a gun to your head to go to college.
Hemingway was a traveling journalist early in his career, without the benefit of a college education. If you have the same level of ability, maybe you can be one, too.
I have been putting a lot of thought into this subject recently as I am fairly concerned that I have made a wrong decision. My long term goal is to make a living as traveling journalist and I obviously assumed that the best way to reach this goal was to enroll in an urban oriented, 4 year university. So I picked a school located near downtown seattle because I figured it would provide opportunities for me to grow intellectually and further advance my career. However, I will admit there were also hedonistic reasons involved such as the abundance of vibrant, eclectic neighborhoods at my fingertips.
Anyway, I attended orientation recently and I must say that if it is an accurate depiction of what I will be experiencing for the next four years, I will not be pleased. The excessive bs speeches about "developing the whole person, "exploring your spirituality," "learning how to think like a true scholar" etc, seemed to be quite non essential to me and didn't do much to rouse my intellectual appetite.
Anyway, the point of this thread is that I believe the concept of a liberal arts education suppresses free thought. I say this because you are essentially paying for an elaborate tutorial on how to think and it is a product of the specific agenda of the school. I figure that I could immerse myself in a liberal arts cirriculum at one school and then immerse myself in another and find that each school has a different agenda and overall a different idea of what constitutes a "well rounded person."
Truthfully, I don't understand why it is necessary to be taught how to be a deep and analytical thinker. Independent research can always be conducted on subjects of interest so essentially the only reason to fork over the money for a degree is for professional credentials. You can read Plato all you want, but when it comes down to it it won't make any difference in your job.
Basically, I think that it should be up to the individual to progress intellectually and should not be up to said institution. An effective solution to this would be a creative and flexible schedule that is constructed by the student. I don't think that any institution has the right to say that there is a superior cirriculum that everyone needs to know. Is the present educational system really so bad that today's youth need to be taught how to think? What are your thoughts/opinions?
I can't really understand this. You say your goal is journalism - so why would you major in liberal arts and not journalism? And I can't see the relationship between the school and liberal arts. Is it a liberal arts college without a journalism major?
All that stuff about "thinking" is just what liberal arts proponents say to make up for the fact that the degree has few practical merits. As far as I know, most schools don't have any agenda as you speak of and the curriculum are fairly standard across the board. Liberal arts just means a bit of this and a bit of that, mostly in the humanities and some sciences. It is basically a little of everything that is not practical on the job market, and nothing professional or career-oriented.
It's actually true that the one thing you might learn in such a curriculum is better critical thinking and analytical skills (yes, it absolutely has to be taught, especially since k-12 pretty much drums it out of you). They are not trying to teach you what to think, but rather how to think - how to analyze and build arguments. Personally, I'm skeptical that undergrads of any sort actually learn that to any significant degree.
I've always contended the 'usefulness' of liberal arts education is as such...
A 4 year liberal arts degree becomes a ticket to get yourself into the dance.
If you are a person with high charisma and are very persuasive, you can rise to the top no matter what your degree is in and from where. Anybody who works in engineering knows that often people hired at the top have no education in that field. Google Carly Fiorina. She has a degree in Medieval History for chrissake, yet has been running (some would say into the ground) tech companies her whole life.
If you are a person who is shy and/or not as charismatic, how your liberal arts degree will help you beyond getting your foot in the door is a LOT less clear.
On the other hand, if you have a nursing degree, it will lead to direct employment as a nurse making a certain salary and performing a certain range of tasks. It's that simple.
Education to me, can be a way to bypass having to buttkiss your way to a successful career in the ratrace. If you get a PharmD, you're making six figures, regardless of any office politics or any other factors.
If you have a Masters in History, you better be prepared to do some serious shmoozing to get to the same point.
You want to be a journalist but you don't understand the value of scholarship or analytical thinking? Unless you want to be a tabloid reported, you don't see a disconnect with that? Drop out while you can still get most of your money back.
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