Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Liberal arts at St. Olaf
What I learn from the reading today is that an liberal art education is not just the education that make you more well-rounded. A liberal arts college is a "freedom school". I think it still depends on the students in the school to make the institution free. We need to know "our own minds in order to be good citizens of a free society", and know how to make what we've learn in the school "free" in terms of make them our own. St.Olaf has been a co-ed school since the beginning, contributing a egalitarian system for both women and men to pursue this freedom. I think this freedom is a different from the freedom we talked about first semester last year. Freedom in this context means the complexity and fluidity of intelligence that can be used to different disciplines. Sometimes I wonder if an liberal arts education is necessary or beneficial. It is a great thing to do in college, studying different areas, integrating passions yet to be explored. However, what can you do with a liberal arts degree later in life? I probably have to go to grad school if i want to be a biomedical engineer. But what if I only studied biomedical sciences and had already become an expert in during my college. Now we have college graduates with liberal degrees but not specialized in anything areas. Others would argue that liberal arts education teach us how to be a leader, how to learn, and how to deal with life later. I feel like it is not very clear to say it teaches me to learn how to learn. what does it mean? I don't feel any difference. It would be so much easier if I could just get out of college with a D.O degree, taking out fewer loans and start making a career i love.
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Athena,
ReplyDeleteSometimes I debate the value of a liberal arts degree as well. I think of the kids from my high school who have landed engineering jobs right out of college and I envy them. I remind myself that I chose this school for a reason though, and that the liberal arts are important for my development as an adult. I believe that a liberal arts degree can be diverse, and I hope that with the right experiences during my undergraduate years, I will be able to work right out of college doing something I love, too. Hearing that undergraduate students and former St. Olaf students have landed their "dream job" or even my dream job gives me hope that a liberal arts education is worth more than I previously thought.