Watching the video today in class about changing Liberal Arts education made me think about why I chose Liberal Arts education. To me, the point of Liberal Arts education is to provide opportunities for students to be exposed to all kinds of subjects and materials that don't always pertain to their core studies. Some people see this as a waste of time because why do you need to know more about religion, history, science, and math? But to me, why not know more. More knowledge never hurt anyone. Why wouldn't someone want to be more knowledgeable in certain areas because this allows one to have a variety of conversations with a variety of people and have some idea of what you are talking about. You have information to back up what you believe and think. I think this is a very valuable thing to have as a human being. Being exposed to a variety of topics can also help you because you never know what might come up at your job.
I agree with the video that Liberal Arts education needs to step away from the segmented education students are receiving and move to a more broader education of subjects. We are learning too much about too little, and it needs to be a learning a little about a lot of topics. If a student finds something interesting then they can focus more on that topic if they want to but the school should only require a broad knowledge of a variety of subjects, or enough knowledge that someone would be able to have an educated conversation with someone about the topic.
There is a reason that the US has a variety of colleges and universities because people want different things from their education. I chose to be required to take classes in a variety of topics so I can have a general knowledge because I believe that is important to being a citizen of this country and the world. Others just want to go to college to get their specific degree so they choose less liberal colleges and universities. There is nothing wrong with this, it's just what someone prefers and wants out of their education.
Liberal Arts education should be a little broader but I also think it can vary a lot from school to school because what people want out of education varies greatly.
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I certainly agree with you about the value of a liberal arts education, but do you think it is necessary that students are "required" to take classes that fit into the "liberal arts mold?" Certainly you "chose" to go to a school where these requirements were present, but if you were not required to fulfill the liberal arts requirements here at Luther (and you still had to be here for 4 years), do you think you'd end up being well-rounded anyway?
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