Liberal Arts, the Need?

My sister and I used to debate higher education. Her position is/was that all education should prepare the student for a vocation, a job, an employment with career dimensions. My point was that all education should help an individual understand the world around them and help them adapt to changing conditions. Such a student will know when and how to recognize changes to adapt to, and which to avoid because they are counterproductive or will become a waste of time and effort.  

Liberal Arts are really a study of man’s journey on this planet. The sciences, both hard and soft, history, logic, philosophy, arts…whatever describes what mankind is, how mankind has adapted to his environment, and how mankind has related to one another and different ‘tribes’ through the ages. What does that teach us? What does that impel us to do or react? How has mankind traveled through time and altered the planet, for good or ill? 

Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage…” and I agree. What life has to offer us is a broad array of experience and opportunity to interact with it. Some of this is for fun. Some for profit. Some for the benefit of others. Some for entertainment. Whatever comes from the experiences and opportunities, there is always something to interact with. That’s another way of saying working with, creating with, seeing or understanding something better with.  

Thomas Friedman in his The World is Flat, had a section of the book centered on Tubas and Test Tubes. He explained how some colleges are educating future scientists and engineers by insisting that some form of art education or experience be experienced in parallel with their technical education. The result is not just an appreciation of artistic ephemera, but developing a broader person with feelings, emotions, depth of curiosity and expression. Those are the elements which help a person understand their personal context. They also inform the student of the constantly changing contexts of other people who will eventually be their clients, friends, society or employers.

How can we live in this world with major segments of life experience completely shut down? Music develops internal pathways of logic. Tempo structures our time and emphasis on matters creatively. Harmony forms working relationships. Structure of musical forms helps us organize thematic materials, whether tonal or vocabulary, into logical concepts. Art is an expressive milieu. It is a means of communication. Of mind to mind, or mind to life, or body to time, or … you fill in the expansive dictionary of possibility.

Art humanizes us. Hard, factual and scientific learning is terrific; but it must be contextualized to the human condition and made real and down to earth. Art helps a human being do that. So test tubes and tubas is a clever way of expressing it. But it makes eminent sense. 

Vocational education instructs a person on how to perform certain acts or functions. How to be an accountant, or analyst of data. How to be a mechanic, or engineer. Or even a scientist. High brow or low, vocational training leads us on a path to employment security as long as we update our skill sets as changes affect our profession or industry.  

This type of education, however, focuses attention more narrowly. It funnels energy and thinking and skill development on a narrower and narrower field of specialty. But it doesn’t necessarily make for a better rounded individual. And it doesn’t help the individual understand when their profession or industry is threatened with obsolescence.  

Liberal Arts provides more tools to the student for living life. Appreciating diversity of all kinds makes for adaptability. Understanding several disciplines of study encourages cross pollination of concepts which lead to new understanding, new industries, products and services.  

“All the world’s a stage and ..” we are the actors. What role will I take? How long will I play it. How much will all of that experience prepare me for different roles and function? Will I rise to the challenges? Will I stay informed of life changing around me. Will I tire of this incessant questioning and searching? Or will this become the descriptor of my path in life?

I think the latter. And it has been fun and interesting. Never a dull moment; or at least, if things began to get dull, new vistas were viewed and changes made. Life’s challenges became new food to be tasted and adopted.

Somewhere there is a Tuba thrumping its tune, its tempo. Somewhere there is a song being sung with earnestness and soul. Somewhere a ballad is offered to a lonely heart. Elsewhere mind is reminded of its greater usefulness and purpose. Will that lead us to a broad new horizon? Or a narrow one of specialty?

April 7, 2012