Most students question why we have to go to school and take liberal arts courses that do not necessarily prepare us for our field. When we ask our professors or teachers, they tell us it is because we should learn to be “well rounded” students. This is not enough to convince many. Students do not have a real understanding of Why liberal arts education is helpful so they do not see the need to learn it. Many students only memorize the facts to pass the tests they have to take and then forget it because it has no meaning or interest to them.
Prom my experience, never thought that liberal arts courses were important so I never ally tried to do well in those classes. I just did What I had to do to receive a grade and did not absorb the knowledge. In William Bonnet’s, A Nation Worth Defending and Mark Jackson’s The Liberal Arts: A Practical View, both authors explain why having a background with a liberal arts education is beneficial, important and how it connects with the real world.
If students do not learn the connections between what they are learning and how they can apply it to the real world, they will never appreciate the information that they will learn and therefore, won’t be able to apply it to the real world. In A Nation Worth Attending, Bennett, the former Secretary to Education, stresses the connection between history and the real world. He states that schools do not do a good enough job at teaching their students the right material. Bennett believes that students should learn about our history so we can defend our nation together, writing, “This historical ignorance is not merely of academic concern.
It has real-world consequences” (32). Bennett believes that we do not have enough people that live in our blessed country that are willing and able to defend it He says that students need to learn from the heroism of September 1 lath and to do that; they must be reminded of it. This in turn will teach them to be patriotic. (35). If students do not know our history, they will not have a reason or desire to fight for our country. This is a substantial for citizens because today’s children are tomorrows soldiers, citizens, and leaders (35). They are what we are relying on to defend our country, their country, in the future.
I agree With Bennett as he points out that in a poll 57% Of high school students are “below basic” in their knowledge of history (32) and I agree with that. In high school, I only took the minimal amount Of courses needed in order to radiate. In the poll, they discovered that less than half of those surveyed could name the Secretary of State, about one-third could identify the prime minister of Israel and the U. S Secretary of Defense, and just 14% could identify the president of Pakistan, even as we rely on that nation’s help in the war in Afghanistan (32).
This did not really surprise me because I do not know any of these things myself. Although I do not believe that it is the school’s responsibility to teach us everything that is going on today, they should be held accountable to at least teach us some things. For example, never learned what Democrats or Republicans meant. I just heard about it during elections but they do not have any sort of significance to me because do not know what it is. Teacher’s explanation for having a liberal arts education comes off to be a connotation of being the perfect, well rounded student.
It also is not enough to convince them to pursue an interest or the idea of motivation to care. If students were taught the connections of how they can apply what they learned in the real world, they Will better understand why it is important. Students alike with the odder day civilization have the urge to be prep. ‘en wrong in order for them to give a second thought on certain situations since ignorance is a blocking their vision of reason and common sense. Since students don’t see the importance, some students Will not do well and some even drop out Of school because they do not see how it could be useful to them.
Most people tend to be caught up in “the now’ and “fads” which heavily influence their life decisions. In Jackson’s The Liberal Arts: A Practical View, he suggests that liberal arts teaches us abilities we can take with us for when we get jobs. He goes on to say that it does not matter how good your intellectual abilities are if you do not know how to communicate, Even though liberal arts courses can help you succeed, schools should balance them with studies that help with a student’s specialization in their field of study.
Jackson stresses, ‘Though it is obvious that liberal arts courses do have considerable practical value, a college education would not be complete without some job training” (218). A student that got all Ass in their courses does not necessarily get a well-paid job if they lack the ability to put their point across, If students learned this ability in school, they would be more useful in the real world. I always wondered why it was important to be well rounded. Did not know why had to take courses in foreign language.
It never occurred to me that one of the things you learn in those courses is how to speak with confidence to others. I think that if I had known the importance of these classes, I would have done better and the information would have stuck with me. Instead, took the classes that was told needed to take, got good grades in them but it was a matter Of just learning the material to pass a test and then I forgot it later. I had not learned the reasons behind doing such projects or presentations had to give.
There were hidden attributes to these things we had to do and no one told us what they were. I believe that students should be accountable for taking some classes like history, speech, English, and math. We can apply the information we get from these courses to the real world. All students’ need is to see the connections of the information to the real world and believe if they know these things, as a result, they would be more interested in it and have more initiative to learn them. Bennett and Jackson both agree that there are problems with education.
The two authors stress their concerns in their writings thoroughly, Bennett believes that liberal arts education is important but needs to balance those liberal art courses with courses students need for specializing in their field of choice. Jackson believes that students should be more aware of the history of our nation and that schools should be responsible for teaching it. If teachers showed the connections how a liberal arts education can connect to the real world and help them in their future, students will take it more seriously and better absorb the knowledge.
This would be of great impact to students because a liberal arts education is very valuable to have believe that if liberal arts courses were composed of courses that would help with our field of study for the future, would have taken the courses more seriously and would hue been more engaged in learning.
