Pre-reading. Read the title and write 3-5 sentences as a pre-reading activity. What is this article going to be about? Based on this title, what do YOU think “liberal arts” means?
I think the article is going to be about how we as humans forget all logic when we talk about a topic we are really passionate about. So I think the article is going to talk about how critical thinking is important for the liberal arts, but if we don’t know how to do it correctly, the liberal arts will be no help to you. I don’t think the article is going to compare critical thinking and the liberal arts, but they are going to explain them in a way to where they are a united subject and why it’s important.
The text has four sections. For each section, write a 3-5 sentence summary, pick ONE quote (include it in the HW response), and respond to or comment on the quote. (This is an opportunity to write up a question, relationship, challenge you started in an annotation.)
“What are the liberal arts?” Section
The liberal arts are used to teach students how to hone the skill of “freeing their mind” by thinking of a multitude of skills at once. The liberal arts are usually seen as philosophy, music/performing arts, social sciences, and many other things. But nowadays people see the liberal arts subjects as completely separate from one another while in reality, everything is connected in some way.
“The liberal arts form such an evolving system, consisting of stable but impermanent fields of inquiry that fuse at some points and fissure at others, adapting to cultural shifts while sharing a common language and assumptions, overlapping knowledge bases, and the core of critical thinking” (para.15). This quote exemplifies what the Liberal arts are really about. The liberal arts are about understanding that everything can connect in some way, some connections might be stronger than others, but everything is connected nonetheless.
“Why do we need the Liberal Arts?” Section
This section breaks down what it means to be a citizen in the liberal arts sense. There are three categories/levels of a citizen; civic, economic, and cultural citizens. Civic means you embrace civic duties such as voting, jury service and volunteering, economic means you do something useful for the community, and cultural means you partake in fun events such as a sports game or a musical. Liberal arts educations teach students how to excel at each level of citizenship.
“A liberal education is not about developing professional or entrepreneurial skills, although it may well promote them. Nor is it for everyone; we need pilots, farmers, and hairdressers as well as managers, artists, doctors, and engineers. But we all need to be well-informed, critical citizens. And the liberal arts prepare students for citizenship in all three senses—civic, economic, and cultural” (para. 21). I don’t understand why having a liberal arts education isn’t for everyone. Wouldn’t you want to be a “well-informed, critical citizen” too? I’m not sure why this kind of critical education would be withheld from others if it prepares us or “frees” our minds to make us “better” citizens.
“What is Critical Thinking?” Section
This section is describing how critical thinking cannot be explicitly defined, and has to be found out by the person teaching/learning. Critical thinking can be seen as recognizing/pointing out one’s own flaws/flaws in the worlds around them, thinking outside of the box, etc. Critical thinking is not an exact formula like in math, we have to draw our own conclusions from a question we wanted answered.
“We form (and qualify) generalizations, commute between the general and the particular, make distinctions and connections, draw analogies, compare classes and categories, employ various types of reasoning, hone definitions and meanings, and analyze words, ideas, and things to resolve or mitigate their ambiguity. These are precisely the skills that a liberal education cultivates. It heightens our abilities to speak, listen, write, and think, making us better learners, communicators, team members, and citizens” (para. 30). All the skills that go into making someone a good critical thinker, I feel like they would have just come from a lot of discussions/debates but we really practice that skill from when we are young and just start making friends to when we are old. Our critical thinking can always improve, especially as the world changes as you age.
“The Importance of Critical Inquiry” Section
This section dives into the fact that critical inquiry is also not one set idea/definition just like critical thinking is. Critical inquiry is more based around philosophy and why there is no set end to what you can talk about. We each have our perspectives of the world and different understandings of concepts and words, which makes the liberal arts so important so we can relate and learn from one another.
“We need skilled thinkers, problem solvers, team workers, and communicators, and not just in the business, scientific, and technology sectors. The liberal arts embody precisely the skills a democracy must cultivate to maintain its vital reservoir of active, thoughtful, humane, and productive citizens” (para. 35). I feel like everyone should be able to have a shot at learning how to think critically, not just a select few that are needed for a democracy to work and I feel like this is happening more now than ever before. The internet allows us to take in so much information and we can draw our own conclusion on whatever topic we want, and we can discuss with others and maybe change our minds which is always a great thing.
