Title:(Not yet chosen)
Intro: Has a liberal arts education become completely useless in the 21st century? Many argue yes while others say the liberal arts have not become irrelevant as it is an essential way of teaching students to orient themselves in the world. Jeffery Scheuer, author of the article Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts, and Sanford Ungar, author of 7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts, both speak on what the liberal arts are and why they are still relevant to education as a whole today. (Add more for final draft)
General Thesis: The UNE Core Handbook crafts a very well rounded liberal arts education, and Scheuer and Ungar would agree given their definition and ideas of the liberal arts.
Para 1: Connecting Ungar/Scheuer to my preferred idea of liberal arts learning
Scheuer and Ungar present a rough model of a liberal arts education as encompassing many different topics of studies and skills all in one curriculum. Due to this it is reasonable that Ungar does not believe in vocationalism since this way of thinking only strives for students to have practical skills in their major so they can get a job much “faster” and easier than their peers in liberal arts. In his article he states, “the ‘career education’ bandwagon seems to suggest that shortcuts are available to students that lead directly to high-paying jobs—leaving out ‘frills’ like learning how to write and speak well, how to understand the nuances of literary texts and scientific concepts, how to collaborate with others on research” (Ungar, para 4). Ungar points out that the idea of “career education” leaves out the learning of very important skills to have when looking for a job. If you can’t communicate your ideas well/in a way for others to understand them, it will be a way harder time for you to get that high paying job and it will be even harder to maintain your position if you don’t know those skills. If you go to a trade school then practical skills will help you get a job faster since trades are a lot more hands on. But even then, a liberal arts education would give the students who believe in vocationalism a broader range of skills especially with communications and writing. Scheuer builds off of Ungars’ idea of a career education not being enough in the long run by giving a rough definition of what a liberal arts education usually looks and feels like. Scheuer describes a liberal arts education as “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. 14). Both Scheuer and Ungar understand that a liberal arts education model must include topics of study that build on communication and critical thinking skills at the very least.
Para 2: UNE Core Handbook describes the integrated curriculum that Scheuer presents in his article.
The Core curriculum at UNE describes the integrated curriculum that Scheuer presents in his article. The integrated curriculum is widely used throughout U.S. liberal arts colleges because it includes many different disciplines and skills. Scheuer describes this integrated curriculum as “encompassing virtually all nonprofessional higher learning, from the natural and social sciences to the humanities and the performing arts. At its best, this comprehensive vision recognizes both the value and the limitations of such categories, along with the consequent need for interdisciplinary learning” (para. 9). Scheuer explains that this curriculum covers a broad range of disciplines and how they can all connect to each other. At UNE, each category of study comes with a different set of knowledge and skills learned through the course. UNE also acknowledges the fact that no topic of study can purely be on its own without taking information, ideas and concepts from other areas of study. For example, a laboratory science course objectives read as follows, “This course will serve to introduce the scientific method as an approach to knowledge and may include topics relating natural sciences to human interactions with local and global surroundings… [students will] Demonstrate a functional understanding of the scientific method to make informed decisions based on scientific information/Demonstrate conceptual and practical knowledge of course topics and describe ethical implications of human interactions with the natural world” (Core Handbook, 14). Just in this course description alone students have to be able to connect natural science to the world around them. The laboratory science courses are a great example of where the typical idea of liberal arts learning comes in contact with science. Science is not a stand alone subject, as Scheuer notes, and actually feeds and survives off good critical thinking and communication skills. UNE is most definitely practicing the integrated curriculum that Scheuer describes.
Para 3: How UNE also includes critical thinking and citizenship ideas into the curriculum.
UNE actually does a great job of making up a liberal arts education model. The core curriculum prepares students for professional life by introducing every student to a variety of skills that can both be used towards their major and towards their general life. The description of the core curriculum as a whole is as follows, “The Core Curriculum is designed to incorporate many teaching strategies to facilitate student-centered, integrative (such as interdisciplinary) learning experiences that utilize the skills of our faculty. Core requirements introduce students to disciplines as ways of knowing, provide interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives, and instill advanced understanding of disciplines outside a student’s major” (Core Handbook, 4). UNE acknowledges that each major should not be left out of learning important information and skills from other majors and thus incorporates this into the whole curriculum. We can see this same general idea in the form of critical thinking and citizenship being learned from each course. Scheuer describes citizenship as an integral factor in a liberal arts education. He describes “[t]he overall goal [of citizenship] is to foster vibrant and prosperous communities with broad and deep participation, in public conversations marked by fairness, inclusion, and (where critical thinking comes in) intellectual rigor” (Scheuer, para. 20). Citizenship can be seen in the UNE curriculum because students are expected to use their critical thinking skills alongside their knowledge from the many courses taken to connect themselves to the world and be able to engage in thoughtful conversations/volunteer work with other individuals around the world. Scheuer and Ungar both talk about how important it is to not completely separate each course’s information. UNE recognizes this fact and wishes to give students as much practice to build up these necessary critical thinking, citizenship, and other skills for their professional future.
Conclusion: (add for final draft)
Still need one more quotation: I have 6 now, need 7
Works Cited
Scheuer, Jeffrey. “ Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 Feb. 2010, 7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts (chronicle.com). Accessed 5 Mar. 2021.
Ungar, Sanford J. “7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts.” American Association of University Professors, Dec. 2015, Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts | AAUP. Accessed 5 Mar. 2021.
UNE Core Handbook: core_handbook_2019-2020_mcreynolds_edits_august_2019.pdf (une.edu)
