Nussbaum reading

I wasn't exactly sure what the term "Liberal Arts" meant before coming to Loras, but after three years here, I think that having received this type of education has been invaluable. To me, being educated at a Liberal Arts school means being well-rounded. It is what makes the difference between a "college" and a "trade school."

Nussbaum mentioned how in Europe, students pick from a young age what field they want to go into, and what line of work they want to follow, and then the remainder of their education is studying specifically for that line of work. I remember hearing the same thing from Spanish students when I was in Spain, and talking about our schools. They were surprised to hear about how we really don't need to choose what we're going to do for a living--well, sometimes even until after college graduation.

I'm glad that we have our Liberal Arts college system here in the U.S., because it not only gives students flexibility and allows them to wait until they better know themselves before deciding how they want to spend the rest of their lives, but also because it better prepares students for anything that might come their way. A Liberal Arts education challenges you to think critically, and to think outside the box. It requires you to take a wide variety of courses, in addition to your declared major. This continues to help students after graduation and throughout life, as they come out well rounded and better able to handle most challenges that come their way.

Martha Nussbaum also talks about how Liberal Arts colleges challenge students to rethink their values that they had before coming in. This of course, she says, might be a concern to parents who have instilled their own values in their children, and don't want to see those values challenged. Nussbaum has left-wing challengers too, who worry that "argument is subversive of democratic values."

While I agree with much of what Nussbaum talks about--how students should be open-minded, should be challenged in their beliefs and forced to defend or rethink the values passed onto them by their parents--I think that this is not entirely the case with our actual college system. In chapter 1, Nussbaum talks about how campuses "'sting' students into rethinking their values." However, if a student enters already with progressive, liberal values, I doubt that that student would really be "stung" in the same way a more moderate or conservative student might. The ideal situation would be if professors were all neutral (at least on the outside) and played the devil's advocate for both sides, challenging a student's values regardless of whether that student were conservative or liberal. But Academia as a whole is, by nature, made up mainly of left-minded people, and the values of liberal-minded students are normaly encouraged and fueled, while the values of conservative-minded students are challgenged and, as often becomes the case, forced into suppression. As for moderate students, or students who come into college without a foothold in either progressim or conservatism, they tend to leave more liberal-minded as well.

Aside from this, however, the Liberal Arts education is a positive thing, and in my opinion is invaluable to a student's preparation for life in general. It also readys students for service, as they have already been taught about and exposed to other cultures in their classes. Also, they have normally read books or other works that educate them about the situation of the impoverished and lower-class. So when they enter impoverisehd neighborhoods to do service, they have an appreciation for the less fortunate that they might not have had before.

We can see from the many service trips done by Loras students that Liberal Arts college students do take a very real interest in service, which I think is a testament to the effectiveness of the Liberal Arts system.