Liberal Arts Education: An Analysis
Liberal arts education is unique in the sense that learning is not geared to one specific vocation, but rather is based on broad learning. This ‘broad learning’ is made up of several diverse courses and can potentially be geared towards many different professions. For example, a curriculum may include courses from literature, languages and art to sociology, mathematics, statistics, biology, and even economics and political science! The authors of the article Defining Liberal Arts Education aim to define liberal arts education more precisely in order to outline its benefits as well as its necessity in the educated and progressive individual. The authors state that this type of higher education fosters both “…independence and interdependence,
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He argues that there is quite a significant wage gap between the college and non-college educated people in the workforce and that ultimately, higher education does not always deliver what it promises. Tannock (2006) highlights a near-universal consensus that a prerequisite for effective labour force participation should utilize the principal of free education for all (p 46). Although this sounds ideal, Tannock (2006) also points out that only a minority of jobs in the United States require a college degree (p 46). He interestingly states, “given the actual distribution of jobs in the country, [the response of accepting the wage gap as natural as opposed to treating it as something to be challenged] tacitly condones relegating the majority of Americans to a life-time of work in low-wage, poor-quality jobs, and makes K-12 schooling into little more than a vast sorting system for identifying each generation’s economic winners and losers” (p 46). Tannock is suggesting that we must first acknowledge a wage gap exists and that is not merely about wage -it creates a social and moral gap between the college and non-college educated. We must shift our frame of mind away from getting everyone into college toward the more “genuinely democratic” and altruistic task of building unity and equality among all individuals, no matter their education or occupational status (Tannock, 2006, p
He argues that there is quite a significant wage gap between the college and non-college educated people in the workforce and that ultimately, higher education does not always deliver what it promises. Tannock (2006) highlights a near-universal consensus that a prerequisite for effective labour force participation should utilize the principal of free education for all (p 46). Although this sounds ideal, Tannock (2006) also points out that only a minority of jobs in the United States require a college degree (p 46). He interestingly states, “given the actual distribution of jobs in the country, [the response of accepting the wage gap as natural as opposed to treating it as something to be challenged] tacitly condones relegating the majority of Americans to a life-time of work in low-wage, poor-quality jobs, and makes K-12 schooling into little more than a vast sorting system for identifying each generation’s economic winners and losers” (p 46). Tannock is suggesting that we must first acknowledge a wage gap exists and that is not merely about wage -it creates a social and moral gap between the college and non-college educated. We must shift our frame of mind away from getting everyone into college toward the more “genuinely democratic” and altruistic task of building unity and equality among all individuals, no matter their education or occupational status (Tannock, 2006, p