A University to Me
Newman's idea of a liberal education is often bemoaned by the law student forced to study art or the medical student forced to study government or the English student forced to study math or the math student forced to study English. But his idea of a Liberal Education is one that is reflected in the values of the University, that a diverse education is the "true enlargement of mind."[1] Still, I must question whether or not a Liberal Education is as important as Newman believes it is.
Newman's assertion that the pursuit of truth is the ultimate aim of a University education is a noble one, which makes opposition all the more difficult, but, at the risk of appearing philistine, I must disagree that the practical end of the University is of "training good members of society."[2] It is certainly true that there are many things to be gained in the University, perspective among them, but in the truest sense of the word, the most practical thing obtained from a University education is professional preparation.
The world today is more technical and more specialized than it has ever been, making career-specific education even more important. When doctors, lawyers, accountants, or scientists do their jobs there is no issue taken with their Liberal Education, only that their specialized education has sufficiently prepared them to do what is required.
Newman also claims that "out of a University, [a professor] is in danger of being absorbed and narrowed by his pursuit, and of giving Lectures which are the Lectures of nothing more than a lawyer, physician, geologist, or political economist."[3] Outside of the University, these men and women are still involved in the search for knowledge and truth, and they are every bit as diversified within their own fields of expertise and professors are outside of them.
In certain respects, I agree with Newman, because I do believe that a broad education can be enriching -- it is the reason I am taking this course. To me, being a college student is about professional instruction first and personal enrichment second, though that is not to say the two need be mutually exclusive. I can train to be an actuary and still learn about Victorian literature, even if the two have nothing in common.
It is Newman's pretentiousness I find issue with. In his pursuit of seeing things from every angle, he fails to see things from a completely different angle: that every person has different societal perspectives and that the University can create "good members of society" with a "narrow" education, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Notes
1. John Henry Newman, "The Idea of a University," in Victorian Literature, ed. Jerome Bump (Austin: Jenn's Copy & Binding, 2006), 310.
2. Ibid., 313.
3. Ibid., 312.