Liberal Arts and Plan II (9.20.2005)

We each have our own distinctly individual reasons for being at UT and participating in Plan. Through these readings, however, I think it’s clear that there is a common thread that binds us together as students experiencing a liberal arts education. By looking at other universities and reading great works about universities, we see that all liberal arts educations strive in “the cultivation of intellect”, in teaching students to learn about a wide array of subjects. In doing so, a liberal arts education ensures that students are given the resources to form unique and diverse opinions that prevent the stagnation of society.

I believe the purpose of Plan II and a liberal arts education is to give individuals “freedom from narrowness of mind”, allowing them to form their own character and develop society (319). In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill discusses the market place of ideas that is necessary to prevent conformity. He explains that it is only by cultivating a society where individuals can freely express their diverse opinions that society does not stagnate. If society stagnates, people lose the ability to defend their opinions. When one person questions the society’s structure and beliefs, the system falls because the people cannot defend it. This means that while societal stagnation is a long-term process, its results are disastrous. With this line of reasoning in mind, the value of a liberal arts education becomes increasingly clear. Compared to the pre-professional education’s purpose of “serving the needs of corporations”, students engaged in a liberal arts education learn within “a community that depends upon people sharing the values of openness, mutual respect, and the freedom of all to express themselves” (321, 320B). These distinct purposes are important. The importance placed on corporations allows stagnation by conforming to one thought and one goal. Students graduate with one type of knowledge. Comparatively, a liberal arts education allows individuals to find their own passion through a variety of classes, meaning the students graduate with more diverse opinions and interests to contribute to society. As students live and learn in this environment for four to five years, these values of discussion and expression hopefully become engrained within them, allowing them to become contributing members of society. In essence, an important aspect of a liberal arts education is its tendency to produce graduates who contribute to the progression of society, instead of existing only to serve the current state of society.

With this purpose in mind, it’s interesting to consider the value of both types of education. I know many of us are Plan II and business majors, or Plan II and engineering majors. How do these two types of education combine? Will we graduate as balanced individuals or will one form of education over power the other? If we go into business, will we in time forget the learning process that Plan II taught us or is it forever engrained within us?