September 2, 2003

Discovery Learning, Liberal Arts, & Humanities

          People ill-informed of the benefits to a liberal arts education often stereotype liberal art majors as unprepared for the work force.  In this sense these ill informed persons are not capable or unwilling to “suspend theory in order to focus on what” direct knowledge could be provoked by a liberal arts professor as argued in The Logic of the Humanities (37D).  By refusing to open their hearts and lend their ears to the advocators of liberal arts they fail to recognize the most qualifying and promising education possible. 

            I, personally, fall midway between the hardcore liberal art major and the quick to stereotype liberal art disregarder.  In many ways, I feel like I project the well-rounded characteristic captured in a liberal arts education because I am often quick to try new activities and opportunities.  I would deem myself very open-minded and open-hearted.  Although I am open-minded, I do not necessarily always dispose of my previous beliefs before listening to what another has to say.  Sometimes, I am just as quick to stereotype and therefore close my mind before the conversation or lesson advances much further. 

Lately, the emphasis on a very well-rounded education in liberal arts has equally influenced my bookshelf recently stacked with books ranging with titles from Improving Your Memory to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less.  Of the new diverse set of books obtained for this summer’s reading, I have read through half.  It seems I have the mindset of a liberal arts educator but more the heart of a liberal arts disregarder who half-heartedly and half-curiously explores her surroundings.  In my equally half-hearted desire to keep up with the daily news and maintain a healthy, wide-roaming conversation, I’ve sampled a scrumptious bit of the many opportunities a liberal arts education can offer.  Because the liberal arts encourage the study of a variety of topics, talking to a liberal arts student will be anything but boring.  Plus, the student will have impressed the other with such an extensive knowledge and will have most likely earned him or her self the credible title of being intellectually intelligent.  Knowing so much about a variety of topics bestows the student with social skills which are often hard to come by for most people.  However, I can also understand the fear of a liberal arts education that pressures parents to enroll their children in a pre-vocational training college.  The objective and goal for the parent is to make sure his or her daughter can eventually learn to live and survive independently.  According to my dad, a liberal arts education can “confuse” the child and lead him or her undecided and “unfocused” for a period of time.  For that period of time that he or she could use to hone in on skills essential and helpful towards a future job, he or she is actually wasting that time studying almost every class there is.  This is one of my major factors which play in my decision to double major both in liberal arts and business.  My objective is to become intellectually well-rounded and at the same time maintain a focus on business, my future profession.  Will it ever happen that a liberal arts education may actually leave a student so baffled and that he or she takes exceptionally longer to figure out what he or she desires?  As great as everything may be, one can’t have it all. 

            Considering that all I have just said is an example of discovery learning, I can only assure my lack of experience in this field.  Usually, I like to be told exactly what to do so that I may fulfill all the requirements.  I never imagined that I could ever be a teacher to myself and am equally baffled that one teacher could ask one question or present one statement that could provoke the students to head off in one general but single direction.  Doesn’t the various products and ideas resulting from discovery learning make the grading system much tougher to enforce seeing how there isn’t as much common ground?  Nonetheless, I’m ready to take on the challenge to discover myself and be able to think on my own.  I am ready with an open mind and heart free of any preconceptions to embrace new individual and independent ideas.