This past week we were reading about the differences between a Renaissance or liberal arts education and a much more specialized or skilled trade education. Leonardo da Vinci was a perfect example of the Renaissance Man because he had so many skills (drawing, inventing and engineering, sculpting, painting, etc) and so many interests from geology to to anatomy. However, today, we can see that Americans have specialized in certain fields, for instance, eye doctors, tax lawyers, and sports stars. 
Your job is to figure out which do you think is a better fit for you in today's world - a liberal arts education or the specialized education - and explain why.
Here are some arguments for a liberal arts education:
- a liberal arts education provides a well-rounded education in language, literature, history, science, and sometimes math. The skills needed to do well in a liberal arts education include critical thinking, analysis, looking at the big picture and thinking outside the box, better written and oral communication skills, and problem solving skills. Recruiters are looking for these kinds of candidates to work for Fortune 500 companies;
- Countries like China that have specialized education are looking to move away from their form of education and more towards an American-style liberal arts education so that they can have more workers who are able to think outside the box, be creative with problems, and stop moving to the U.S. for job opportunities;
- Sometimes, when someone is trained in a skill, that skill can be outdated by a technology or computer within months or years after the student is trained to do that skill. By having a liberal arts degree, there is some flexibility in being able to tackle most anything (short of things that require advanced degrees like doctors, lawyers, MBAs, engineers, etc.) if a job is phased out or shipped overseas.
Here are some arguments for a specialized education:
- Depending upon the specialized school, most graduates will be able to get a job immediately upon graduation and make decent money right away. The skills that a person learns and goes into should be in demand today and hopefully, you will be able to learn which ones cannot be replaced by machines. Also, by getting a job soon after graduation, you should be able to pay off any student loans that you have accumulated;
- Even in a specialized university, the students still take classes in English, history, and other "soft" classes that can train these workers to be competent in oral and written communication. Math and science classes are great at developing critical thinking skills, perseverance, and analysis.
- Right now, there are so many people with college degrees that are unemployed, why not learn a specialized skill that you can put to use right away? 25% of McDonald's managers nowadays have college degrees, according to one article. Find out what you like to do, love to do, and make money doing it.
Response: 200 words minimum, explain your answer by telling me whether you believe liberal arts is the way to go or specialized is for you. You can use some of the reasons that I have provided here or come up with some of your own. If you can't decide, explain why you can't decide.
Due Wednesday, March 25 by the beginning of class.
21 comments:
Truman Levitt
It is hard to decide between liberal arts education or specialized education but I would say it would be best for everyone to have a choice of what type they want. My idea is to have basically 2 different schools in each single school building. Half of the school would be liberal arts and the other half could have small classes of about 10-20 different students and the classes would be all specialized. I believe this because no matter what happens there will be a disagreement on if the school should have one or the other and to solve that problem why not just have both? That way everyone would be able to choose what method helps them learn the best. It could be argued that it would be too expensive but maybe the schools could be funded more money to run the school. It is already sort of like this because in high school, middle school, and elementary school you have a liberal arts education and in collage you can choose if you want to stick with that or go into a specialized subject or study. This is all just my personnel opinion there is no correct way it is all completely a matter of opinion.
I believe that a specialized education would be a better fit for me in today’s world. I already have an idea of what I want to do for a living. Since I have a good idea as to what I want to do with my life, I feel like a specialized education would be better. If I could start taking the classes I needed and could train to become a surgeon now, I would be a better and more prepared surgeon in the future. If I had a specialized education, then the amount of mistakes I made once I got my job in the real world would decrease. Additionally, if I already know what I love to do, why should I waste time learning something else that I may also enjoy, but not as much as that one main thing? If I know I want to be a surgeon, then what would be the point of me learning how to paint? Also, I would be able to make more money, quicker if I were specialized in one specific job versus being good at multiple things. In addition, a specialized education doesn't mean I wont touch upon any other subjects. A specialized education means I focus on one definite topic, but still learn about other things in other subjects therefore, I will still have a diverse education. –Annabelle H.
I think having a system of learning where first you learn the basis of many things and then you can choose what specialization you’ll be going into is a good choice for me. I think so because first, I’d like to know what all my options are. If I never take a class on painting, how willI ever know if I like it? I could just as well go into a specialization of Algebra without ever knowing that there’s something else out there that I would like better, like scuba diving or architecture. So I think a general knowlegde first, is a good choice, and then afterwards, once you’ve decided what you’d like to do, then you can go into a specialized system. At this point, I feel like specialization is a better route than continuing on with simply having a general information about things. This way, you can learn more about the things you like, or like to do, and makes you more efficient at whatever it is. Also, there are more jobs created in this way, and the people at these jobs have a better source of information on their work, and would therefore be more efficient. So, personally, I feel like the system we currently have is a better choice for me. This does not, however, include the methods of schooling.
I believe that a specialized education should be best but with the option to take different courses that don’t directly pertain to your interest, for example if someone loves science they should also be able to take a math class if they choose to do so. I think specialized education is the best because most graduates will be able to get a job directly out of school, and make decent money to help pay for their student loan. Another reason I choose specialized education is so people very interested in one class are not forced, but have the option, to take irrelevant classes which could distract them from their main goal, and hurt the person in the future. It could hurt them because they might be spending too much time in a class they don’t particularly have interest in, and would lose their enjoyment of their preferred class. Having specialized education also allowed more job openings. This is because you won’t have one person working multiple jobs, when multiple people could be working on different things. One of the most important reasons specialized education works better then liberal arts is because it leaves less room for error. If you have someone who is an expert at what they do working on a project there is less of chance they would mess up, if you have someone not as specialized they could mess up because they had less time focusing on that specific subject.
Rebecca L:
Between liberal arts and specialized education I favor both educations. I do not think I can choose either of the educations because both have their positive points and they both have their negative points. In a liberal arts education, or Renaissance based education, people get to learn many different skills that can be used in the future. Why do you need to only have one skill? You shouldn’t have to. You should be allowed to be good at many things and be able to use those special skills in more than one way. Also you could get more money in special cases, because people will come to you for multiple things and you could have multiple jobs. The negative of liberal arts, is that you may not become perfect at all of them. For a specialized education the positives are that you can be able to be perfect at the one thing you do. You can always keep learning new things and perfecting the way you do that job. I think you are more likely to get a job quicker if you have a specialized education because people will look at what you do first. If they see you have more than one skill, they may think you aren’t as good in the one they want you for. But if you have only one skill they will see that you are extremely talented in that one skill. The negative of specialized is that you are not able to branch out and try different things. Both educations are good and you should be able to choose which education you want.
Personally, I would prefer a combination of both liberal arts education and specialized education. I believe the best strategy to have the best ratio of the two education types is to begin at a young age with the liberal arts learning. This way, the principles nof creative thinking and broader approaches to problem solving with be instilled at a young age. With these skills already present, as the child gets older, it will be able to choose which skill it would like to continue specialized education with from all of the options they studied while still learning with the liberal arts method. When the specialized skill is chosen, the child can take the concepts of creativity and open mindedness and apply it to their specialized education. This technique will prevent specialized workers from only being able to work in their field, because with the mind as a liberal arts learner, it will be easier to branch off to another field already connected to their current one. Learning with a combination of the two education types will prevent major unemployment from people only having the knowledge of one particular skill, and it will prevent people from being overwhelmed with too many job subjects.
Wallie
In my opinion specialized education is the correct way to learn and teach. I chose specialized because I think everybody should not learn the same material and should be allowed to choose a specific category once they are out of elementary because I think elementary is a good base to start forming your own learning path. I do not believe liberal arts are a good process for students to invest in because it is only bound to what the teachers and superintendant tell you. I think each human being should be allowed to think and decide what decisions are good for them and for their success in the future for their career. The teachers now don’t even ask what the students would like to do and that’s why class is so boring and nobody pays attention because no one cares. People only care about what they enjoy doing not what teachers tell them because then it feels like you are being commanded to do work that you don’t want to do for your future that you don’t want to have. Overall I think the education department should listen to ideas and at least experiment so we can have a better future. Milan M
I don’t know weather specialized or liberal arts education is better, they both bring things to the people that benefits them. Specialized brings that factor of going deeper into that field and having way more knowledge about somebody else, but with the liberal arts people who don’t know what they want to do when they are in or out of college can study more subjects to get a feel of what they want to do. Liberal arts also has a different skills set to it, you need to be able to be a creative thinker, be able to analyze, problem solving and looking at the big picture this lifestyle would be hard for some people who just don’t have this skills set because this stuff cannot be taught in school you cannot force these skills on people, that’s why you would also need specialized because their skills are written and critical thinking. Some people like many different subjects in school but they just don’t want to focus on one they’d like to still learn about many different things but other kids know what they want to do when they enter high school, so its kind of hard just picking one of these ideas because everyone is different and they have different ideas about what they want to do with their lives.
Alena
In my opinion, a specialized learning style is better for myself and others. The main reason why I think this is better is because people have a certain thing that they are good at. In a liberal learning style people may know how to do everything, but they are not exactly good at what they know. With specialized learning people can not only know how to do something, but be really good at it. I’ll use a doctor for example. If a doctor is really good at what he does than he has done his job. On the other hand, if a doctor is good at writing and playing sports, but doesn’t know what a needle is, that’s not a good thing. Another reason why I think it would be better to have specialized learning is because the money you can make. If you can go to your next door neighbor to have your car fixed, then the mechanics that get paid to do that aren't really making any money. We would be missing one of the eight features of civilization, Job specialization. These are basically the two reasons why I would want this way. So if I had a choice, I would choose specialized.
Zak AbdulWasi
Brock Anderson
I think that a specialized education would be the best choice for me as a student. For a couple of reasons. One of which would have to be that im pretty sure what I want to dofor a career. So, beacause I know that, it would help to have my education specalized a little bit more into the career that I want as an adult. If it’s specailized more I can learn more about my career and go to a better college for that subject which would result in a better, higher paying job than if I had little education on it and went to a school not mainly for my career and get a not as good or high paying job. Another reason that I feel this way is that, not just because its specalized to you, doesn’t mean that your just going to cut out everything else completely. Youll still have other classes where you can get an overall understanding of other things as well. Now sure you may not know the other things as well had you gone with liberal arts but, if you already know what your going to do then why do you even need that other knowkledge anyways? If it doesn’t benefit you in the long run to know a little bit more about 2nd world war war or how to do a specific equation or what the cell cycle is or even how to write a book report perfectly then why waste the time doing it when you could be getting better at the thing that’s actually going to help you in your life.
I think that a liberal arts education would be the best for me. One reason is that I want to become an engineer when I get older, and lots of the technologies in the engineering field have machines doing the work for them so there wouldn’t be a lot of people working in those jobs anyways. With a liberal arts education you are trained in multiple skills so when I get fired one day, I can fall back to a different skill of mine. You also would have a bit of flexibility knowing that you a good in multiple fields. I think that a liberal arts education would be better for me because a lot of jobs are being taken over by machines and people with a liberal arts education can adapt and find another job quicker. Usually, people with liberal arts education are a bit smarter than people with a specialized education. This is because they are able to think out of the box and look at the big picture. This would come in handy if there was a big problem that your company needed you to solve. Even in college, you still need to take different types of classes like math and history so this could help you out in case you needed a new job. With a liberal arts education, you would have more flexibility to tackle a different job and there would always be a fall back plan. -Nicholas Ringler
Bear
For me I would choose a liberal education. This would be good for me because I don’t really like focusing on one topic for a long period of time. Also I’m very creative and like to be challenged by many tasks. A liberal education will be the best for me because I wouldn’t have to learn just one subject. I can learn many different ones and I will be more likely get a job I would want to do. I like hands on activities which means if I have a well-rounded education then I have more jobs to look at with hands on activities. I will be able to learn different life skills and later if I wanted to choose a job I might want to do for longer. With the help of a liberal education I can be able to help others who might not be as good with a topic than I am. Some of my strengths are thinking outside the box, thinking deeper, open to most ideas which are helpful with a liberal education. The people who get a specialized education will do well in life but that doesn’t mean they learn some of the skills they need. A liberal education fits me best right now because I don’t really know what I want to do when I grow up. So with a more well-rounded education it will make things a little easier for choosing what I might want to do when I get older.
Michelle Lis
I believe that liberal arts are better than specialized education because we could learn many different topics. For example: Leonardo Da Vinci he had many interests. He was an artist, engineer, inventor, and a sculptor. I believe people could be anything they want to be and you would want liberal arts education than specialized education. Also if I want to be a roboticist I wouldn’t learn about it if we had specialized education. Even though I also want to be a math teacher, I could still learn about it in liberal arts still because it’s still an interest. Maybe you’re very good at math or any subject you can be a teacher. If you’re good at art you can still go to a liberal arts school. I believe people should try different things. You may want to be an actor or a singer you could go to a liberal arts school because it’s a hobby and an interest. I think we all have a hobby that we’re really good at in something and we should show it off. People have trouble picking colleges to go to but they don’t think about what they want to be so I believe that the liberal arts school would be better than specialized education because people can choose to be whatever they want.
Rohna B.
I believe liberal arts education is the way to go for me rather than specialized. I chose liberal arts, because if you’re in a specialized education in college let’s say for criminal justice, you can get a job outside of the specialization at a restaurant. You don’t have to be fully skilled in a job, but you’re expected to be in a career. I love being skilled in many things, because I love having the knowledge and skills to do all the things I like and want to do. In liberal arts people are more creative, flexible, and think more analytically. In a specialized education, you wouldn’t be able to do these things, you would have to think the same way anyone else in your field would and wouldn’t have the freedom of being creative. You can go to college with a liberal arts or specialized education. There are more pros for specialized education in college, because according to Blog 31, people have a better chance of getting a job right after college. But in liberal arts you can have job during college dealing with one of many skills you have to offer. Also, in specialized education your job could be taken over by technology and what would you do then? Remember you went to college for that one skill. The right education is found in liberal arts, you would not ever get in a situation like this.
Luuk S.
In my opinion I believe we should continue to have a specialized type of education. I think this because as a kid sometimes t can be overwhelming to learn many thing a once and keeping all your skills up to date. If we continue to have a specialized education then we will be able to focus in on one subject and learn as much as we can on that one subject. Only specializing on one subject will allow us to have less stress of having to understand many things equally. As a student I would prefer to get a job as soon as I graduate and have a decent income. Every job you look at now is specialized which is another reason I would go with specialized education. Having a specialized education will allow me to also to make money doing what I enjoy and to live my life as I think it should be lived. Although we would learn a subject more specifically we would also learn extra subject on the side but less in-depth. Specialized education is better because we are all allowed to focus on the subject we love and like to talk about and we aren't bombarded with the stress of having to keep all your other subjects up to date.
I am all for specialized education because having a BA in English is worthless. people may say but our kids will not learn to be creative members of society, who cares. The liberal art wine tasters will also say but china is thinking about switching, well the I guess our iPhones will pieces of art. Also take two students one with a degree in business, the other with a degree in Asian art history; one student will be vacationing at the Hamptons the other will be using his art degree to make a cardboard sign.aside from being a loyal republican donor, specialized education also has the advantage of knowing a valuable skill, because last time I checked there is not a job for sitting in a circle and thinking about life because if that was the case I would be richer than bill gates.the tree speakers will also say that creativity is dying in america, that really hits me hard when I am listening to Grammy winning artists like Eminem and jay z while looking at Warhol paintings. In this world of uncertainty the only thing you can be certain about is your thousands of dollars in student debt is not wasted on a BA in English.
I believe that education should be a mix of Liberal and Specialized education. Students should spend their early years discovering what they would like to do with their life and experimenting with different options. Once they have chosen what they would like to do they should be able to continue down that specific path without any extra classes or distractions unrelated to what they have chosen. Specified education will save students a lot of heart-ache, instead of being forced into learning something they do not enjoy they can study something they truly love. If education is a mix of Liberal and Specialized, Liberal early on and Specified later, more students will be able to go straight from college into a job which means more students will be able to pay off student loans. Also Specialization allows students to focus on a certain path and excel at that path, if they have chosen to be specialized in this certain job they most likely enjoy job and put their heart into it. Teams of people who love and excel at what they’re doing will get the job done faster than people who have studied they bare minimum of the job along with a several other jobs.
Frances
I think that a liberal arts education is more fitting for me because I am very multitalented and I think I could go to a school where I could make those talents better than what they are now like art i am an OK artist i am not great but if I go to a school to help me be great than I might become famous. I think that I should have a liberal arts education because I think outside the box I am good at looking at the big picture and I am a critical thinker. I am also a drummer I play on a drum set im pretty good at that but I could get a lot better so I think that a liberal arts degree is the right choice because i could get a job almost right after I graduate. There are machines that can make drumming sounds but those sound gross and they don’t have the same attitude that a normal drummer would have like a sound board would just be you either pressing buttons or hitting pads but its not the same. So I think that a liberal arts degree is the better fit for me in today's world.
Daniel Yates
I feel like a specialized educated is a better fit for me in todays world. As someone who is intrested in arts and is planning on going to a college specialized in that area, there is no point in taking classes meant for doctors or engineers. There are very few specialized art classes to take here at Groves and as of my first year year I have already taken three out of the five available to me; drawing, painting, and graphic design. All though these classes are what really intrest me, I am thankful for the more liberal oppurtunities here as well. Just taking art classes isnt quite impressive. Gaining basic knowledge in subjects such as english, math, and english is pretty fundamental in todays world. A foundation in another language is also pretty helpful. Even if you are are only planning to go to college for one specific thing it’s optimal for a backround in other subjects to give you the option to branch out with jobs and not be limitid to just one specific area. Elementary and Middle schools are great with providing such liberal eduacation to students, and I think that really helps. While in highschool students realy do get the chance to become more specialized in certain subjects as they advance, I think it would be a better advantage for me and others if they offered more speciallized cources in fields other than science and english. When I move on to college to become more specialized in my field, I will be thankful for the liberal education I got in grade school.
Rebecca G. said,
I personally, am more of a liberal person, for many reasons. I feel that if I were taught in a more liberal fashion, my interests and talents would expand tramendously. This is because, if we had a Liberal Arts education, we wouldn’t only be focusing on one concept; we would try new things and discover our shocking abilities. This could help our society in so many ways. For example, if you just practice one task, then you are ignoring so many other possibilitites that you may never know exsisted. If I were to learn to play violin, paint, sing, dance, teach, act, and swim I might come upon what I might want to do in my future. Although, if I only learn to play the violin, I might not even have a successful career in my years ahead, and I would have waisted so much time playing violin when I could have accomplished more in life. This may be why, people form the Renissance were much more successful than a number of people in today’s culture. Also, if you were to practice so many talents for the correct amount of time, then the chances of you remembering those same skills and capabilities over the years, would be much higher than if you only did one
Rebecca G.
I believe both liberal arts and a specialized education both could be a good fit for me in today’s world. Given that I am not sure yet what field I would like to study, I think that the liberal arts education is a good fit for me. Elementary, middle and high school have this kind of set up, but I think once you know what you want to do you should be able to start studying it right away other than waiting for college. Right now I am undecided about what I want to do and I think if I went to a specialized school it could help my decision. Having a wide range of knowledge is very helpful, but I think if we have experts on certain things it will improve the quality of the work and the work environment. Though the training expert’s information may be dated it is also possible for them to learn and understand the new technology or new strategy that will be taking over. A specialized education is a better fit for me when I have found my interest because I would want a better understanding of what I’m trying to do with my life and would want to work with people that have similar goals as I do. Also if one person is good in one field and another person in another it’s always better to have two brains working in a project than one, especially if they both have had a better overall perspective. –Caroline C.
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