Liberal arts education: Difference between revisions
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* [http://www.catholicity.com/encyclopedia/l/liberal_arts,seven.html CatholiCity: Catholic Encyclopedia] |
* [http://www.catholicity.com/encyclopedia/l/liberal_arts,seven.html CatholiCity: Catholic Encyclopedia] |
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* [http://www.collegenews.org CollegeNews.org: News from America's Leading Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities] |
* [http://www.collegenews.org CollegeNews.org: News from America's Leading Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities] |
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* [http://www.usyd.edu.au/liberalstudies/] |
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[[Category:Academic disciplines]] |
[[Category:Academic disciplines]] |
Revision as of 04:29, 3 April 2007
The term liberal arts has come to mean studies that are intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills, rather than more specialized occupational, scientific, or artistic skills.
The term liberal in liberal arts is from the Latin word liberalis, meaning "appropriate for free men", and they were contrasted with the servile arts. The liberal arts thus initially represented the kinds of skills and general knowledge needed by the elite echelon of society, whereas the servile arts represented specialized tradesman skills and knowledge needed by persons who were employed by the elite.
In the history of education, the seven liberal arts comprised two groups of studies: the trivium and the quadrivium. Studies in the trivium involved grammar, dialectic (logic), and rhetoric; and studies in the quadrivium involved arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. These liberal arts made up the core curriculum of the medieval universities.
The scope of the liberal arts has changed with society. It once emphasised the education of elites in the classics; but, with the rise of other humanities during the Age of Enlightenment, the scope and meaning of "liberal arts" expanded to include them.
In the United States, liberal arts colleges are still a particular kind of higher education institution that are typified by their rejection of more direct vocational education during undergraduate studies. Students at these schools typically have to take a set of general education requirements including natural science, social science, political science, history, writing/literature, math, and art/music.[citation needed] Following completion of their undergraduate studies at liberal arts colleges, graduates often do obtain specialized training by going to other institutions, such as professional schools (for instance, in business, law, medicine, or theology) or graduate schools.
In modern academia, the Arts are usually grouped with or a subset of the Humanities. Some subjects in the Humanities are history, linguistics, literature, and philosophy.
While non-existent in the traditional liberal arts, but common among many contemporary American undergraduate liberal arts curricula, are such topics as theatre, painting, fashion design, women's studies, gender studies, pedagogy, journalism, business, physics (as separate from astronomy), chemistry, biology, geology, agriculture, medicine, physiology, dentistry, pharmacology, engineering, computer science.
Institutions outside the United States that have been inspired by U.S. liberal-arts colleges include International Christian University, which was established after World War II as the first American-style college in Japan, the European College of Liberal Arts in Germany, and Ashesi University in Ghana. In the Netherlands, three liberal arts colleges have been founded over the last decade. This category of higher education does not exist in the United Kingdom, and the term "liberal arts" is very little used in any contemporary context in the UK though the University of Glasgow offers a comprehensive MA Liberal arts degree at its main campus and the Crichton Campus in Dumfries.
While the concept is rarely expressed in Australia, it is presently becoming more influential in Melbourne. In that city, Victoria University now offers a two year "Diploma of Liberal Arts". Additionally, the University of Melbourne is becoming a US style graduate school, offering generalist undergraduate degrees similar to a liberal arts degree in the US.
See also
- Great Books
- Shimer College
- The Arts
- Dante's Divine Comedy and Convivio where he drew a connection between the liberal arts and the seven astrological planets.
- Master of Arts in Liberal Studies
Further reading
- Charles Blaich, Anne Bost, Ed Chan, and Richard Lynch. Defining Liberal Arts Education. Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, 2004.
- Friedlander, Jack. Measuring the Benefits of Liberal Arts Education in Washington's Community Colleges. Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Community Colleges, 1982a. (ED 217 918)
- Blanshard, Brand. The Uses of a Liberal Education: And Other Talks to Students. (Open Court, 1973. ISBN 0-8126-9429-5)
- Wriston, Hénry M. The Nature of a Liberal College. Lawrence University Press, 1937.
- Joseph, Sister Miriam. The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric. Paul Dry Books Inc, 2002.
- Winterer, Caroline.The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910 Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
External links
- Philosophy of Liberal Education
- Liberal Arts at the Community College
- A Descriptive Analysis of the Community College Liberal Arts Curriculum
- The Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts
- Academic Commons
- CatholiCity: Catholic Encyclopedia
- CollegeNews.org: News from America's Leading Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities
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