Penny Thoughts: The Blessings of a Liberal Education

When we begin to assess the importance of education, we cannot overlook the blessings of gaining a liberal education through the study of classical literature and the examination of concepts and ideas which have shaped the world thus far.  Let me assure you that I mean “liberal” in the context of broad exposure to long-held traditions of learning and pedagogy, and not the confusion associated with liberal politics.

Nothing can take the place of a mind disciplined in the arts, music, literature, philosophy, political theory, history, and language facility.  Granted the necessity of given technical training and specific instruction is functional, but its scope has a very narrow reach by design.  For example, we don’t need to clutter building specifications with grandiose applications and esoteric notions of symmetry, although some avant-garde architects have left lasting impressions on how we blend form and function.

Perhaps some readers have languished through a literature course and were disappointed when they could not comprehend the intent or the approach of the author.  Many of us have avoided a philosophy course because it served no purpose in our world constructs.  Most of us have either attempted to avoid or were forced to negotiate studying a foreign language. 

In the final analysis, it has been those same courses, nebulous and diaphanous when we ventured to challenge them, that have driven us to an appreciation of who we are or have become in later years.

It is the study of the classic disciplines which allows us to gain an appreciation of those things which comprise our world, and a sense of our places in it. 

When we appreciate a thing, we participate in its essence, its being, its life.  Through that appreciation we sense what we are compared to the expectations of an external world with its very exacting demands.  Ultimately, we find a real path to navigate and begin to see that external world in a new light because we have glimpsed into a realm few even know exists.

This is ours because we have studied the classics and the classical ideas which have formed the parameters of the world as we know it.  Such study adds depth to our lives and vision to our approaches to it.  And sooner or later, educated souls seem to almost drift to the reality of knowledge for the sake of knowledge through classical study.

I have two friends who are accomplished engineers.  They are my age and have carved successful careers with their educations in the very structured confines of their chosen field of study.  About three years ago when we were all watching the Iron Bowl our halftime discussion meandered to what young folks study today.  A mention of one of the player’s major precipitated the discussion.

In the midst of the conversation, one of my friends began to espouse the virtues of Jungian psychology and the other asked me about my field of philosophy.  It seems that both of them had ventured out of their career disciplines back into the liberal studies which they had avoided as undergraduates.  One had actually taken his vocational study of Jung to such a level that his company had given him a project of directing psychological studies of employees.

The other friend had become fascinated with the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and had known that I had written my first dissertation on Nietzsche’s philosophy of education.  Hence, he wanted to banter about the often-cryptic epithets which are the manifestation of Nietzsche’s writings.

As halftime resumed, they both began to lament the fact that they had not taken on these classical giants during their engineering studies and expressed envy for the degree I had pursued.  I assured them that we all had pursued what we pursued because each of us was convinced that at the time it was the right thing to do for each of us. 

Still, it was heartening to know that a basic tenet of my world view was reinforced completely unsolicited.  The respect my friends had exhibited for that kind of classical discipline confirmed my belief that the blessings of a liberal education round out the individual, so that critical thinking, self-confidence, and sincere respect for the world in which we find ourselves become the hallmarks of individual human discovery.