The Case for Liberal Arts Education in a Time of Crisis – The New Republic

These qualities all compel us to look, think, and act beyond our self-interestto be ever mindful of the greater good. As faculty and students explore new ideas and fresh approaches to long-standing problems, they are thinking about the larger impact and societal implications of what they are learning and building. In a civic culture now grievously challenged to impress on us all the life-and-death consequences of our own actions in the public sphere, it is no exaggeration to designate these skills as nonnegotiable tools of survival.

The liberal arts also enable us to navigate other core challenges arising from our embattled civic ordersuch as climate change, inequality, mass incarceration, and immigrationwhile exploring broader, more inclusive conceptions of the common good. Exploring means questioning received truths, being open to new understanding and ways of knowing, to learning that the old things arent always the way you thought they were. This is the core method behind educational inquiry of all kinds.

When thinking this way, we are not simply reflecting on an issue or a problem in isolation; we are thinking through it. We are thinking with empathy and seeing in new ways the cultures, beliefs, and even realities that we once described as other.

This is how students begin to understand and appreciate the differences and the commonalities that exist across cultures, races, ethnicities, gender, and histories. They begin to recognize that, even though there are borders, we must embrace the borderless. This ultimately involves knowing and understanding science and mathematics, the humanities, the arts, and the social sciences by doing them. It is the what of educationthe content of any civic curriculum worthy of the name.

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The Case for Liberal Arts Education in a Time of Crisis - The New Republic