The Importance of a Liberal Arts Education

Developing Critical Thinking, Social Responsibility, and Creativity

Oct 18, 2009

Liberal arts courses are typically prerequisites for later studies, and though they may not directly apply to a future degree area, are vitally important for education.

College is an environment where contentions are encountered, where one’s values and convictions manifest, and where a direction toward a productive life course is developed. This is true no matter what branch of knowledge is pursued, and with studies formatted through general liberal arts courses, students gain a broad knowledge to help jump-start their professional development and educational interest.

Many students though view prerequisites as "blow-off" courses that are not essential to their major. These classes, even if seemingly extraneous to a certain course of education, are the framework of later knowledge. Because of the eclectic curriculum that encompasses a liberal arts education, students can develop the social responsibility and creativity that helps sustain the improvement of society. Most people eventually focus on a specialized area within a certain school or discipline, but gain knowledge that is initially refined and developed through relative courses of study such as: literature, language, science, philosophy, and history.

The Value of Critical Thinking

A liberal arts degree covers a vast area of subjects which helps lead to broad-minded critical thinking. It provides the means to examine arguments and ideas in a comprehensive manner, and provides the rationale and ability to think with multiple perspectives in mind. This development in critical thinking can lead individuals to become conscientious about social responsibilities and to extract the full range of potential for creative thinking; two essential parts of development through college. All students should be encouraged to consider the two subsequent notions that pertain to fulfilling a liberal arts education. These are the development of social responsibility and creative thinking.

Development of Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is one of the most paramount developmental outcomes that college can produce. After one has gained enough self-knowledge through the education process, a focus on the improvement of society can derive. Having a notion of social responsibility is something that is connected with maturation and experiences, and as one develops through a system of liberal arts education an engagement in community endeavors and social service activities can evolve. The fields of life sciences, like psychology or sociology, emphasize the individual’s role in the community and should be an important focal point for all disciplines within the college setting.

Development of Creativity

Through an array of courses in a liberal arts degree, a personal growth and wisdom emerges that helps with the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Creativity helps the individual solve novel problems and provides new ways to approach the ever changing societal landscape. The individual develops a more dynamic creativity, and so develops resilience through problem solving skills and a greater willingness to learn. Since learning propounds more learning, these novel perspectives can help the student learn by more abstract thinking. The prodigious power of creativity is another paramount reason to appreciate a liberal arts education.

Liberal College Development

With a liberal arts curriculum of study, a self-growth can take place that provides the incentive to pursue potential endeavors that before where not considered feasible. The general growth and wisdom that comes from life experience can be augmented by the creativity and critical thinking skills developed through liberal arts courses, which also prompt further intellectual curiosity for many disciplines, and provides personal motivation to continue educating one's self throughout life and understanding novel topics of inquiry, thus complimenting the learning experience.

The copyright of the article The Importance of a Liberal Arts Education in Curriculum Issues is owned by Joseph Wilner. Permission to republish The Importance of a Liberal Arts Education in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.