In the article, "What is a Liberal Education" by Donald Kagan, he goes on to give his definition of what a liberal education is. I actually enjoyed reading this article because he made a lot of key points and points of views in which I never really thought about. I actually enjoyed reading the first part of the article more than the second part of the article, I like reading about history im weird like that.
Kagan compares our way of education to that of in the 18th century. Not so much to prepare a person for a career but to "produce a well-rounded man who would feel comforatble and be accepted in the best circles of society and goet on in the world." I somewhat agree with this, a lot of people feel pressured to go to college not for a better job, but for the social acceptance of having a college degree. I feel that sometimes people who don' t have a college education are looked down upon by people who do have one.
Kagan also goes on to point out that in our society there is no "single body of knowlege" "that could readily serve as the basis for serious discussion of important questions and might, thereby, yield wisdom, there would be a far greater success than there is today." I disagree with Kagan. The single body of knowledge was being taught to us for almost twelve years. Kindergarden through high school everybody was taught mostly the same thing. Now that we are in college I think we should have the freedom to study whatever we please. I do support GE classes and think they are a great idea, but they should not all be the same. It would be boring if we were forced to take the same history classes, same english clasess, it would be just like high school again. We all have interests in a variety of subjects and we should have the freedom to choose to study whichever one we please, this is freedom is what makes our university such a great place.
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I agree with the whole concept of high school a a common ground. But i disagree with your opinion that GE classes are a good idea. General education classes are meant to produce well rounded students by exposing us to new information and education. But I find it ridiculous that I am forced to study something completely irrelevant to my goal for college. I entered college to become a civil engineer, and I don't feel like they should force their idea of a well rounded student upon me. If i want to become well rounded, I will do so. I don't feel the urge to pay for classes that do not aid me in receiving an engineering education. I didn't enter college to become well rounded, I entered college to prepare for a career in the feild of my choice.
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