Redeeming the Liberal Arts

Autor/in	Botstein, Leon
Titel	Redeeming the Liberal Arts
Quelle	In: Liberal Education, 104 (2018) 4 PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0024-1822
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Liberal Arts; Educational Attitudes; Educational Philosophy; Misconceptions; Tuition; Costs; Student Financial Aid; Educational Finance; Definitions; Elementary Secondary Education; Higher Education; Educational Change; High School Students; Dual Enrollment; Imagination; Language Skills; Cultural Education; Information Technology; Cultural Awareness; Educational History + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Educational attitude; Bildungsverhalten; Erziehungseinstellung; Bildungsphilosophie; Erziehungsphilosophie; Missverständnis; Unterweisung; Unterricht; Cost; Kosten; Finanzielle Beihilfe; Studienfinanzierung; Studienförderung; Bildungsfonds; Begriffsbestimmung; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Bildungsreform; High school; High schools; Student; Students; Oberschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Doppelstudium; Language skill; Sprachkompetenz; Culture; Education; Kulturelle Bildung; Kulturelle Erziehung; Informationstechnologie; Cultural identity; Kulturelle Identität; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte
Abstract	Few subjects have suffered as much as the liberal arts from the power of stale rhetoric, hollow appeals to tradition, and journalistic misrepresentation. Leon Botstein, begins this article by saying that together, these three factors have generated and legitimated public skepticism about the liberal arts. A liberal arts education (which is rarely identified with the acquisition of scientific literacy) seems either a useless enterprise or a decorative habit cherished by the elite. The brutal facts of a demographic decline in the college-bound population in the decades ahead and the steady decrease in net tuition revenues since 2007 sparked the need to bring down the cost of a college education through discounts and financial aid. Those factors have added a severe financial dimension to a wider crisis of confidence for liberal arts institutions. While the existential predicament now faced by liberal arts education is widely understood, less well understood is how to surmount the mix of ignorance and falsehoods about the liberal arts. Botstein, affirms that there are no superficial remedies, and firmly believes that responses to this dilemma must be bold, substantive and deal with the definition of liberal learning. Botstein makes the argument that the ideals and principles of the liberal arts are not the problem, and notes that the practice of liberal arts education has suffered from neglect. He identifies and describes a list of ten long standing issues that he thinks must be confronted by liberal arts colleges if they are to redeem the promise of liberal arts education. Bothstein maintains that the time has come to shorten the length of elementary and secondary schooling and start college, with a liberal education, two years earlier than the current practice permits. The article closes with a discussion of liberal arts early college programs for students from the ninth to the twelfth grades as one way to reform how higher education is separated from elementary and secondary education. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Association of American Colleges and Universities. 1818 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: 800-297-3775; Tel: 202-387-3760; Fax: 202-265-9532; e-mail: pub_desk@aacu.org; Web site: http://www.aacu.org/publications/index.cfm
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01