Liberal Arts

I have learned a great deal about the liberal arts education I am currently receiving.  I have learned of the importance of being a well-rounded person, in essence a Renaissance man (woman), and feel that I better understand the purpose of a liberal arts education.  We have discussed the different aspects of the liberal arts (historical, aesthetic, values, and empirical) and why all of these are important in life.  Different professors spoke to us on the different aspects and attempted to explain why their aspect was the most important and vital aspect in a liberal arts education.  We were told how nothing works without history and the arts and religion and science.  For example, history is important because everything has a past and history is not just a list of facts.  Many people think of history as dates to memorize, but the liberal arts show how history has an impact on everyday life by connecting the past and the present.  Understanding the arts is also important because it gives a unique way to convey the ideas presented by other arts.  Like, art history combines art and history to better understand both.  Religion is also a basic part of human life that is vital in all societies.  By understanding religion, one can better understand the culture one is studying and the way of life in the society.  The final aspect I listed above is science.  Science is very important because it helps explain how the world works and provides a ground for comparison with the religious view of the world.  However, I must admit that what I learned was that all of the aspects are equally important and when any one of them is taken out of a program something major is lost.  Schools that focus only on math and science or only on aesthetics, while preparing their students for a specific career, do little to prepare them for a well-rounded life.  A liberal arts education, I have found, helps create the ideal of the Renaissance man, or woman, who knows a decent amount about everything, not just a lot about one thing.  Although we will all eventually choose a major and narrow our work to a subject, we already will have the general knowledge that will help us succeed in the world today.  In my opinion, that is why a liberal arts approach is the best approach for higher education and is the best sort of education to prepare you for life in the highly competitive world in which we live.