Liberal Arts Education Analysis

Importance of Liberal Arts Education

Liberal arts education gives the opportunity to learn from different sectors not restricting the students within one discipline. By engaging students in different activities which deal with culture and humanities, liberal arts education inspires them to think critically, to solve the problems of the society they live in. Liberal arts education creates quality graduates who can think and write. Sigurdson explains the importance of liberal arts in his article, “Why Study the Liberal Arts?” saying that liberal arts education does not provide the students with a specific major but prepares them for the work world with ‘an invaluable set of employability skills, including the ability to think for themselves,

To define ‘critical thinking’, Khemani says, “Critical thinking is the logical result of being able to simultaneously synthesize multiple ideas in one’s mind.” In article “Recent Study Shows that 55% of International Leaders Have Liberal Arts Degrees”, Perkins presents Barna Donovan’s argument about liberal arts education’s importance, saying that it teaches students how to think “critically [and] analytically, and how to use logic and reason to find facts and truth”. Similar to that William J. Lennox Jr. and Mary T. Spoto emphasize the importance of liberal arts education for developing critical thinking by saying that students not only complete a major but also come to a new ‘level of understanding, problem-solving and creativity through exploring ideas, comparing theories as well as arguing on different interpretation’. In the article, “In Defense of the Liberal Arts” Wallace says that the liberal arts are good at teaching the validity of different arguments on the same point based on different perspectives. Adding to that he compares liberal arts with a canvas where there is no existence of black and white rather it is colored in gray in order to imply how liberal arts education emphasizes on the acceptance of different opinion which creates the opportunity for critical thinking. To conclude the importance of liberal

According to Colvin, as future leaders, we need graduates who use their ‘intellectual prowess and analytical skill’ to search answers about the problems considering the related community. Adding to that, he says, “The knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary for effective leadership seem closely aligned with the desired learning outcomes of a liberal arts education, regardless of major” (35). Talking about leadership, Perkins presents a statement of Rebecca Hughes, Director of Education at the British Council in which she said that people with a broad cultural knowledge and academic training which inspire to look at human dimensions happen to lead and succeed as one of the vital elements of leadership is to ‘understanding people and cultures’. In the article “Great News! Your So-Called "Worthless" Liberal Arts Degree Actually Makes You a Better Leader”, Stacey Lastoe mentions about a notable found by the Development Dimensions International which is “humanities graduates did better than MBAs in a number of areas essential to performing as a leader”. In the article, “Recent Research Highlights the Benefits of a Liberal Arts Education” Eliana Osborn mentions the summarized findings of Richard A. Detweiler’s research and one of the findings was, “Adults with a liberal arts background were 30 to 100 percent more likely to show