Why Study the Liberal Arts?

The liberal arts introduce us to experiences that help define us as human beings.

One of the goals of a college education is to prepare students to compete for the best jobs available in our society and to give them the skills and information that they need to succeed in this world. But students want more than this from their college experience - they want to be challenged to think about the classic questions concerning the meaning of life.

A liberal arts education prepares us to develop our fullest human capacities. This idea is embodied in the General Education requirements at Lake Erie College. Students begin by developing the basic academic skills they need for success in college and in life. They then move on to sharpen their ability to think critically. One of the most important challenges for students is to learn how to read sophisticated texts. Once mastered, it should be possible to learn without teachers. Books can take the place of teachers as a student moves past the college years. This is essential if one is to continue to learn new things throughout life. Lake Erie College also emphasizes the importance of being aware of the foundations of other cultures and values; this is a crucial part of a liberal arts education. Finally, students are encouraged to immerse themselves in the different approaches to perceiving the world represented by art, natural science, and social science. At its core, Lake Erie College is about a quest. This is a place to struggle with new ideas and new perspectives and to have one’s fundamental beliefs challenged. Our goal is to introduce students to the beauty of classical thought, the joy of the arts, the depth and majesty of the sciences. Here we attempt to engage the minds of students to think in ways that they have not thought before, to learn to speak the languages of other people and to become better, more complete human beings.

Since most people change jobs several times during their lives, a liberal arts education is always stronger than a technical education for success in life. Lake Erie College teaches the skills and provides the broad education that one can apply in every field of work, and this makes it a good investment for anyone’s future. But a liberal education is designed to do much more than provide for success. By itself, success can be empty and meaningless. A liberal arts education helps us answer what Chaim Potok calls the “two o’clock in the morning questions.” When these questions come to us, we need to be prepared to answer them. We need to have a sense that life has meaning for us. This is why Lake Erie College has played such a central role in the lives of students who have studied here. At its most serious level, this is why we should study the liberal arts.