(Pic: Barcelona LSA , Fall 2009)My fellow year, Yang, quoted Aristotle in his article about liberal arts education, " its good to know how to play the flute, but don't play it too well".
For two years, I have been struggling to understanding whether liberal arts education is truly embraced in this prestigious institution. Since freshmen year, I have taken a wide range of classes: from political anthropology, drawing, international politics to multiracial identity, thinking that I am enriching my self besides the knowledge I am receiving. I even continued my Spanish lessons even though as a mandarin native speaker, I do not have a language requirement to fulfill. I ended up taking 5 courses in Spanish, including an LSA in Barcelona. My parents struggle to understand what exactly I am learning and think most of the time I am having fun.
Well, fun is finally over as Sophomore Spring approached. I came back to Dartmouth in the Winter, only to find myself flipping frantically through the coursebook pages and browsing the different departments' homepage. I have not consider my major, not to mentioned careful calculation of distribution required to graduate. Many have learn the art of "killing two birds with one stone" , where they choose course that fulfill both major and distribution courses. In comparison, I became the idiot who seems to be wasting half of the time shopping for "interesting" courses.
I used to be motivated back then, when President Wright speaks about "embracing the confusion that liberal arts bring us" in his 2009's graduation speech; when successful alum/TV producer like Paul Lazarus' 76 , talks about chasing after "exciting projects" in Hanover, and how he appreciates the process of " learning how to learn, rather than anything in particular."
But despite how Dartmouth prides itself with its liberals art education, the liberal arts narrative is constantly challenged by " practicality" and the "learning by doing" arguments. A Dartmouth reader thinks its a luxurious question to think about the vivacity of liberal arts education when Dartmouth as a brand would have been enough to open many doors of opportunity for its student.
Thus, I am not surprise to find more than 100 students each year major in Government and Economics but only 25 students ( year 2003) opted for the only Geography department ( that was argued a "core" of liberal arts education due to its crossed-discipline focus) in Ivy League. More students flocked to resume building courses such as Mathematical Finance and Computer Science so that they could be prepared for the ever emphasized corporate recruiting. In her article, Kieley reported that "The entire recruiting process disproportionately favors economics majors."
Yes, we are told over and over again, that we are not taking course for a potential career; we have to make full use of the vast resources of Dartmouth to maximize our learning experience. Ironically, I find myself slowly shifted toward the "practically" aspect of my education. After all, I am an international student who eventually has to think about her future ( to stay or not to stay in the land of opportunity). I applied for unpaid internship in New York to test the waters of the 'afterlife' of Dartmouth. I decorate my resume with the different jobs on campus and taking leadership in student organizations. Whether I do it for the passion or for the future career is no longer clear to me.
Funny enough, I opted for a Geography major and am taking Painting class. And just today, I received a note that I am accepted to a FSP to Morroco next Spring. Perhaps I still have some faith in myself , that even though I might be pressured to be practical, my heart is still in love with the liberal arts education, for it gave me amazing, unimaginable choices to learning.
Your post raises an issue that has long bothere me, and that is the fact of the distribution requirements, which I think too often do not benefit students' educations in meaningful ways. Am I "just filling" a distrib by taking Rocks for Jocks? If I am, what course am I NOT taking that really might inspire me and make a difference in my life? Are distribs REALLY about ensuring students a well-rounded education, or are they the institution's way of making sure that classes will be filled? Perhaps we should be thinking beyond disciplinary distributions and start to think across the disciplines? Make interdisciplinary work more common at the college?
ReplyDeleteAren't connections and patterns among disparate fields the real "stuff" of the liberal arts?
Si Jie,
ReplyDeleteI can complete relate to everything you wrote in your post. Like you, this year I have picked my class based on what is interesting to me, and have no real idea of what I want my major to be. I understand your desire to take classes that appeal to you and I admire that you stick to what interests you.
@ Gocsik: In some circumstances I think that distribs aren't particularly helpful and people take random classes to fulfill them. But in other circumstances I do think that distribs expose people to take classes they wouldn't have otherwise. For example, I probably wouldn't have known anything about this class but I needed to fulfill my art distrib. I am incredibly thankful that I took this class and I have really enjoyed it. I am pretty sure that if I didn't have to worry about fulfilling distribs, I never would have taken it.