Kelsey Briddle Keaton ENGL 1102-025 March 25, 2013

Philip Phenix, "The Topography of Higher Liberal Learning," The Phi Delta Kappan, vol.41,no.7 (1960): 307-312, In this article, Phenix, an educational philosopher describes and explains the features and benefits of a higher liberal learning. It is within all of the subjects of a liberal education that this map is drawn and how each individual subject within this map can efficiently supply people with the knowledge to participate and be an active contributor to this human experience. Phenix describes each subject that is involved in a liberal arts education and the goals of each pertaining to real life situations and events. Phenix literally draws a map of these subjects and explains the order and importance of each subject related to a liberal education. They are four circles within each other; the outer circle has subjects such as: math, physical science, biological science, social science, history, morals, gymnastics and the arts. Within the second circle is language, the next circle is philosophy while the inner most circle is religion. In Phenixs opinion, the map of a higher liberal learning begins with an understanding of language, philosophy and religion, while other subjects such as math, science and history help mold the discipline of an individual receiving a liberal education.

Throughout this article the reader is presented with the main elements of a higher liberal arts education and the aspects of each subject and how it pertains to the people who are participating in this higher learning. This is a very strong argument of the topography and in essence it displays all of these subjects linked together and how they all pertain to personal freedom and understanding of the world around them, if studied efficiently and fully understood. This type of learning is essential to those who wish to understand the necessities and freedoms that this type of education offers. This article helps me fully understand the characteristics of a liberal learning and the importance of the different fields of study as a whole. My inquiry deals with the benefits of a liberal education pertaining to peoples in poverty; this article allows me to begin my journey to understanding liberal education and its application on all humans including those of low social class. Finally, this article explains the importance of a liberal education and its benefits of being studied carefully and understanding the application of said knowledge and I will use this article as the basis of defending liberal arts subjects as a beneficial element towards society. The distinctive essential components of a liberal education I consider to be the following:

Mathematics, physical science, biological science, social science, history, morals, gymnastics, art, language, philosophy and religion. I believe that every well educated person should have a grasp of the fundamentals of these eleven areas and should understand how each is linked to the others within a totality of comprehension. Page 307-308 The study of social sciences should also familiarize the student with the use and

interpretation of statistics, which provide the mail tool for the quantitative study of social phenomena Page 309

The study of morals, if provided, should furnish the student with an illuminating array of

well analyzed options and principles for the guidance of responsible action Page 309 The aim of philosophic study so conceived is to develop in students the skill to ask

searching questions about methods and meanings in every department of intellectual endeavor and to construct a comprehensive rational outlook on the totality human experience Page 310311

Gudmund Iversen, "Statistics in Liberal Arts Education," The American Statistician, vol. 39, no. 1 (1985): 17-19. In this article, Iversen explains the importance of teaching statistics in part of a liberal education. This type of math requires a logical approach to situations and Iverson conveys this approach to liberal education and all of its subjects, such as science, philosophy, history etc. Iversen explains throughout the article that teaching statistics and adding it to the curriculum can highly affect the population today as well as the future. Iversen explains how adding this feature to the liberal education curriculum will expand thinking among individuals to a logical and reasoning approach to situations. This article is very sturdy at describing the effect of statistical learning throughout a liberal education helps one to explain and reason more logically, it has yet been added to the curriculum of this type of education. The article shows that purpose of teaching statistics and liberal education skills is to prepare students to approach events or situations with understanding and reasoning for a logical answer. This article examines the relationship between todays growing technology and its application to students with a liberal education being that there are not many

advances to apply with the students of a liberal education (this article is dated, so statistics may have changed due to tremendous advances since 1985). This article helps me understand why and how the application of statistical learning in the application of a liberal education can help people make seemingly logical decision making in life situations. While this is an aspect of mathematical learning, mathematics is a strong part of a liberal education, in which it pertains to approaching situations using a statistical approach to perform towards a reasonable outcome. This piece also helps me understand some fundamentals of a liberal education as a whole and some definitions of a liberal education by Iversen. A liberal arts education is one that has a liberating effect on the person receiving this

education; it appeals to the higher ideals of human life and is not concerned with the necessity of learning specific methods and techniques for a trade or profession Page 17 A liberal education trains a person to understand the world better and become a

functioning, contributing member of this world Page 17 For many statisticians, our field becomes more than the rules and methods for dealing

with data; it becomes more than the rules and methods for dealing with days; it becomes a way of acting and thinking about the world. Page 17 In short, statistics concerns itself with how we can gain from limited information an

understanding of the seemingly random world around us Page 18 If the purpose of a liberal education is to prepare us to function as members of society, it

follows that statistics is an essential part of liberal arts education. Page 18

Franklyn Turbak, and Robbie Berg, "Robotic Design Studio: Exploring the Big Ideas of Engineering in a Liberal Arts Environment," Journal of Science Education and Technology, 11, no. 3 (2002): 237-253, In this article Turbak and Berg discuss the effect of engineering programs within liberal arts programs and schools. They talk about the difference between a liberal and a liberal arts education, the stereotypes of a liberal arts school and some answers to why engineering is not offered in liberal arts schools. They argue that engineering is a part of a liberal arts subject because of the freedom to create original artifacts rather than conducting experiments with a known outcome. Turbak and Berg also mention some of the stereotypes of what engineering is and what it is all about and how it could or should be in the liberal arts curriculum. Towards the end of this article is a description of a robot design studio and how students organize their thoughts and trials towards an effective learning environment. In understanding engineering, one may think that it is all about breaking something down only to build it back up again, although it is a starting point, the main concept of engineering is liberating from the reiteration of a daily routine. This article has a solid viewpoint about engineering and how the fundamental of it allows a student to create original objects that allow personal growth towards understanding how things work and why they work the way they do. Turbak and Bergs view on engineering displays one in which all humans could benefit from and its presence is slowly slipping away. This article helps me understand the relationship between liberal arts programs and nonliberal arts programs. Before reading this article, my view of a non-liberal arts program was very different, now I understand the basis and fundamentals of a liberal arts education and the impact

that engineering can have towards the goals of a liberal arts education. This article displays many aspects of my inquiry and the argument supports the benefits of this type of education. The purpose of a liberal arts education is to give students the necessary set of intellectual

tools to live fulfilled lives, not to give a narrow professional training Page 237 The use of word liberal to describe this kind of education dates to the ancient Greeks.

They conceived of the liberal arts as an education for free men namely those who had the luxury of pursuing ideas and thoughts without the burden of having to do something as mundane as making things. Page 237 An oft-touted advantage of a liberal arts education is that it encourages students to cross

traditional barriers between disciplines and make connections between them Page 238 An important goal of a liberal arts education is to allow students to understand and

appreciate the modern world and to be able to make informed decisions about critical issues Page 238 Partington, Geoffrey. "Liberal education and its enemies." Canadian Journal of Education. 9. no. 4 (1984): 395-410. Partington explains and describes where and how a liberal education has been defined throughout the ages and the main contributors for the ideas of a liberal education. He specifically discusses the reasons that liberal education has such enemies that are against free learning and for the education of a trade or profession. He argues that a liberal education frees the mind for an openness of the truth of reality while non-liberal educations degrade the mind to only focus on non-real (monetary value) of things or objects.

This article displays a very central argument for the benefits of a liberal education, and the benefits clearly outweigh the pursuit for a non-liberal education. Partington is strong at explaining the reasons for the development of this liberal education, although it was much different when the main ancient contributors were alive. The argument exclaims that the goal was to liberate men who aimed towards the truth of all. This article really helped me understand the basis on which a liberal education was formed, why it is still important to pursue and the main reasons that it is going to be beneficial to all who properly understand its basis. Also this article helped me recognize what a liberal education was in ancient times and how it is compared to todays liberal education curriculum, which is very different. Now I can see the difference between what a liberal education was meant to be and what it really is today.

Essential characteristics of Liberal Education include a central concern with the

educationally valuable and with the development of mind as a whole, rather than in preparation for specific employment, and an acceptance of hierarchy within knowledge. Page 395 Liberal education should seek to promote respect for intelligence and virtue in all their

forms. Page 405 Three features seem at first to be essential to the concept of liberal education. The first is a

central concern with intrinsically worthwhile activities which, it is held, persons ought to pursue if they are free of constraint and necessity or, in other words, when they possess leisure. The second is that liberal education cannot be closely linked to preparation for a particular trade or

profession. A third is that some hierarchy can and should be established between the objects and modes of knowledge available to us. Page 396

Freedman, James. Idealism and Liberal Education. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1996. Print. In this chapter of Idealism and liberal education Freedman describes the teaching of values of a liberal education and how the courses are displaying very moral values throughout the education process. Also he describes the effects of professors who abide to a high value of morals and values (not religious morals and values, but natural morals and values about the universe) when teaching or lecturing a classroom and how their demeanor can affect the students own morals and values. Freedman describes some of the reasons that values of the students can compare to the learning environment and the latter effect on the student in their lives. This article was very imposing of how we should be taught various values, which is a very weak argument when discussing liberation from the cookie cutter standard. When imposed ways of thinking and living are pushed too hard on people, it is very difficult to overcome. One must let the student inquire about such subjects then relay them with tools of creating a visual representation of the natural way of values and ways of living. This chapter helps me understand that a liberal education is a very beneficial way of learning and does in fact liberate the human being from repetitive habits and allows for a clearer understanding of the surrounding universe. I feel that the value of a liberal education is being diminished and this book helped lift my hopes of inquiring into this subject. I also understand

the basis for which a liberal education is supposed to be and not what the mass media is projecting it to be.

The aspiration of liberal education is to help students appreciate that the work of life is to

grapple with the ambiguity of the moral universe and to ask searching questions addressed at defining the dilemma of being human, especially those questions that will unsettle their most routinely held beliefs. Page 56 The aspiration of liberal education is to help students develop the intellectual, emotional,

and moral resources to cope effectively with those desperate moments of disillusion that inevitably will darken their lives and could the assumptions that for the foundations of their being. Page 57 The morality of a professors example if perhaps the most powerful force in the teaching

of values. By the power of their example, professors engaged in liberal education convey the humane significance of such values as inquiry, integrity, empathy, self-discipline and craftsmanship. These are values that inform the academic process. Page 58 Liberal education is a process of inquiry, not a fixed body of knowledge, and its goal is the

achievement of those intellectual and moral capacities that will enable students to lead lives that are thoughtful, reflective, inquisitive and satisfying. Page 56