Open Education: Liberal Arts isn't just for Liberals
Spoiler Alert: I am a liberal and biased as such...
I have the privilege of working with intelligent people, Engineers mostly. As such I have first hand experience with the Bachelor of Science phenomenon. As recently mentioned they have the 'person with a hammer' mentality. This is a perspective gained by education and training that is focused on problem solving in the moment. The difficulty is that with only a 'hammer' they see most if not all problems as 'nails'.
Liberal Arts education demands a completely different approach to problem solving. As we become the sum of our experience, both life and learning, we are compelled to synthesize similar and dissimilar ideas. When we engage in the Liberal Arts process we are expected to evaluate circumstances outside the literal and physical world.
Symbols are not exact icons used to represent a switch or a traffic light. Metaphors embrace not only the immediate layer of meaning but contain the meaning of the language used to express them. Analogies are not just simple comparisons but rely on collective consciousness to give depth and breadth to their implied meaning.
Without an appreciation of literature or the history of art these thinking tools quickly become two dimensional nails that can only be driven by 'hammers'. Liberal Arts education instills the essential quality of imagination into the mundane process of literal problem solving.
It is this quality of imagination that will move us as a society forward when we have encountered a problem that no longer resembles a 'nail'. Imagination will allow us to see beyond the moment. Conversely, when we cannot have the faith of imaginative resolutions we descend into a mire of despair.
When faced with times of despair we succumb all to quickly into a state of fear. Without the faith of imagination we cower in the status quo - the way we have always done things. Without the faith of imagination we are succeptable to the perveyor of fear, the doom prophets.
The real strength and value of a Liberal Arts education is that it allows us to recognize the potential of limitless possible resolutions when faced with seemingly insurmountable problems. We are capable of recognizing the possiblity of change. With a Liberal Arts eduaction we are armed with the underestanding the across history innovative answers have lead us forward. Undenably our forward progress, however frought with difficulty, has brought us to a better, more enlightened place.
In times like these we must cling to our faith of imagination and not submit to threats based on the fear of only having a 'hammer'.
Open and free from fear
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
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