Liberal Education Vs Technology Essay Research Paper

?Liberal Arts vs. Technology?

Education is one of the most important tools that a society can possess. The right implementation of this tool is one of the greatest ways of assuring the quality of life within a society. Our society will suffer significantly, with the loss of arts and humanities in our educational system, because we will loose many valuable aspects of our society. Our society will be technology driven, which will in turn lead to no social interaction, traditional culture will be lost, and millions will be without jobs. Traditional liberal arts (often defined effectively just as the humanities, arts and perhaps social sciences) remain the preferred course of study best suited for preparing individuals for rich and successful personal lives. Personal responsibility, accountability, and integrity are essential virtues, required for a civil society to function. As such, they are key components of a liberal education.

Not having Liberal education in our educational system will be a great loss. This world is going to be nothing more than a technology driven world, which will lead to absolutely no social interaction at all. Already gearing toward this, one of the President?s, top 10 goals for the educational system, is to have every classroom connected to the Internet and to have each student technologically literate by the year 2001. This will soon lead to everyone communicating through the computer by e-mail, and chat rooms, thus loosing all face-to-face interactions. We can already see this starting to happen in today?s society. I know that I?m a victim of it, while at work, I chat with my friends over the new chat messengers, because it is easier to type how you are feeling then to say it, plus you can chat while you are doing other things, like working. If everyone is like me and would rather have convenience they will start using this as their way of communicating as well. At least I know what it will outcome will be and I think the world will be a huge devastation without social interaction. Without social interaction, people would not know how to communicate with each other and social traits would be lost. There is no better medicine for the disease of cultural bias and ethnocentricity than interaction with others. The lack of “physical” interaction, which would be associated with a virtual education, might have some unforeseen negative effects on the student. Students as well as people will have no problem solving skills, people skills and communication problems because computers will now do it for us. Liberal education teaches students how to broaden their minds and expand their engagement with society. Without it, we will have no personal development nor will we have any successful contributions to society.

Without liberal education, people will have no sense of culture nor will they understand any other cultures and maybe not even their own. According to Leo Strauss, ?Liberal education is education in culture or toward culture.? Culture shapes our experience by providing us with a way of understanding the world. With lack of culture, people will not go to different parts of the world to explore or enjoy. People will not even think twice about their heritage or background of their family members either because they are too involved in technology or simply because they don?t care. Children might only hear stories or tales from elders about their culture, but the majority of us will be left in ignorance. Culture is an integral part of ones behavior, without it who knows what forms of behavior one will possess. Understanding culture helps us understanding how the physical world around us functions, without it we will be lost. Employers already report that too many students are leaving our educational system unprepared for working with different cultures within their environment. Attempts to make sense of the world through observation, interpretation, and explanation, that may or not be accurate, but when accepted by a wide group of people, it becomes part of culture.

With this new generation of well-educated individuals with no liberal education, comes the loss of jobs. These effects would be devastating. Since there will be no learning of arts and humanities, there will be no need for teachers of arts and humanities, thus millions will lose their jobs. Also, if computer are going to run our world, who?s to say that won?t have computers teaching in our schools. I seriously believe that computers or some sort of a computer will be teaching in our classrooms pretty soon. Museums will no longer be open because people will not understand the meaning behind them, nor will it be of any interest to them, so they too will lose their jobs. This will force people to look elsewhere for other jobs when their only training and interested might be in the field of arts and humanities. As it is today, many teachers are without jobs or without classrooms to teach them in, and it will only get worse with time.

We can already see this world gearing toward a technology driven society. Today, many institutions pour money into state-of-the-art computer labs and beefing-up technologically oriented segments of its educational institution. In order for this world not to dive into this horrible idea of a generation without arts and humanities, we must find a way to incorporate technology with liberal education. Liberal arts institutions that wish to be responsible in educating ?tomorrow’s leaders,? as people say that we should be, will need to explore ways of integrating the study of the effects of technology with more traditional liberal education. Nonetheless, I sincerely believe that technology and liberal arts are equally important components of education. We must not lose sight of our human side, the side that requires joy, good poetry, fine writing and broad understanding of diverse cultures and the unique contributions they make to the world. Which is indefinably comes from our liberal arts training. Just as Mortimer Alder stated, ?Without it {liberal education}, we can only train technicians, who cannot understand the basic principals behind the motions they perform. We can hardly expect such skilled automatons to make new discoveries of any importance.?

? ?Liberal Education and Mass Democracy,? Leo Strauss Published in Higher Education and Modern Democracy: The Crisis of the Few and Many, ed. Robert A. Goldwin (Chicago: Rand McNally & Co.,

? ?Philosophy of Liberal Education?, Andrew Chrucky

? U.S. Department of Education, President?s & Secretary?s Priorities, 2000

? ?What is Liberal Education,? by Mortimer Alder