My first days of high school were very confusing, particularly after attending a small Catholic grammar school. Going from one classroom to another, often on a different floor, getting used to eight periods and almost as many teachers was daunting. Discovering that two of my classes had been combined into one double felt like a blessing. I didn’t really care the subject but it turned out to be my first exposure to what one of the instructors called the tradition of the liberal arts and harked back to the learning expected of the ancient Greeks and our Founding Fathers who almost all attended Harvard and followed a “classic” curriculum called liberal arts. Harvard now has 3700 undergraduate courses in 50 fields of study, many, if not most fit broadly as liberal arts.
My double class was a collection of topics: history, literature, politics, and we were expected to be able to write and argue various theories and positions. It was heady stuff for a teen ager who had spent her grammar school class time memorizing catechism questions and answers. I can’t remember what they called this hybrid but it was where I first learned some critical thinking, thought about right and wrong and discovered that truth was not always true and right not always right. My discussion group in that class included a Jew and a Baptist. I was the nominal Catholic, but I remember thinking the catechism did not have the answers for many of the questions we had. And neither did they.
Let’s define what we mean by the ‘liberal arts” since they are under attack as to their role in spawning liberals like me. Officially they are the humanities, the arts, the social and natural sciences and haven’t changed for a long time. Hail Caesar!! Subdividing those into their assorted majors/minors/programs/ lets colleges adapt them to their own philosophies. I would eventually earn more degrees than anyone needed and become a professor of business. I knew that I was a liberal but didn’t connect that to what I knew as the liberal arts or to the courses I took or taught. It was just who I was. I don’t even remember using the label.
There are General Ed courses in the first few college years designed to establish a broad base of common learning and get students to sample basic subjects. The classes are required of all students to ensure exposure to what the school feels to be critical knowledge and provide adequate preparation for higher learning. Was my liberalism included in that curriculum? That is the assertion of many conservatives, and I am sure I brought my liberal values into the classroom. Frankly, when I read the Republican stance on many of the issues, I just think they are mean and don’t like the rest of us.
Being a proud card carrying liberal doesn’t make me a socialist or communist as often accused. Right now I am a liberal democrat with a smattering of the rest of the stuff. I believe the role of government is to level the playing field and compensate for bad luck. Our new and confused originalist Supreme Court is just mudding the waters. I try to understand why but turning back time in laws as well as on the clock seems like a way to avoid the hard decisions that move our democracy forward. I just hope the next generation of liberals discovering ideas in high school classes like mine don’t take too many educational detours. And like the daylight savings question don’t waste time solving the wrong problems
Excellent
My thoughts exactly