Classical vs Modern Liberal Arts Education

Recently, the question of the practicality of a liberal arts education as a guarantee for employment opportunity was raised. Are liberal arts majors doomed to unemployment throughout their careers? In an era of economic uncertainty, it could mean that liberal arts majors need to simply find practical applications for their education. It could also mean that those who specialize in a specific field with demand for workers will find success in their careers a bit earlier than those that do not specialize.

The classical method of liberal arts is intended to first teach students how to learn (the trivium), to enable them to later take on the subjects themselves (the quadrivium, or hard sciences). By building a strong base of experience using the tools of learning (grammar, logic, rhetoric), a student with a successful mastery of the seven liberal arts should see open doors to any desired field later in life.

Unfortunately, today's liberal arts programs are more focused on the humanities and social sciences, rather than the classical method of learning itself, which needs to start at a much younger age than college, a result of gradualism of language and lost focus. These nearly lost tools of learning are seeing renewed interest as a way to promote lifelong learning. Today's liberal arts do not go far enough to enable the student to teach themselves. The classical liberal arts method enables the student to learn anything, in time. There is no quick fix.

The Language of Asimov

Literature gives us an ability to travel through time to years gone by, when words held different views and meaning than our own. Here is an example I was surprised to find in Isaac Asimov's fine collection of robot short stories, as I am working my way toward Foundation. Is the author though of any less for his colorful language common for the time?

"It wasn't much of a hobby, but sometimes someone would bring out a radio or an alarm clock and the money he would get paid for juggling its insides was the only money he ever got that didn't pass in driblets through his spouse's niggardly hands."

Short Story Podcasts

For fiction fans, here is a short list of good audio fiction, from science fiction to fantasy and even some occasional horror, in podcast format.

• StarShipSofa
• Lightspeed Magazine Podcast
• Escape Pod
• Strange Horizons
• PodCastle
• Clarkesworld Magazine
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies