Defending Liberal Arts Essay

William Butler Yeats is accredited with once give tongue to Education is non the gorgeing of a pail, scarce the lighting of a fire. It seems this diction no hourlong rings true up todays preferred fosterage encompasses the regurgitation of technical jargon in the hopes of finding a rent out. People forthwith deem imperfect tense Arts score worth little its too dearly-won and impractical in todays job market. The sciences and c atomic number 18er colleges be where the jobs lie. In the battle over higher culture, through and through his iconoclastic article The New devoid Arts, Sanford J. Ungar stands as a lone reformer against an onslaught of misperceptions.I for one equip with and applaud his effort, although he could use approximately additional support in presenting any(prenominal) of his counter arguments. Unger first battles the misperception of the value in a innocent progressive tense humanistic discipline arc spirit level for first-generation, lower in come college bookmans these degrees are for the elect upper-class. As Ungars imagined antagonists put it, A across-the-board arts degree is a sumptuosity that most families keep no eight-day afford. Career statement is what we now mustiness focus on (191). Ungar contends that although skyrocketing tuition makes it progressively difficult to pay for a college training it is now a more than(prenominal) provident investment than ever before (191). keep his crusade against naysayers by suggesting that the career schooling bandwagon (191) is non a smart investment, maintain that It is far wiser for students to prepare for changeand the triune careers they are likely to exhaustthan to assay for a single job course of instruction that might one day run short a dead end. (191) Ungar shows the pitf solelys of having a narrowly focused education. Moreover, Ungar seems utterly disgusted with the purpose that an education in the wanton arts is one for the upper class, the rich and the inner(a) those who are non of this stratification are better conform to implementing the ideas of the elite, non advent up with ideas of their stimulate (192).He brands these accusations as condescending (192) and prejudice (193) and rejects the idea that the wage-earning tho duty is to implement the ideas of the upper-class. I desire that Ungar is correct on these assertions however, Ungars argument would be better served if he acquiesced to the fact that a college education, oftentimes less one in the liberal arts, is not right for everyone. Higher education is not a one size fits all discipline. There has to be more or less to fill the factories, work the land, pave the roads and baron the service industry.Unger is accurate in utter that the liberal arts should be usable to everyone and everyone could benefit from this type of true education nonetheless not everyone is suited for much(prenominal) an education. The misperception that the liberal arts are for the elite is one that has been heard before entirely not nearly as much as the old employers do not want to operate people with unusable degrees line which Unger obliterates with his next argument. Ungar continues his defense of a liberal arts education by refuting the claim that employers no longer hire someone with a useless degree, such as French.Showing how not only a specific degree such as a foreign wording is one that is wanted by employers but the usefulness of other liberal arts degrees, emphasizing A 2009 survey for the friendship of American Colleges and Universities actually found that more than three-quarters of our nations employers recommend that college-bound students postdate a liberal education. (192) Ungar deals with this common misconception methodically by first stating what people believe and then contesting that belief with facts diversified with his own opinions.Although he is correct and he brandishes put down facts to back up his assertions Ungar may have missed the mark by not including actual job numbers. By displaying prescribed proof that those who have a liberal arts degree are more likely to get a job in any field and by showing those jobs are more paying(a) for degree holders than those who are not, Ungar could put the peg down in the coffin naysayers.For his next pane of perception breaking, Ungar skirmishes with the following idea Liberal arts degrees are antiquated, the Sciences and Career colleges are where the smart money is, and the STEM handle are much better suited for todays economic reality. Ungar contests this misperception by showing that a degree in liberal arts also includes the sciences. He illustrates that a traditional liberal arts degree includes the sciences the historical basis of a liberal education is in the classical artes liberales, comprising the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music) (193). Many of Ungars points are re asonable his handling of this misperception is deft and detailed. However, I smell that Ungar is stretching with his response to this argument. Although a liberal arts degree does offer some glimpses into the STEM disciplines, it is not comparable to a degree in those specialties.A student wishing to become a pharmacist would not be well served engage a degree in History. In showing that these misperceptions are just that, Sanford Ungar single-handedly makes the case for a classical liberal arts education. He does a wonderful job tackling the misperceptions being thrown round today about a college degree in the liberal arts. He takes for to each one one one of these common misconceptions and thoroughly disproves each claim skillfully and without hesitation. By doing so he reopens the door to higher education. maybe if he and others like him continue to award the onslaught of misinformation doled out upon the masses we can return to a world where a traditional liberal arts e ducation is once again commended and no longer forsworn. Works CitedUngar, Sanford. The New Liberal Arts. They hypothesise I Say The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing with readings. Eds. Gerald Graff, Kathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. New York W.W. Norton and alliance Ltd, 2012.190-196. Print.