Category: FYS 110

• We read Bain’s chapter “Learning how to embrace failure.” Let’s begin by emphasizing the learning part: as you look back over the past 8 weeks, what would you say you’ve been learning about yourself? Make a connection from Bain to yourself (text-self) or to your Project 1 Goals (text-text) or to your work on Project 2, or even to your work in other classes.

Over the course of the semester so far, I have begun to notice my habits within my mindset, my learning, and my belief in myself. I have discovered areas in which I succumb to the fixed mindset, which is pretty much any situation where an understanding of something does not come relatively easy to me. In statistics, I will occasionally get an answer wrong over and over, and I only reluctantly will attempt to improve whatever strategy I am implementing. In this class, when I am getting writer’s block or can’t think of a certain word, I will often just stop and give up or procrastinate. I have discovered similar patterns across all of my courses, and am working to combat them with an attempt at Bain’s “self-efficacy”. As I made my goal to declare a major, I knew what I had to do was explore and research my major options as well as examine myself to discover a future that would fit me and satisfy me. I have been able to do research due to the requirements of Project 2, but I’ve also been able to discuss the Pre-Law focus with my friend who is a part of it right now. Everytime she has talked about her classes and the content she is learning about, I think to myself  “Man, I would love to be in that class”. This fact is what is truly convincing me that Political Science and Law are the route I want to take within the next four years. 

• Review your early posts on Carol Dweck’s “growth mindset.” How might you connect Dweck’s description of growth mindset to Bain’s emphasis on the value of failure?

In my earlier posts on Carol Dweck’s “growth mindset”, I reviewed Dweck’s emphasis on her phrase “not yet” and the significant impact it can have on a student’s learning mindset. As Dweck offered, this type of praise from educators teaches students that learning and growth are a process and we should value progress just as much as we value success, as it can make students hardy and resilient learners. Similarly, Bain’s emphasis on the value of failure advocates for failure being a part of the learning process, “people who become highly creative and productive learn to acknowledge their failures, even to embrace them, and to explore and learn from them” (Bain 100). Failing means that you were unsuccessful in doing something the way it was meant to be done, understanding something the way it was meant to be understood, or seeing something the way it was meant to be seen. Therefore, overcoming failure forces you to try harder or use a different strategy  or look at the problem with a different perspective

1. When did you choose to pursue your focus on political science and why?

2. What made you want to continue your education and career in America? (rather than Libya or Egypt)

3. What does the senior thesis/ 4-year research project entail?

4. Can you think of any courses you took throughout your education, that- at a glance- had nothing to do with your major, but still allowed you to be more knowledgeable which helped you in the long run?

5. How important do you think that understanding history and tradition are in understanding politics and law? Why?
6. According to the course catalog, the Pre-Law emphasis focuses on creative problem solving, which would likely become instrumental in being a lawyer in formulating arguments and persuading juries. Is mastery of this skill ultimately learnable, based on your experience with law students? What do some law students have the hardest time learning or mastering?

1. Boyer discusses several tensions in what are often heated discussions of what a college curriculum should entail. Identify one central tension Boyer discusses and describe some of the pros/cons and values behind it. How would you enter the debate, right now? Support your response with a quote from Boyer and at least 4 sentences of explanation.

One of the tensions that commonly arises within discussions of what a college curriculum should look like is a focus of vocational education rather than liberal education. Many argue that the sole purpose of a college education is to meet the requirements of most employment opportunities and there would be much fewer students if this were not the case, “over a third of the undergraduates at public institutions and slightly fewer of those at private ones say that if college did not increase their prospects for employment they would drop out” (Boyer 218). Therefore, employers are looking for applicants with skills and wisdom that cannot be learned or taught on the job. They are looking for smart, knowledgeable employees that will not have to be micromanaged or have their hand held through every learning experience. One of the main arguments of vocational education is that employers want their workers to have learned everything they are going to need to do on the job, all the skills and basic training, in vocational school so that the employers don’t have to do much training. However, this vocational education doesn’t consider the “what” or the “how” or the “why” of the practice and doesn’t account for how the particular profession has changed over time and might change as things progress. Enriching this profession would allow the student to understand what they are doing in a broader sense, understand why they are doing it and learn how they can use their skills to adapt to changes in whatever field they are pursuing. 

2. What is Boyer’s “Enriched Major” idea, and how does he imagine it as a response to a key tension? Support your response with a quote and at least 3 sentences of explanation.

Boyer’s concept “The Enriched Major” intertwines the goals of a liberal education and those of a vocational or specialized education. While some people fear that a liberal education will not allow someone to be successful in launching a student into one particular career, other people are concerned that a education too focused on the goal of a career will not allow the student to learn broadly enough about what the career entails and leave them narrow-minded and unable to excel. The “enriched major” addresses both of these grievances by combining the goals of specialized education and a liberal arts education into an educational experience guided by an enriched major in which a student can study broadly while also focusing on cultivating a deep understanding of one specific major that they plan to pursue as a career. As Boyer explains, “through such a curriculum the student can move from depth to breadth as departments put the specialty in larger context” (Boyer 223), which suggests that the directors of these departments will see to it that students learn about their specialty in many contexts including a historical and traditional one as well as socially, economically, ethically and morally. This contextualization also includes learning about your specialization from the perspective of students focused on other disciplines and maybe being able to observe how each of the types of work you are hoping to do could potentially, or does, affect each other. This also suggests that, if a specialty cannot, for whatever reason, be contextualized in this way, it belongs in a trade school as the goal of a college education is liberal learning. 

3. “Essential questions.” Boyer lists three things a major has to address, through its coursework, in order to be considered “enriched.” Start looking around the UNE website or course catalog of at least two majors you’re considering. Do they seem to be enriched in the way Boyer describes? Provide evidence.

Political Science

Based on the course description and the curriculum requirements, I believe that it is safe to say that the Political Science major at UNE is an enriched major. While this major offers four different future-career-related focuses, Pre-Law, General Concentration, Environmental Politics, and Global Politics, it still emphasizes the implementation of liberal learning principles within the curriculum, “the political science major emphasizes the development of skills in effective writing and speaking, as well as creative problem solving — some of the most useful skills in a wide variety of careers in the public, non-profit and private sectors” (Course Catalog). While this major is very rigorously focused on matters of political science, it is a major that requires very few credit requirements (42-46), which opens the opportunity for exploratory learning in open elective courses and provide a student with a multi-faceted perspective on their major which, I believe, enriches it that much more. 

Marine Affairs

The Marine Affairs major is a very specific focus within itself and specifically to UNE, as it is something that can be studied up close and personal as a career. The course requirements explicitly mention courses such as “Science in Society”, “Environmental Economics” and “General Chemistry I” that all fit Boyer’s criteria for the “enriched major”. The variety of courses as well as a special focus on the major as a career collectively cultivate an enriched major, “suitable for students who are concerned about the marine environment, and are interested in careers in ecosystem and human health interactions, ocean management and political decision making, and marine sustainability science and policies” (Course Catalog).

I haven’t made a ton of progress on my draft so far, I have pretty much only made an outline of how I plan to go about organizing my essay in anticipation of my interview that I won’t be able to conduct until this afternoon. I feel like my outline has allowed me to set myself up for success in my writing because it gives me something to refer to whenever I feel like I’m stuck. I have also done quite a bit of research in which I have found testimonials from alumni of the program and information about the major and what it offers. The part that has challenged me the most about this project is being mindful that I need to make connections between the texts from Boyer and Scheuer and Bain as well as connections to myself. I would like for the organization I have so far to be reviewed as well as whether or not it seems that I have left any details or anything out in my intro. 

Discover and plan out my desired career path. This goal is a very vague and unsure goal. This is explained by the fact that I am undecided, and still trying to figure out what I want to do. Although I do not know for sure what I want to do, I do have an idea for my future. I am considering declaring Political Science with a Pre-Law track and a double minor of History and Economics. I am choosing the double minor due to the influence of Bain’s advocacy for well-rounded learning. If the law route is the route I decide to go, it will be very important for me to be thoroughly knowledgeable about all things law and government related, which I can achieve by taking the opportunity to study broadly at this liberal arts college. Like Bain’s example of Dudley Herschbach, who “[…] pursued a broad education, dipping into a variety of disciplines, yet ultimately concentrated deeply on the world of chemical science” (Bain 217), I want to be broadly knowledgeable about the world around me so I am better able to apply it in my future in law. 

Develop time management strategies and better studying habits. (Growth mindset- Dweck). I don’t always have the best habits or ideas when it comes to managing time and prioritizing. Rather than getting stuck in the same rut of procrastination repeatedly, I can practice using Carol Dweck’s growth mindset concept to develop new strategies and try new things to see what works for me and what actually leads to improvement. In Christine Gross-Loh’s interview with Dweck shares the key to growth in learning, “‘not just effort, but strategy … so support the student in finding another strategy. Effective teachers who actually have classrooms full of children with a growth mindset are always supporting children’s learning strategies and showing how strategies created that success’” (Gross-Loh). If I apply this to my future learning, I will be able to more easily adapt to challenges and overcome them with success.

GOAL DIMENSIONS	Near Term Goals (Fall ‘21 & 2021-22)	Longer Term Goals (2022-2025+)
PERSONAL	Discover and plan out my desired career path. Stay physically fit.  Consistently practice my instruments. Develop healthy habits.	Discover the long-term setting I want for my life. Form a small, close friend group that will stay close post-graduation.
EXTRACURRICULAR	Excel in tennis.  Get a job and learn to balance these extracurriculars.	Become a tennis club officer Become a part of the Honors Program
ACADEMIC	Choose a major.  Develop time management strategies and better studying habits. (Growth mindset- Dweck) Foresee the longevity of my college education.	Graduate with honors. Become more involved in student opportunities to excel in my academic career.  Make a post-grad plan.

In this annotation, I made many remarks revealing my understanding of the text. In one particular note, I challenged the liberal arts argument made by both Scheuer and Ungar. They both frequently seemed to be asking the question of why one wouldn’t want a liberal arts educating considering all of the options it can provide someone rather than a STEM education or other type of career education. They don’t recognize that many people are understandably unwilling to put themselves under significant financial stress to “broaden their understanding” of academic subjects in the world around them. They both try to argue that the quality of the education is worth it and don’t even try to rebut the truth of the matter- that a liberal arts education is an enormous financial commitment that some of the more unfortunate people in our communities simply can’t afford.

In these annotations, I conveyed my understanding of Bain’s explanations and make a Nature vs. Nurture connection to one of his explanations, which was ironically representative of critical thinking in my reading.

On this page, I showed my understanding of Bain’s examples of how knowledge of historical concepts can help contextualize other elements of learning by making commentary of the relationships that came to my mind. For one instance, when Bain used the example of nations with a history of violence, I used the example of Israel and Pakistan.

In this section, I showed understanding of Dean Baker’s ability to recall, apply and think critically about situations due to his broad but specialized liberal arts education.

…

Identify one or two passages (quotes) that resonate in some way and draw text-to-self, text-to-world, or text-to-text connections.

The University of New England’s Core Value Statement, “through the Core Curriculum, students will develop foundational knowledge and critical thinking skills that are necessary for understanding and assuming their roles in natural, social, humanistic, and other environments” (CAS 3) sounds very similar, almost identical even, to the definition of a liberal arts education provided by the Professor in the narrative at the beginning of Bain’s excerpt, “students explored a host of disciplines from the sciences to the humanities, taking a deep approach to important issues that those disciplines could help them address” (Bain 200). Bain describes a liberal education’s heavy emphasis on the breadth and freedom of a student’s learning opportunities and the well-rounded and informed individual mindsets that are the result, which is also heavily emphasized in the Core Handbook. 

In Bain’s section about creative intelligence in the liberal arts, he conveys the importance of exploratory learning, and how the more we know in all aspects of life- whether it is cultural, societal or simply educational knowledge- the more we can get out of everyday experiences as well as other learning experiences, “a liberal arts education afforded them the chance to enjoy a richer life because they could get more out of every moment and every experience” . We also see this in Scheuers three-fold definition of citizenship: traditional civic citizenship, economic citizenship and cultural citizenship. They all revolve around our contributions to our society and the world around us, and a liberal education is intended to make those contributions more informed, reasoned and meaningful. Scheuer states that “the overall goal is to foster vibrant and prosperous communities with broad and deep participation, in public conversations marked by fairness, inclusion, and (where critical thinking comes in) intellectual rigor” (Scheuer 4).

Bain’s third section talks about engagement with history and justice through a narrative of Dean Baker. As a result of the curiosity-motivated and exploratory liberal education Baker enriched his mind with, he was able to evaluate a court case with his recollection of his historical learning and application of the event’s impact, “every childhood mental model they had constructed about U.S. Foreign Policy came into question, rocking their most cherished beliefs and raising new curiosities about how the international system really worked” (Scheuer 207). The thorough, deep and broad learning provisions that Baker had allowed him the ability to recall a similar historical event and evaluate it under the premise of “history repeating itself” and make a sound, educated application of the case as a result.

Bain’s fourth section “The Freedom to Choose” narrates the liberal arts education experience of Emma Murphy. In reading this section, I was able to make a connection with the societal pressures of Murphy’s upbringing, “her parents wanted their three daughters to do well in school academically, and her society took pride in the students who won admission to the most prestigious private colleges. […]. In class she faced subtle pressures to make the grade. […] ‘[…], I developed anorexia and had to enter a treatment center for a month,’” (Scheuer 213), and with the concept of the Nature vs. Nurture which we have been discussing in my Psychology class. While Murphy’s genetic inheritance may have predisposed her academic intelligence and ballet abilities, the nurturing- or in this case, lack of nurturing- of her environment caused these abilities to become forced rather than flourish with the freedom of the liberal arts. The fact that I was able to make a connection with this reading and my discussions in Psychology is an example of how critical thinking in a libral arts education can open your mind. 

Bain’s final section, “Selecting a Path”, discusses the educational and post-educational career of Dudley Herschbach and his tendencies to constantly think critically. It also makes note of the fact that, while Dudley’s learning was so broad and exploratory, he was also able to hone in on a major of science and math. This can be used to make a connection to the Core Handbook. The Core Handbook works under the assumption that the student has a major and offers guidance for the curriculum requirements that extend beyond the requirements of their major and direction, mandatorily expanding their learning. Dudley Herschbach cherished these opportunities to venture outside of the path to his degree and used what he learned to make applications to his focus and excel superiorly in his learning, “he learned to hop easily from one perspective to another, to make connections that few had imagined, and to ask questions that no one had framed before” (Bain 217).

Describe at least three possible relationships and make sure you’re putting at least two of the readings into a relationship at a time. 

1. Out of all of the pieces we’ve read, Ungar and Scheuer are the argumentative ones. In class, it was even said that they seemed to be “bashing” the concept of a “career education”, and were promoting a liberal arts education. While I think this may have been true for Ungar, due to his perception-fabricating and defensive diction in his argument, I think that Scheuer made his argument in a more convincing, matter-of-fact, kind of way. His piece was much more focused on advocating for the liberal arts rather than arguing against a career-based education, “the STEM disciplines are obviously important to economic productivity, but so is the entire rainbow of human knowledge and the ability to think critically” (Scheuer 7). Ungar uses phrases like “in my experience” and “it is condescending to imply” (Ungar 3) in reference to misperceptions that he wrote from the perspective of the people in opposition to the liberal arts. This makes his writing feel ignorant and unsupported, causing his argument to be ineffective. The comparison of these two persuasive pieces provides examples of effective and ineffective techniques that can be applied to this kind of writing.
2. Bain concluded the excerpt from his book by summarizing the traits that the subjects he interviewed had and applied to their learning, to emphasize that when a person allows themself to collaborate with the freedoms of a liberal arts education, they can go to some incredible places, “ they understood growth as a developmental process in which they sought to grow the power of their minds, and that too influenced the kind of learning they attempted. […], they ultimately chose a stage upon which to play out their lives and careers” (Bain 220). Some of these statements sound familiar to the teachings of another liberal arts advocate we observed, Carol Dweck. Dweck emphasized that not all learning is the same, and that praising growth rather than success influences the developmental process in students. Clearly all of Bain’s subjects were examples of individuals with a growth mindset based on their perspectives on learning, their focuses and the outcome of their progress. But these mindsets were not always trusting of the process. In Bain’s biographical approach to narrating his subjects’ careers, he didn’t shy away from their hardships. Dean Baker lacked the incentive to try his Freshmen year and didn’t perform well, Emma Murphy was pressured by her society to reach certain expectations of success which led to an eating disorder and hospitalization, and Dudley Herschbach faced poverty in his early life and lost the only literature he had available to him to study with in a house fire. The hurdles these individuals faced taught them to look in other places for a way to begin truly growing, Baker started his summers seminars with his brother in areas of his interest, Murphy’s hospitalization influenced her development critical thinking through her new values and purpose in her life on top of an academic drive that was instilled in her from a young age, and Dudley had to find a new source of literature to “decode” which led him to the great influence of his local librarian. Emma Murphy is likely the most extreme example of how Dweck’s idea of a fixed mindset can negatively affect the learning process. Murphy was raised under high pressures, influencing her to constantly be trying her hardest and succeed on the surface, without influencing her to delve into her learning and get out of it everything there is to get. This unstable mental process ended up affecting her externally which led her to her ultimate realizations of true success, which she would reach gradually.
3. The University of New England’s curriculum requirement for exploration found in the Core Handbook follows the common theme of the meaning of liberal arts embedded in the writings of Ungar, Scheuer and Bain. The Core states that Exploration courses are courses “which encourage active learning, students acquire knowledge, develop skillful thinking, expand their expressive capabilities, and connect this learning to their broader experience” (CAS 8). This definition of UNE’s unique curriculum requirement falls into place with many of the liberal arts values that are included in Scheuer’s, Ungar’s and Bain’s pieces. Ungar states that “the liberal arts encompass the broadest possible range of disciplines in the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences” (Ungar 3), showing how an eclectic array of courses is part of a liberal education. Scheuer comes to the conclusion that “the liberal arts form such an evolving system, consisting of stable but impermanent fields of inquiry that fuse at some points and fissure at others, adapting to cultural shifts while sharing a common language and assumptions, overlapping knowledge bases, and the core of critical thinking” (Scheuer 3), conveying the well-roundedness of the learning experience provided by a liberal arts curriculum. Bain uses many examples and concluded that, “their broad education helped them to make those choices as they learned to see connections between liberal education and the specialty they would pursue” (Bain 202), showing the importance of drawing connections between all the various subjects we study and explore.

What are the Liberal Arts?

The first section in Scheuer’s article “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts” attempts to define and explain the liberal arts to the audience. Within this explanation, there is an underlying tone of advocacy for the liberal arts as Scheuer’s article is a defense against those in opposition to the studies. He starts by explaining some of the history and origins of the arts, alluding to dated Latin writers and Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. He also goes into the origins of the term itself, the meaning coming “from the notion of freeing the mind” (Scheuer 2), and goes on to state what the arts consist of, “grammar, rhetoric, and logic, combined with the medieval quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. As early as the twelfth-century renaissance, […], those “arts” were supplemented in the curriculum by philosophy, jurisprudence, theology, and medicine” (Scheuer 2). These anciently important and inclusive studies are also found in the Core Handbook under requirements like Core Explorations and Creative Arts. These focuses of study also convey the idea that the liberal arts is intended to educate and form well-rounded citizens and society members. Scheuer states three main liberal arts conceptions in this section: an integrated curriculum, exclusion of the sciences, and a main focus of the humanities. Connecting to his earlier references to ancient philosophy and how it contributed to the formation of the liberal arts, Scheuer states that “philosophy is the mother of liberal learning”. Basic knowledge, theories and ways of thinking have changed drastically over time, especially since the time of Greek and Roman philosophy. Scheuer concludes this section by elaborating on the notion that the liberal arts is a system that is intended to free, grow, expand and evolve, along with the young people who study it.  

Why Do We Need the Liberal Arts?

In the second section of Scheuer’s article, he introduces the key concepts and ideas of his article: critical inquiry and citizenship.  He first defines citizenship as “a social ecology involving a range of activities symbiotic with democratic communities” (Scheuer 2). He describes this ecology as consisting of three dimensions: economic citizenship, which simply involves making productive contributions to the economy whether through doing something like running a factory or being a critical consumer; traditional civic citizenship, which encompasses any form of participation in the public sphere (ex. voting); lastly there is the cultural citizenship, which can be defined as the easiest with its requirement that one immerses themselves into many different areas of culture in the community and in cultures around the world. Scheuer talks about how these dimensions interrelate “to foster vibrant and prosperous communities with broad and deep participation, in public conversations, marked by fairness, inclusion and intellectual rigor” (Scheuer 3). He concludes this section by acknowledging the fact that society needs people who are career educated for positions like being a pilot, but how society also needs liberal arts scholars for other professions, “we need pilots, farmers and hairdressers as well as managers, artists, doctors, and engineers. But we all need to be well-informed, critical citizens” (Scheuer 4). While some peers find this statement, as well as Scheuer’s argument to be aggressive and condescending against those in favor of a career-based education, I find it to simply advocate for the importance of studying the liberal arts, in the defensive and firmly-worded way that any persuasive piece should be written.   

What is Critical Thinking?

In this section, Scheuer immediately defines critical thinking as “the set of mental practices that lends breadth, depth, clarity, and consistency to public discourse” (Scheuer 4). Critical thinking is an important skill to have when studying the liberal arts as it involves looking at the concepts and ideas being studied from multiple angles and perspectives, and those other perspectives are taught and found in the other areas of study included in a liberal arts education. Some critical thinking skills that Scheuer takes note of are identifying assumptions, drawing inferences, distinguishing facts from opinions, drawing conclusions, making sound arguments and recognizing our own human tendencies to make biases and misperceptions. The most distinguishing characteristic of critical thinking in contrast to any other types of thinking, is that it emphasizes the importance of looking at a topic from all sides and angles that would affect our understanding of the topic. Scheuer then acknowledges the truth of the matter that not everything is an opinion, or needs to be seen from multiple viewpoints to construct a decent understanding, “We still have to conjugate verbs, understand economic cycles, and listen to stories” (Scheuer 6). Scheuer concludes this section by stating that all of the critical thinking skills and benefits are the direct result of a liberal education, driving forth his strong position of advocacy for the arts. 

The Importance of Critical Inquiry.

In the last section of Scheuers essay, he begins by stating the concepts that critical inquiry commonly calls into question, “[…] truth, nature, value, causality, complexity, morality, freedom, excellence, and […] language itself, as the principal medium of thought” (Scheuer 6). Scheuer goes on to say that these concepts are spread out through all branches of knowledge and applying them to our learning will ultimately broaden our understanding and intelligence of any topic. He also describes these concepts as being open and available for making connections to more concepts and ideas. Scheuer concludes with recognition of the importance of STEM disciplines, but ultimately advocates for the critical thinking, inquiry and citizenship that he argues are important and a direct result of a liberal arts education. One of my favorite connections that Scheuer discusses is how multi-faceted every academic topic can be, particularly when he explains that linguistic, or language, problems are simultaneously philosophical understanding problems, “they are problems about meaning, knowledge, reality, and our minds, not just about words” (Scheuer 6). This connection emphasizes how studying and developing and understanding of a variety of subjects can help you recognize factors of other topics and better conceptualize them. 

Write 4-5 sentences drawing a connection/relationship between something specific in Scheuer and something specific in both the Core Handbook and Ungar.

The four Core Themes of an undergraduate education at the University of New England in the Core Handbook are Environmental Awareness, Social and Global Awareness, Critical Thinking: Human Responses to Problems and Challenges, and Civic Engagement. The importance these focuses have in a liberal arts education are frequently being conveyed in both Ungar and Scheuer’s pieces. First, Ungar discusses the importance of the benefits of liberal learning in his argument against a “career education”, stating that “[…] the ‘career education’ bandwagon seems to suggest that shortcuts are available to students that lead directly to high-paying jobs— leaving out “frills” like learning how to write and speak well, how to understand the nuances of literary texts and scientific concepts, how to collaborate with others on research” (Ungar 2). Ungar recognized the importance of how a multi-faceted conceptual awareness of multiple topics and areas of study develop an awareness and higher level of thinking in any student. Scheuer’s commentary on the liberal arts was much deeper and clearly more thoroughly understood. He systematically explained the significant role that Core Values like critical thinking and civic engagement play in a liberal arts education. In the end, he also describes how these values can influence each other, “[Critical thinking skills] heightens our abilities to speak, listen, write, and think, making us better learners, communicators, team members, and citizens” (Scheuer 6). As the Core Handbook is the layout for our liberal undergraduate education, it is inclusive of all the qualities that education experts like Scheuer and Ungar advocate for so passionately. 

1. The GUST First Year Seminar course is kind of it’s own thing in the Core Handbook, it doesn’t fall under a single category as much as it encompasses all of them. The final three sections of the Core Handbook simply explain how the Handbook came to be what it is, how those decisions are made, how changes are proposed and made and who is responsible for making those changes. The GUST program is specific to a select type of students who don’t feel that they have the ability to form a solid learning plan for there four years to an undergraduate degree, and therefore, the Core Requirements will not interfere with their goals which means that the last three sections of the Core Handbook are somewhat irrelevant to them. Intro to Singing is the type of course I could have put off until the last semester of my undergraduate. By then I will no doubt have a major I am working towards and I likely won’t feel very compelled to worry about a creative art elective and would maybe even, in an extreme situation, want to petition the requirement to be put in a more major related course like it discusses in Section VIII B of the Core Handbook. English 110 was also a required course that I was registered for at the beginning of the school year, but I had taken a College Composition Dual Enrollment course in high school. With this course under my belt, I was able to get my transcripts sent to the registrar’s office, who were able to determine whether or not my course would suffice for English 110, likely using a checklist similar to the one in Section VIII C of the Handbook.

3. I think that Ungar’s article will debunk some common beliefs that people have about the Liberal Arts that he thinks are wrong. He will likely use statistical and ethological evidence to prove and persuade his opinion. He will also probably share good, convincing facts about the liberal arts that will portray the liberal arts in a positive light as an attempt to persuade the reader to agree with his position. I think the “liberal arts” are all courses of study that teach specific concepts with a broad understanding of many different academic concepts, so as not to strictly stick to a narrow-minded course of learning. These arts may be intended to create a sense of liberty or freedom in one’s learning so that the student has opportunities to study and make connections in a multifaceted learning environment. 

5. Ungar suggests that there is a common misperception understood by many people that “a liberal arts degree is a luxury that most families can no longer afford. ‘Career education’ is what we now must focus on” (Ungar 1). In his rebuttal, he admits the truth of the financial hardship that the cost of a liberal education is guaranteed to bring the average family, and he simply promotes it as being “[…] a better investment than ever– that the future demands of citizenship will require not narrow technical or job-focused training, but rather a subtle understanding of the complex influences that shape the world we live in” (Ungar 1). This argument is weak because Ungar did not choose a “misperception” he could prove wrong. The misperception claimed that families can no longer afford tuition for a liberal arts education, and Ungar did not even attempt to prove that wrong, but simply argued that the quality of the education would be worth the economic instability. If there was a misperception that claimed that the education that would be provided wouldn’t be worth it, then his argument might have worked. 

Next, Ungar challenges the “misperception” that “college graduates are finding it harder to get good jobs with liberal arts degrees” (Ungar 2). Ungar used statistical evidence to make a persuasive rebuttal that most modern day employers are looking for candidates with an intellectual emphasis on skills that a liberal education provides such as “‘critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills’” (Ungar 2). However, I would argue a candidate that has had a career-based education, and wouldn’t require a lot of training, would provide more incentive for the employer to hire them. Ungar’s argument behind a liberal education so far is simply advocating for students becoming well-rounded people rather than the alternative of a career educated student. This argument assumes that students taking on a career education cannot become as well-rounded of a person and I think that Ungar should have used statistical evidence in the favor of that argument to make his argument stronger. 

The next perception that Ungar attempted to rebut was that “the liberal arts are particularly irrelevant for low-income and first-generation college students. They, more than their more-affluent peers, must focus on something practical and marketable”. I don’t know where Ungar found or heard these misperceptions, but I simply don’t believe that these are commonly believed. Ungar starts off his rebuttal with a weak, ethological approach, stating that “it is condescending to imply that those who have less cannot understand and appreciate the finer elements of knowledge” (Ungar 3). First, I find it ironic that Ungar seemed to misinterpret the misperception that he wrote, I don’t find any condescending implications in that perception, it simply seems as though people believe it is in a financially unstable person’s interest to take on an education that is more cost efficient and guaranteed to provide them an income in the long run. The only other evidence that Ungar uses here is a personal experience– which is biased and irrelevant to the whole– and an allusion to how Obama overcame his economic hardship even with a liberal education. 

Lastly, I chose the fifth misperception on Ungar’s list to discuss, “it’s the liberal Democrats who got this country into trouble in recent years, so it’s ridiculous to continue indoctrinating our young people with a liberal education” (Ungar 4). This “misperception” is simply a misunderstanding of the meaning of a single word- liberal- if anything. If people in Ungar’s intended audience, who we can assume to be people who market college to younger generations, are understanding this word with a political connotation, then that is a bigger problem. Ungar seemed to simply use including this misperception as an opportunity to explain what a liberal education is and provides, which he could have done in his introduction, “it promotes the idea of listening to all points of view and not relying on a single ideology, and examining all approaches to solving a problem rather than assuming that one technique or perspective has all the answers” (Ungar 4). 

6.

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