Introduction
James V. Schall states that
education “is not a thing.” He states that education comes from the word educere which “means to bring forth, or to complete something
already begun by the very fact that one is a human being.” In
some sense, education is to humanize us, help us to reach our potential as
human beings. Many people think a college degree means that one is an educated
human being. Mortimer Adler disagreed with this conclusion. He states,
“The
worst mistake we can possibly make is to suppose that the bachelor of arts
degree, honestly earned, signifies that its possessor is an educated man or
woman. Nothing could be further from the truth… The reason simply that youth
itself—immaturity of mind, character, and experience—is the insuperable
obstacle to becoming educated. We cannot educate the young; the best we can do
for them is to school them in such a way that they have a good chance to become
educated in the course of their life.”
Labor,
Leisure, and Liberal Education
Mortimer Adler in an essay, “Labor, Leisure, and
Liberal Education” argues that the “end of liberal education. . . lies in the
use we make of our leisure.” In this essay, he distinguishes between labor and leisure. He believes
vocational training is “training for work or labor;” in contrast, liberal
education “is education for leisure; it is general in character; it is for an
intrinsic and not an extrinsic end; and ultimately it is the education of free
men.” Leisure is what people do in their free time. Basically, they spend one third
of their time in sleep, one third of their time at work, and one third of their
time in leisure pursuits. Adler defines leisure activities as “such things as
thinking or learning, reading or writing, conversation or correspondence, love
and acts of friendship, political activity, domestic activity, artistic and
esthetic activity.” Adler defines education as a “process which aims at the improvement or the
betterment of men, in themselves and in relation to society.” A liberal arts education equips “for a life of learning and for the leisure
activities of a whole lifetime. Adult liberal education in an indispensable
part of the life of leisure, which is a life of
learning.”Liberal education will equip students with the tools to be better workers and
to use their leisure wisely.
Adler
thinks there are two ways men and women can be improved. First, they can be
improved in their functions and talents. Second, they can be improved in the
“capacities” and “functions” they share with other humans. These two ways lead
to two different kinds of education. One type of education will emphasize training
men and women in respect of their similarities with other people. These two
types of education can be distinguished as general and specialized education.
Adler thinks we can identify specialized education with vocational education
and general education with liberal education. “Vocational training is learning
for earning. … School is a place of learning for the sake of learning, not for
the sake of earning. … Liberal education is learning for its own sake or for
the sake of further education. It is learning for the sake of all those
self-rewarding activities which include the political, aesthetic, and
speculative.” Vocational education is to limited to prepare the student for a lifetime of
learning and career mobility.
If humans
were only workers or slaves, it would make sense to receive only vocational
education or vocational training. It is more accurate to call it training since
that is what it is doing. It is training the worker in specific skills for a
particular job. What is the problem with vocational training? Adler would
probably say nothing is wrong with it, but that it is better done on the job,
not in a school. Schooling is liberal learning which prepares for all the
future tasks or callings.
Adler
believes there are “two limited objectives of liberal schooling.” “They are,
first, to give the young a measure of competence in the liberal arts, which are
nothing but the skills of learning itself—the skills of reading, writing,
speaking, listening, observing, calculating, and measuring.” He does not
mention thinking because that is included in all the specific skills of
learning. In addition to “competence in the skills of learning,” a liberal arts
education gives the student a preliminary and basic knowledge of universal
knowledge. The student is not benefitted by falsely thinking they are educated
when they have basically skimmed the surface of knowledge. It is better for
them to be informed that they are only laying a foundation that they will build
on for the rest of their lives.” It is a false view of liberal education that its purpose is “to turn out
educated men and women, this education completed when they are awarded a degree
or diploma.” Wisdom
is the ultimate goal of a liberal arts education and this takes a lifetime. “Hence
if wisdom is the ultimate goal of the whole process of learning, then the
process must go on for a lifetime.”
A second
problem with vocational education is that a person will change jobs and careers
many times in a lifetime. Many people who graduate in a specific discipline
work in another field when they graduate. It seems that a liberal education
would serve them better than a vocational education. A liberal education equips
the student for “the whole of life; its understandings, skills, and value
development bear on a wide range of occupations and equips one for a lifetime
of career mobility.”This
is in contrast to a vocational education that prepares only for a particular
job since the emphasis is not on the development of skills that would be
transferable to many vocations.
The third
problem is what people do with their leisure time. Vocational education does
not provide the skills needed for pursuing leisurely activities. Since men and
women are more than workers, it fails to prepare them for lifelong development.
Many people waste their free time on frivolous things that do not improve
themselves. I had a friend who had his days free because of a disability; he
could not work anymore. However, he could still get around and his mind was
still sharp. He was helpful to others, but spent much of his time watching
television. I wondered, what if he spent thirty minutes to one hour every day
at the library reading on some topic that was interesting to him? What would
his life have been like after doing this for thirty years? Maybe, he did not
receive the type of education that would have equipped him for this type of
learning. A liberal arts education prepares for a wise use of freetime;
including the time after retirement.
A typical
question asked by parents and students is what can I do with a liberal arts
education. Arthur Holmes believes this is the wrong question. A better question
is what will the education do to us. Liberal arts education contributes to many
vocations. Holmes states, “The human vocation is far larger than the scope of
any job a person may hold because we are human persons created in God’s image,
to honor and serve God and other people in all we do, not just in the way we
earn a living.” One problem with vocational education is that it subordinates the person to the
job and the person is larger than the job. An education “that helps make us
more fully persons is especially important to Christians.” Holmes thinks that the question “what do the liberal arts contributes to the
making of a person” depends on a “prior” question: “What is a person?” Homes defines person in three ways. “First, a person is a reflective, thinking being.” He uses reflection instead of reasoning to avoid the enlightenment idea of
reason. Aristotle asserts, man by nature desires to know, they want to know why
things are the way they are. They are inquisitive; they wonder and they
imagine, they take things apart and put them back together. Being reflexive also means being analytical. People want to know what gives
life meaning, what is true, and how to live one’s life wisely. It is important
for the student to seeking understanding, ask questions, to think for
themselves. These things are “part of what it means to be human.” To be reflective means to see the relationship of things, how things fit
together. To develop intellectually requires the skills of reading and writing.
Reading helps us to have “informed conversation.” Writing develops the skill of articulating what we want to communicate. Both of
these skills will help us to think for ourselves.
Second, we
are “valuing beings.” Holmes asserts, “We make value judgments and act to
realize our values.” Holmes believes values are more than feelings because there is an objectivity
to them. In addition, “they are not all relative.” They have a “basis” in our
nature as human beings. Third, we are “responsible agents.” We are
“accountable” to God on how we live our lives. We must be responsible stewards
to all that God has given us. God gives us gifts, abilities, and opportunities.
These things will help us discern God’s calling in our life.
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