The importance of Liberal Arts in Education

“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking.”

― Leo Tolstoy

The University of Mindanao adopts a policy that affirms and upholds the principle of democratizing access to education and further adopts the liberalization of education which means: that the students have the freedom to pursue and enhance their knowledge through free inquiry, freethinking and exchange of ideas without cognizance to the superiority and authority of classical, modern and post-modern mystics, and thus concretely aligns with the axiom of the liberal arts in education.

This scheme supersedes the classic-neo-conservative outlook in the field of studies and paves the way to intellectual renaissance. Knowledge has long been monopolized by the conservative institutions in the dark ages. But it was toppled down through the protests of various philosophers who fought for freedom of thinking and the utilization of free inquiry that resulted to intellectual Renaissance. As what the Supreme Court of the Philippines had said in their decision on the case Restituto Ynot Vs. intermediate Appellate Courts (G.R. No. 74457 March 20, 1987): “The closed mind has no place in the open society”, this therefore emphasized an idea of freethinking. The new ideas may not seem valuable nor seem agreeable to you at anypoint; at least it has been invested thoroughly in a spirit of freedom of expression. Voltaire had said: “I may not agree with what you say but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” This also is in harmony with freethinking and freedom of expression in a liberal arts education. Dramatically, liberalization of arts in education arouses the students’ enthusiasm to pursue knowledge.

Liberal Arts in education invest great ideas that basically make men to glow. This kind of education brought a new concept of learning in the academia. It instills a binding norm of harmonious flow of exchanging ideas; revolutionizes knowledge; motivates students to be more-self conscious; to be more creative in a way that establishes new mechanics of skills; and to be free thinkers as well. Through liberalization of Arts in education, by welcoming new ideas without fear, it also enriches and enhances their critical and thinking capability.

Finally, the importance of liberal arts can only be found in the spirit of free inquiry, scientific investigation and experiment, freedom of expression, and above all the recognizance of the fact of the freedom to think. It also innovate the students to be more self-reliance on study; creative in solving problems, and nurtures independence and integrity since they may encounter theories or ideas that are contrary to their beliefs. It anarchizes the field of education in such a way that it produces self-help. This is not to mean that there would be no more authority or law governing the academia. This is just to ensure that the free-flow of ideas and the freedom to pursue knowledge shall flourish.

Further, liberal Arts in education, a policy that would instill to the young minds the recognition of the liberalization of arts in education which means in effect: the liberalization of ideas, the acceptance and integration of ideas. But ideas and knowledge are not automatic; they are not innate in mind. Man has two choices in this system: whether he has to evade it or to think it (a process of abstraction and conceptualization) over. And this process is not enough to inculcate knowledge. There has to be an inclusion of will to. Liberalization of arts in education is not as it was a person who possesses an ability and wealth. It is man, real living man, who does all this; liberalization is nothing but a means to an end of a man in the pursuit of knowledge necessary for him to survive.

This enabled them to prepare their paths toward their journey to enlightenment. The spirit of free inquires and freedom to think is the hallmarks of liberal arts. They are corollaries in a way that one cannot exist without the other. Moreover, this kind of learning molds the students to grasp the actual social condition, in which they live, the students through their accumulated theories, and thus can actively shape the change they want to see in the world. How does then can student assess and evaluate the theories which they have learned in the institution of liberal arts? The answer to this question relies on the ability of the students to adjust themselves to their background and by putting their knowledge to actual practice. By adopting liberal arts in education, students are opening another dimension for truth because it offers students various outlook and perspective in pursuance to the harmonization of study and practice. I shall end up this speech by quoting our University: “Excellence in pursuit of truth.”