On Liberal Learning

By Thomas R. McCambridge, Ph.D.

Thinking about “liberal learning” as one of CLU’s primary goals, I was reminded of Gandhi’s response to the question, “What do you think of Western civilization?”

“I think,” said Gandhi, “that it would be a good idea.” I certainly think that “liberal learning” is a good idea. I also think that there is precious little of it about currently.

I will attempt to define liberal education, give the several reasons why it would be a good idea, and, as the representative of the professional schools, contend that it would be a good idea for programs in business and education to take a liberal approach.

First, a definition, of sorts, from a paper that Nathan Tierney of the Philosophy Department and I gave last May:

A liberal education is preparation for human maturity. It is a multifaceted concept which encompasses such things as the introduction into what is best in the culture; the preparation for responsible citizenship in a free society; the fostering of independent, flexible and creative thought; the encouragement of informed and principled decision-making; the cultivation of leadership; the acquisition of significant knowledge; and a deep appreciation of core ethical values.

Or, to put it negatively, liberal education is opposed to indoctrination into either religious belief or political ideology and to mere training for the sake of performing a function. The goal of a liberal education is to free persons from the prisons of their ignorance and prejudice, not to confine them in new and better prisons of our design. There are five reasons why we should be engaged in liberal education, even though the marketplace presses for professional preparation.

The first is that it is the economically utilitarian thing to do. Our graduates will live in a world of global pluralism including a dynamic economy that demands innovation, creativity and flexibility. They will interact with people from all over the world in ways that we can scarcely conceive today and the prediction is that they will probably have as many as nine changes in career over the course of their professional lives.

The best preparation for this kind of life is not a narrow technical training (much less an indoctrination into a particular belief system) but rather an immersion in the best that has been written, composed and created over the course of human history, with nearly unlimited opportunities to think about, write about and discuss.

The best preparation for intelligent, principled interaction with people different and yet the same is knowledge, thoughtfulness and an understanding of the nearly infinite variety of human experience.

The second reason is that it is the politically expedient thing to do. If things continue the way they are going, our graduates will live in a world that is ever more democratic – in the definition of popular culture, in how the news and the commentary on the news are disseminated, in how political candidates and office holders are known and judged.

In this kind of hyper-democracy, it is unimaginably important for the participants to be able and willing to read, write, listen and speak with clarity, honesty, insight and effect. The development of skills may get one a job, but it does not provide these abilities. Liberal education does.

The third reason is that it is protection against manipulation, the only way to protect ourselves against the incredibly powerful and effective economic and political propaganda machines. We must be able to deconstruct, to analyze and interpret, to understand human cupidity and the temptations of wealth and power.

The fourth reason, and I think the most important, although the least directly utilitarian, is that it is the best preparation for freedom. Human beings were created to be free, and freedom requires making informed, principled decisions; that is, freedom requires taking on the burden of making one’s own moral decisions, based on knowledge and understanding, and using the tools of honest, logical thought. We were not meant to be mere performers of functions or mere political or religious toadies; we were meant to be free. And only a rich, complex mental library gives us the wherewithal to embrace that freedom despite its terrors.

And the fifth reason is that CLU is a Christian university, committed to both faith and reason, and the education we give here should be the best possible preparation for both. If we are authentically devoted to faith – not just a mindless following – then we must engage in and invite our students to engage in an authentic study of Christianity. Imagine the possibilities – the Book of Proverbs, the Gospel of John, the letters of Paul, Augustine’s Confessions, The Divine Comedy, the Gothic cathedral, all of Bach, and on and on.

And if we are authentically devoted to reason – not just a clever, cynical, sneering playing at a superior knowingness – then we must engage in and invite our students to engage in the activities of reason: the acquisition of knowledge, the development of understanding, inquiry, synthesis, evaluation, and judgment in the humanities, the sciences, and the arts. All of these stand against mere opinionating, posturing and indoctrination. And all are separate from, and certainly no less important than, the acquisition of saleable skills.

Is it possible to embed and intertwine liberal learning in those disciplines that are self-consciously about the development of saleable skills? More specifically, can the schools of Business and Education, in addition to the training they give, also – in a meaningfully integrated way – engage their students in the literature, history, philosophy, art and music that make up the stuff of liberal education? Can their students engage in a process that can legitimately be called a “preparation for human maturity”? It will come as no surprise that I believe they can.

Dr. Thomas McCambridge is Associate Professor of Education at CLU. This article is excerpted from a speech he presented at the faculty retreat in August.