Universities silence unwelcome speech [View all]
If you’ve heard anything about the “liberal arts” in education recently, it’s probably been in connection to how little liberal arts graduates earn these days — if they get a job at all.
But a liberal arts education is, quite literally, an education that frees the mind and enables the person to participate fully in civic life. And that’s exactly what’s being threatened in many of today’s universities.
“There was a time when people looking for intellectual debate turned away from politics to the university,” writes Harvard University’s Ruth Wisse in the Wall Street Journal. “Political backrooms bred slogans and bagmen; universities fostered educated discussion. But when students in the 1960s began occupying university property like the thugs of regimes America was fighting abroad, the venues gradually reversed. Open debate is now protected only in the polity: In universities, muggers prevail.”
As far back as antiquity, societies saw the “liberal arts” as the education necessary for a free citizen who wished to participate in the civic process. There are actually seven “liberal arts,” which include things such as mathematics, music and astronomy. But two key liberal arts are “logic” and “rhetoric.” These words mean slightly different things in modern times, but the principle hasn’t changed. These skills enable a citizen to analyze, argue and evaluate ideas and policies. They’re the foundation of political debate.
That’s where the liberal arts are under threat today. Modern universities now seek to eliminate debate — not enable students to participate more fully in it.
More at http://www.tylerpaper.com/TP-Editorials/199760/universitiies-silence-unwelcome-speech#.U3Oj6ygbHJU .
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