Pre-Reading:
Based on the title, “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts”, I believe that the article is going to be on the subjects, critical thinking and liberal arts. Underneath the title, there is a statement: “We neglect them at our peril.” Reading this, I assume that the article will highlight the reasons why people should care more about the liberal arts and critical thinking applications. I think “liberal arts” follows writing and reading based classes to connect students to a core curriculum.
Summary:
Section 1: “What are the Liberal Arts?”
This section provides the reader with a background of the history of liberal arts. The origin of the teaching, to modern interpretation today. Interestingly enough, the section also involves the word play of how the origins of the parts of speech have changed over years from Latin backgrounds. From there, the section also mentions the specificities of what courses a liberal arts college may offer.
This photo below shows a paragraph in the article that I though was interesting. Scheuer states that “Neither liberal nor arts is an essential or complete descriptor of what we consider a liberal education,” then goes on to say “and paying careful attention to language in general-are quintessential liberal arts practices,” (Scheuer). These two quotes appear to be conflicting one another. To summarize what Scheuer is trying to point out this paragraph, I would say that the wording of the practice of liberal arts does not follow the intended rules of the liberal arts. I found this to be a very confusing part of the article.
Section 2: “Why Do We Need the Liberal Arts?”
The importance of liberal arts is expressed in this section. Scheuer expresses the affect that people will have on the world with a liberal arts background, citing citizenship and critical thinking as a focus in a liberal arts college. Examples of citizenship follow how people can become more involved in the world.
This annotation I made was regarding the diction in a paragraph of the section. Below, you can see I underlined the words “symbiotic” and “ecology,” both of these words are science terms. In fact, they came up in my biology class this week. I though that this was interesting, because earlier in the article Scheuer argued that science wasn’t explicitly liberal arts, so why would those terms be used so close together? Perhaps it was to connect to a science audience, or those words fit best definition-wise. Either way, the meaning of this was not directly stated.
Section 3: “What is Critical Thinking?”
In this section, Scheuer dives into the importance of critical thinking and how it can affect your views on the world, and its importance to other people. He argues that this helps make a productive and well-rounded citizen. This connects to the teachings of a liberal arts school.
The quote that I found from this section was: “Critical thinking is about my thinking or yours or someone else’s in the here and now” (Scheuer). I though this was very well written, but also very long. Underneath on the photo, you can see I left an annotation that says “so someone else’s interpretation of something.” I though this was important to highlight because of how fundamental I think it is to the concept of critical thinking.
Section 4: “The Importance of Critical Inqury”
This final section is a fitting conclusion to the rest of the article. Scheuer ties all of his thoughts an arguments together to write about inclusion and working together. Scheuer also spent a considerable amount of time to dive into and debunk Wittgenstein’s proposal about liberal arts.
The annotation I chose here was about inclusion about jobs, and how with all jobs you need a specific skill set to be able to do those jobs, stating “we all have to deal with them, whether as art historians, economists, or biologists,” (Scheuer). I though that was a strong argument for Scheuer to make.
The Core Curriculum and Article Connection
Something that connects to The Core Curriculum and Scheuer article is the importance of critical thinking. The Core Handbook states: “students will develop foundational knowledge and critical thinking skills that are necessary,” (page 2). This was a major subject in the article, “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts” as it is a part of the article title. Both of these writing pieces stress the importance of critical thinking and how it will set students up for success in their futures.
Works Cited:
Scheuer, Jeffery. “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts.” AAUP, 18 Nov. 2015, www.aaup.org/article/critical-thinking-and-liberal-arts#.YTUkzhmSnD5.
