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The Liberal Arts: Why Tey Matter By Jay Wills
Photo by: Amy Hart
You can tell a lot about a person by looking in their refrigerator. At least that was my working hypothesis growing up. My parents routinely made unannounced stops at friends' houses, and when the adults started talking, I slipped away to investigate, stopping first at the fridge. I was curious about what people kept on hand to eat, how they arranged their food, and — perhaps most importantly — if they had items beyond the expiration dates, which was especially useful information for making decisions about whose dishes to try at the next church potluck. Fittingly, my early curiosities about how people live were channeled into a career as a sociologist — an outcome I can attribute directly to my positive encounters with the liberal arts as an undergraduate. Like many students, then and now, I didn't even know what the liberal arts, including sociology, were when I went to college; but there I engaged in inquiry across the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and arts. I asked a lot of questions and was encouraged to ask more, and I learned more systematic ways to investigate the social world. A commitment to the liberal arts is what drew me to
Queens years later, and building on our liberal arts core in the College of Arts and Sciences is the work I cherish being involved in now. It seems as though the value of a liberal arts- based education needs constant championing in our culture, even though it offers the very skills we need graduates to have and that employers say they want. You've likely read the lists before: critical reasoning, effective communication, information analysis. Tese are, indeed, fundamental aims of a liberal arts
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education. Additionally, I appreciate how the liberal arts can help individuals become:
Effective at working with diverse individuals and groups. Liberal arts students use our interdependency and diversity for productive, equitable purposes.
Comfortable with uncertainty. Liberal arts students are ready to lead in new, undefined contexts.
Appropriately skeptical. Liberal arts students discern carefully, recognizing that, although not all claims are equally valid, reasonable individuals can draw different conclusions.
Appreciative of the human condition. Liberal arts students create meaning from both our common and unique experiences, expressing and valuing our humanity in creative, varied ways.
My invitation to you is to put the liberal arts into practice.
How so? Open some refrigerators. Ask questions, and include others as you follow your curiosities.
Jeremiah "Jay" Wills, Ph.D., is a professor of sociology and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Queens University of Charlotte.
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