Okay, hive mind, I have a question for you: Do you think Liberal Arts are important? Do you think that they are shrinking in importance in our public education system? Maybe in our private ones, too?

My goal this year is to start a nonprofit organization dedicated to education… specifically, the liberal arts. I’m in the process of crafting a mission statement and goals. My target age group specifically is High School and older, all the way through adulthood. I want to do something similar to a classical ancient educational center, with a type of small class (Oxford Tutorial?) maybe open air, with a center and focus on liberal arts and thinking.

Source: Liberal Arts Degrees: Can They Still Get You a Job?
We are quickly losing the ability to think critically, step through problems logically, and use rhetoric to make our points. Worse still, we pride ourselves on feeling our way through debates rather than applying reasoning. I went to school in the 70s and college in the 80s, and liberal arts were looked down on at that time, but not wholly forgotten. Today, they seem to be the first studies cut, in favor of applying money to vocational training. I’m all for having a vocation but we need to use all of our brains to be able to create a better human race. Quite honestly, I think we are where we are today in the United States because we have failed to teach all of the Trivium and Quadrivium.

So, let me first ask… what do you think of the liberal arts?

Let’s ask more questions… how important do you find Liberal arts in your daily life? Do you value it personally? Do you think it’s necessary for a strong culture? Do  you find it lacking? If so, how and why? Where? What do you think the answers are? I want to hear from you – see if what I see is what other see. You’re smart Masons, and you already value the idea of knowledge and study. If you could “fix” it, what would you fix? If you want to take a survey for me, that would help out a whole lot. Here’s the link: http://thedarkduchess.polldaddy.com/s/more-on-liberal-arts. I’ll post the results here in a few weeks.

Thanks!! ~Kris