|
Students Must Learn How to See What Matters
by Linda LeMura, Syracuse.com, June 28, 2010
Linda LeMura, provost of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, often speaks with parents and students who are worried about whether a liberal education is really worth the time and money it requires. She responds to their questions in different ways for different situations, sometimes citing recent research and other times highlighting the intellectual tradition of Jesuit education that Le Moyne embraces. But recently, her high-school-aged daughter provided the perfect metaphor for explaining why a liberal education is so vital for the next generation of leaders. LeMura’s husband purchased a sophisticated digital camera for an upcoming trip, and taught their daughter, Emily, how to use it. “She became nimble with the camera, but here’s the catch,” LeMura writes. “After learning how to manipulate the machine, Emily remarked: ‘Now that I know how to use the camera, I don’t know what pictures to take. I want to take an important picture, but of what?’” Learning “what pictures to take” is the essence of a liberal education, she argues. “We encounter brilliant people who have been trained to work the machinery of American culture… however, we find that these individuals know how to work the machine without understanding the context in which they operate. When these machines stop working, these same brilliant technicians are unable to function, adapt, or solve the problems that they’ve created.”
The entire column may be read online.
|
