96301

4-12-23

Capstone

Dr. Kenneth Chase

Peripheral Smarts:

An Angsty Reflection upon the Liberal Arts

“This dude graduated at the top of our class/I went to cheesecake (factory) he

was a mothaf*****g waiter there” (Kanye West). What was the point of my education?

Was it all just some meandering attempt at securing a piece of paper? Did I actually

learn something applicable towards a life of fulfillment? Can I even answer these

questions not even removed from the environment that has forced me to answer

them?

I know for this assignment I should say something smart about my liberal arts

education, you know, give the reader a glimpse of what my thousands of dollars paid

for, but perhaps I am still a little bitter about having to take a Neuroscience class this

semester. What even is a liberal arts education? Harold Taylor said, “The central idea

of liberal education is, therefore, the idea 'of individualism and individual freedom”

(Kimball). Stephen Harnett might say something like our liberal arts education is

designed to conform us into citizenry, and would argue that the knowledge we have

accumulated is useless without the pursuit of justice, that we must somehow, “find

fulfillment not in the dream of future victories but in the existential thrill of the

present” (Harnett). Kanye West in his album The College Dropout would argue that a

liberal arts education is useless. “These guys are out here, huh Making money all
these ways, and I'm spending mine to be smart” (West). I even asked Chatgpt what

the contribution of a liberal arts education to the fulfillment of vocation, to which it

responded, “A Christian liberal arts education can contribute significantly to living a

meaningful life by providing students with a broad and comprehensive understanding

of the world, along with a foundation in faith and ethics.” Now these definitions vary

and I have found small kernels of truth in all of them, but none of these definitions

fully encompass my experience in a liberal arts education.

When I reflect on what a liberal arts education is, I think of the countless

classes I was required to take. I resented the majority of them because I deemed

them a waste of time and saw absolutely no outcome in which these classes would in

any way, shape, or form be applicable to the fulfillment of my vocation. I’m sure at

some point post-graduation I will look back on these classes with gratitude. Today is

not that day, however. I still resent the lot of them. And—in this current moment—that

is the best contribution that my liberal arts education has had upon my life. These

classes have cultivated and reinforced a lesson that my grandfather tried to teach me

as a child, “you can’t always do what you want to do, but you always do what you

have to do.” This lesson was lost on the uneducated boy I once was, but reinvigorated

by the hoops of the registrar. By forcing me to do things I did not want to do, or

better yet, things I deemed unworthy of doing, my Christian liberal arts education has

helped prepare me for a life in the real world. This lesson can also indirectly be

applied towards my faith as there are also many things I don’t necessarily want to do

in order to deepen my relationship with the Lord. The knowledge I gained can be
applied in a variety of ways, but the practice and habits cultivated within my

education are perhaps the most critical contributions to living a life of fulfillment.
 Work Cited

Hartnett, Stephen John. “Communication, Social Justice, and Joyful Commitment.”

Western Journal of Communication, vol. 74, no. 1, 2010, pp. 68–93.,

https://doi.org/10.1080/10570310903463778.

Kimball, Bruce A. The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Documentary History. Univ. Press of

America, 2010.

West, Kanye. “The College Dropout.” Roc-a-Fella Records, Los Angeles , California.