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I would like to commend Dr. Martin for his brilliant article on the true aim(s) of education and the importance of literature in the formation of the intellectual person. I can add nothing to what he has said as he, in his inimitable fashion, has thoroughly uncovered the length, breadth and depth of the problem, yea, even at Franciscan University. If only more people in higher education, educators and students alike, would hold to what he's written... Anyway, I'm glad the editors continue to plug away and just hope that the students back on the other side of the Atlantic grab up an opportunity to become involved in the academic and intellectual wealth of discussion that the Concourse can offer.
Joanna Bratten, Class of '97
FUS needs to get more practical about education Dr. Regis Martin's article "What liberal educators may not omit" calls for a response. The role of the liberal arts education which is to ground the person in fundamental truths cannot and must not be underrated. Today in corporate America there is a recognition that people must have a background that makes them well-rounded people. This background can only come from some form of liberal arts education. Precisely what form it should take at this university, however, is often in dispute. While many of our students are in the field of theology and philosophy, the students in other disciplines such as nursing, education, business and the like are involved in programs that do not and cannot give them the time to study at length such things as Dante, Shakespeare, Homer and Dickens. While Homer may be important to make the student well versed in humanities and thus learn how to deal with the person as a whole, the student of Hotel Management has to give priority to those areas such as accounting, business organization, management and finance. This does not mean that the student does not study Homer, but the major part of the two and a half to three hours of study time a student has each day needs to be spent on his area of concentration. Newman talks of utilitarianism in education, and indeed education should not only be to secure a better job in the work place but also to ground one in fundamental truths. I find it interesting that Dr. Martin's article makes no mention of computer education and training in such activities as job placement. At the end of the twentieth century no student should receive a BA, BS, MA or MS degree without having enough computer literacy and enough basic training in vocational skills to help them compete with those who do not esteem God or the human person as we do. Our University provides the liberal arts education quite well. We fall short, however, in preparing our alumni for the reality of life. We should introduce into our English classrooms information on resumes and cover-letters. Our computer labs should be expanded and every student should have at least 3 credits of such a class before graduating. The exit conferences at graduation should be more thorough and cover such areas as job interviews. I wonder how many of our students know of the Career Placement and Planning Office. Do many of our students take part in their services? Personally, I doubt it.
Peter Cole, MS Education program
Why non-liberal majors need a liberal core Regis Martin's article on the value of great works of literature in the formation of the person stirred within me many long-standing questions and considerations regarding undergraduate education. First of all I shall admit something it seems nearly a crime to admit: my bachelors degree is in science--specifically nursing. I say that with humor, as at times it seems majors outside of the liberal arts are viewed as flat, technical and lacking in depth. Majors such as accounting, economics, chemistry, business, computer science, education and my own dear little nursing are flung off as "less than" a full college education--relegated to the realm of utility and excluded from the world of beauty. They are also seen as incapable of attaining what Newman so aptly described as the end of education, Knowledge of the Whole. This view of the non-liberal arts programs has not come about without reason. A student of the sciences or business deprived of courses in language, history, philosophy, music, art, literature and theology--in other words, a core curriculum--is left open to a formation of the intellect that perhaps leans towards mere utility and function. As a five-time-expectant mother I have come across this sort of mal-formation in the hospital where I was sometimes "cared for" by nurses with a two-year technical degree. Such nurses tend to lack refinement; they often fail to recognize the person behind the technical duties they're performing. They function as directed, without an understanding or a rationale behind their actions. The lack of education in human psychology, the lack of exposure to deep philosophical questions about personal existence and the dignity of man can cause them to act without sympathy. They just fling a hospital gown toward the helpless patient with a heartless: "Strip down and put this on, honey." It is not their fault. They were never taught otherwise. But they should have been. Thankfully, FUS asks more of its nursing students. I can remember many times as an undergrad my classmates lamenting the effort of having to read Dante, and asking, how is this related to caring for sick people? But we see now that it is, for it is this reading, this opening of the mind to time-tested literature, this encounter with the great questions of ethics and theology, all within the milieu of a lively Catholic academic community, that produces the kind of nurses we wanted to be. The FUS-educated nurse greets a patient by name, and uses direct eye contact. She speaks gently, exhibiting confidence and knowledge, and profound respect for the patient as person. Her reading of literature has given her insight beyond her own experience, so that despite her youth she might understand and empathize with patients of all ages from all economic backgrounds. She is not tired of learning, as her mind, now inflamed with Truth, longs for more. She is not deprived of the vision of the Whole even though much of her training was technical in nature. We do not send her out flatly educated with a view for the merely utilitarian. She may pursue excellence in her field, without missing out on the fullness that comes from "liberal" learning. The same is true for students in the other professional programs. Exposure to a liberal arts core does nothing to diminish their technical training or capabilities, rather it enhances them and brings them into a circle of fullness and depth. Education is the formation of the whole man, not merely the passing on of technological data and skills. Man can not be confined to such an arena. As John Paul II stated in his encyclical Faith and Reason, "all men and women...are in some sense philosophers and have their own philosophical conceptions with which they direct their lives. In one way or other, they shape a comprehensive vision and an answer to the question of life's meaning; and in the light of this they interpret their own life's course and regulate their behavior." If we deny this in man and attempt to confine him to the technical only, we do violence to his deepest nature. I want to add my voice to those calling for a solid core curriculum for all of our majors. And I repeat Dr. Martin's question: "Is it too much to hope, I wonder, that here at Franciscan University we too might fashion a setting ...A place where intellect and soul, Athens and Jerusalem, exist amid a myriad of splendid tensions marking the life of a great University? If such is not a goal worth striving for, then what possible excuse have we for offering an education to those who come to us seeking wisdom and wholeness?"
Susan (Creel) Fischer, Class of '84
© The University Concourse, March 11, 1999 |
