C.S. Lewis wrote "Our English Syllabus" as a way to reach out to his freshmen class at Oxford Academy. His class wanted to know a detailed outline of what the class would entail for the following year. Instead, Lewis gave them an in-depth persuasive essay on why education is so important rather than just vocational training. Lewis even stated that "you see at once that education is essentially for freemen and vocational training for slaves." Although I find this quote to be somewhat of an extreme, I do see the point Lewis was striving to make. When students are just learning for vocational training, they may seem limited (or in slavery) to this one particular subject when there are a vast array of interesting subjects that are unreachable to them. Lewis essentially wants students to have the freedom to be educated in many different subjects without the impossibility of learning every detail of each. There is a happy medium in between be constrained and learning about everything.
I believe that Calvin College has done a good job of helping their students find this happy medium. Because students have the privilege of a liberal arts education, they can take classes outside of their field in order to get a well-rounded education. Many students believe that they are being forced to take meaningless classes their first two years that have nothing to do with their field of work and are just a waste of time. I believe that each student chose which college they would go to and knew coming in that Calvin was in fact a liberal arts school.
I did struggle a bit my first semester with some hard core classes that made me question why I was wasting my time with classes that were not necessary at the other schools I was considering. Looking back I know realize that in order to succeed in my vocational training, I need to have a base for building on more learning and education. It is extremely important to be a well-rounded person in whatever field we will be working in.
I do not think I could say it any better than when Lewis stated, "The proper question for a freshman is not 'What will do me most good?' but 'What do I most want to know?'"
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I definitely agree with your thoughts about finding a happy medium. It's impossible to know everything about everything, but it is equally impossible to do a good job in your profession if you do not know ANYTHING about anything else. This relates to the quote we talked about in class that says, "A perfect study of anything requires a knowledge of everything." This implies that our pursuit of any study requires a little knowledge about a wide variety of subjects. And while this quote, too, is an extreme, the idea of a happy medium is very applicable in this situation as well.
ReplyDeleteI like that quote as well. It seems that students around the world are asking the question that C.S. Lewis specifically says not to ask, at the expense of what could be a much better education. A lot of people say things like, "Don't major in English, it's worthless. What job can you get with that?" But if English makes you happier than any other major (despite giving you future financial problems), why not go for it?
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