Liberal Learning
To participate in a liberal education is a privilege and a challenge; to be
liberally educated is to be transformed. Open and free inquiry, a devotion
to excellence, the development of character, the mastery
of competencies, the ability to think critically, the excitement and rewards
of learning — these are the aims and principles of a liberal arts education.
Liberal learning liberates, freeing us from the restraints of time and place, enabling us to grow, to change, and to respond to the new, the unforeseen, the unexpected. To be liberally educated is to live imaginatively in worlds not our own and to examine values not of our making.
A liberal education tests our ability to investigate and understand the nature of an organism, the applications of a theorem, the behavior of a crowd, the principles of a political system, the meaning of a poem, the causes of an event, the consequences of an argument, or the composition of a symphony.
Liberal education promotes diversity, skepticism, and debate. It views the world as changing, not fixed. It asks not only what, but why. It insists that we make judgments rather than have opinions, that we treat ideas seriously, not casually, that we be committed instead of indifferent.
Liberal education is vocational. It prepares us to assume positions of leadership and responsibility as wage-earners and citizens. To be liberally educated is not to be limited to a particular niche in the job market but to be freed and qualified for many opportunities. And, most important of all, it is to be equipped to assume new vocations and accept new challenges throughout life.
Students come to Lawrence with many career objectives and options — law, public service, health professions, business, service vocations, engineering, teaching, ministry. Liberal education is a prerequisite to all of these and more. Whether or not a student seeks professional or graduate training beyond the bachelor’s degree, liberal learning provides the skills, the talents, the critical intelligence, and the range that offer access to many careers.
Above all, however, a liberal education is a function of choice and self-discipline. Lawrence provides opportunities; it does not prescribe decisions. The privilege of liberal learning is the freedom to choose; the challenge of liberal learning is to choose responsibly.
A Lawrence Education
“Welcome to the company of educated men and women." With these words,
university presidents traditionally salute Bachelor of Arts recipients at Commencement.
In the centuries since that greeting was
first
proclaimed, the definition of the educated man or woman has expanded. Two
and one-half centuries ago, a college curriculum was relatively uniform
and straightforward;
the “liberal arts” numbered seven. Today, the curriculum is
diverse and complex; the liberal arts find expression in many disciplines
and departments,
use a variety of methodologies and skills, and are conveyed by courses
numbering in the hundreds.
No one — neither student nor faculty member — can master all available disciplines and subject matters. When graduates are hailed among the company of educated men and women, each will have reached that state by selecting a program of courses unique to him or her.
“What one knows is, in youth, of little moment,” wrote Henry Adams; “they know enough who know how to learn.”
Lawrence does not pretend to certify that every graduate possesses a prescribed amount of knowledge. But the university does claim that the education students attain here marks them as persons who have developed the abilities to think critically, write clearly, and speak effectively.
The route to liberal education lies in a course of study that combines both breadth and depth. The Lawrence curriculum promotes exposure to a wide range of subject matters and intellectual approaches. It also calls for the focused study of a single area of knowledge. Within this general framework, the student exercises wide latitude in building a course of study. A Lawrence education, then, results from considered choices. The college provides ample room for such choices and encourages students to exercise them boldly.
A Residential Education
Lawrence University is a residential college by design. Students are required
to live on campus because we believe that a small residential community
distinguished by frequent face-to-face interactions between and among its
members provides
an ideal environment for accomplishing the goals of liberal education.
Lawrence’s residential nature maintains and expands the opportunities for meaningful interactions outside the classroom and, in so doing, contributes to the fulfillment of Lawrence’s mission to promote among students “the development of intellect and talent, the acquisition of knowledge and understanding, and the cultivation of judgment and values.” Furthermore, meaningful relationships between students and faculty, among students, and within the Lawrence community at large preserve and extend the vitality of the institution.