A friend sent this to me and I thought you might enjoy it.

Gr"what kind of friends do I have, anyway?"ace


"What Exactly Are the Liberal Arts?"
(from Do Penguins Have Knees? by David Feldman)

Our correspondent contacted two four-year colleges and one two-year college for the answer to this question. Despite the fact that they were liberal arts colleges, none of the officials he spoke to could answer the question. Evidently, a good liberal arts education doesn't provide you with the answer to what a liberal art is.

Actually, a consultation with an encyclopedia will tell you that the concept of the liberal arts, as developed in the Middle Ages, involved seven subjects: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astonomy. Why astronomy and not biology? Why rhetoric and not art? For the answers to this question, we have to delve into the history of the liberal arts.

Our expression is derived from the Latin 'artes liberalis,' 'pertaining to a free man.' Liberal arts are contrasted with the 'servile' arts, which have practical applications. As educator Tim Fitzgerald wrote 'the liberal arts were considerd "liberating," enabling the student to develop his or her potential beyond the mundane, to create, to be fully human, to (in the midieval mindset) believe.'

The notion of seven ennobling arts emerged long before the Middle Ages. In Proverbs 9:1, the Bible says, 'Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.'

Many people attack the modern liberal arts education, saying that little is taught that pertains to our actual lives now. Little do they know that this lack of 'relevance' is precisely what characterized the liberal arts from their inception. In ancient times, servile folks had to sully themselves with the practical matters like architecture, engineering, or law. Only the elite freemen could ascend to the lofty plateau of the contemplation of arithmetic.

Today, the meaning of liberal arts is murky, indeed. Art, other hard sciences besides astronomy, foreign languages, philosophy, history, and most social sciences are often included under the umbrella of liberal arts. Just about any school that *doesn't* train you for a particular profession is called a liberal arts institution."