The course description for our University of Akron English majors' capstone seminar calls for some reflection on "the strengths of the English major and, more generally, the values of a liberal arts education."
On this site I'll post and archive annotated links to readings relevant to this examination in the category, "492, the Senior-year Capstone Seminar." I'll get into the terms in the extended entry.
As someone who reads too much antebellum American literature, I think of "virtue" whenever the word "strength" is emphasized. In other words, strengths are virtues - powers and abilities -- that do good and/or influence others to good. What are the good things taught by the major and the rest of the courses that add up to a BA with a major in English? How does this knowledge improve the quality of your life? and of your community's life?
"Value" is worth, and, especially lately, people often use the plural ("values") to denote the fundamental rules or assumptions which govern our decisions and judgments. What is the worth of the degree, and what fundamental ideas were inculcated or strengthened in you by your major and your whole program of study?
Finally, what is a "liberal arts education"? On one hand, a "liberal" education is a generous one -- as in, a liberal serving of mashed potatoes. The main way that the University ensures that your education is liberal is through the General Education program, which requires all students to undertake healthy servings of courses a diverse range of disciplines. The Gen Ed program is a 8-course meal with menus for each course. And then your College adds additional math courses, in some cases, as well as two years' worth of foreign language. That is a generous serving of education.
On the other hand, a generous education has long thought to produce citizens characterized by liberality: i.e., open, candid, honest, freedom-loving, generous citizens. And the practice of the "liberal arts" has long been described as central to the cultivation of liberality. These liberal arts are defined today as "college or university studies (as language, philosophy, literature, abstract science) intended to provide chiefly general knowledge and to develop general intellectual capacities (as reason and judgment) as opposed to professional or vocational skills."
Note the breadth of this definition: only a few majors and degrees on the UA campus fail to meet that definition. Certainly every major in the College of Arts & Sciences -- which comprises 40% of the whole university -- qualifies as a way to concentrate a "liberal arts education."
With these thoughts in mind, I will collect readings for the course and post them up on this website.
