Liberal Arts

by changeling 7 Replies latest jw friends

  • changeling
    changeling

    I always thought that having a liberal atrs degree meant something "artsy fartsy". Nothing wrong with that, I love artsy fartsy. However, I was mistaken.

    I recently learned that having a liberal arts education comes from medival times. The term "liberal" meaning free or of free people. People whose walk in life allowed them to think, reason, come to conclusions, reason... The opposite was "servile" or in servitude, as in those who learned a trade, and were in servitude to a master.

    In this period in history you were basically born into a station in life and had no way of progressing or "bettering" yourself.

    While I'm certainly not putting anyone down who has a trade, I am making the point that the WT would have their own belive this is the only choice, thus compounding thier "servile" state. Discouraging and vilifying "higher learning", in effect says: "Stay in servitude, both to society and to us. Don't improve your thinking skills , count on us to think for you. Don't expand your horizons, 'keep your eyes on the prize'."

    So, to all of us who have "seen the light", let's keep learning, let's keep changing, let's keep growing. Let's embrace life and our own humanity. Let's be "liberal" as in free and rejoice in that freedoom, and may we never find ourselves in servitude again!

  • jschwehm
    jschwehm

    Hi:

    I am a former JW and I teach science at a liberal arts college in Wisconsin. Students (and even their parents) do not understand why a liberal arts education is so valuable. Yes, the education we provide can help students get good jobs and opens up lots of career opportunities. However, a liberal arts education is more than a Vo-tech education. Hopefully, it teaches the students how to think critically and I have to tell you that my JW background is one that I draw from on many occasions to show how valuable my own liberal arts education was in liberating me from that worldview.

    Jeff S.

    www.catholicxjw.com

  • changeling
    changeling

    Hi jschwhem: IMO the Society knows what it's doing. Keeping their people in a servile state is like keeping a wife "barefoot and pregnant". They figure "what they don't know can't hurt them". But it does.

  • poppers
    poppers

    Just curious, Jeff, where in Wisconsin do you teach?

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Thank you, Changeling, for this post! Your point is very well made, and your concluding paragragh is a clarion call. Excellent! Grow, change and learn. Embrace life and your humanity. Those words mean so much to me, a liberal arts major, who has never regretted his education and will not become, ever again, a servile soul.
    I lost 40 years - a small detour - to the WT mind control, but feel I came to know God better, though sadly, not Christ. I am catching up to my long-lost high school friends, whose careers and critical thinking were in no wise aborted, such was the case with me.
    Filled with optimism and hope, I am grateful for the words of a very welcome newbie, expressions that have renewed my resolve and revivified [WT jargon] my spirit.
    I know I'm full of it, but I am sincere! Honest!

    CoCo

  • jschwehm
    jschwehm

    I teach at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, WI.

    Jeff S.

  • misanthropic
    misanthropic
    So, to all of us who have "seen the light", let's keep learning, let's keep changing, let's keep growing. Let's embrace life and our own humanity. Let's be "liberal" as in free and rejoice in that freedoom, and may we never find ourselves in servitude again!


    amen to that.

  • poppers
    poppers

    Thanks Jeff. I live 50 miles north of Eau Claire.

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