Liberal arts context

Following in the liberal arts context is an essay by Carol Christ, President of Smith College - the first women s college, and one of the few liberal arts colleges... 

In crafting the education of our students, in rethinking the curriculums within a liberal arts context, we need conversations about what we want our students to gain... 

Recalling this historical background is instructive for several reasons. It reminds us that the dichotomy between liberal arts and professional education in which so much of the discussion of the liberal arts is still cast had a social and historical context. Embedded within it was a debate about class, privilege, and access. In a world today in which almost all students expect to enter the professional workplace, and in which we share a belief in equity of access, I wonder whether we are well served by an opposition between the goals of professional education and the liberal arts that is cast in terms remarkably similar to those of the 19th century. I myself believe that it does not, to the detriment of both professions and the liberal arts. 

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