Education: What Does it Mean?

Andros has a very thoughtful, as usual, post on education over at Liberal Citizen. I agree wholeheartedly. Being educated is one thing, but what you do with it is another thing. I am a subscriber to the theory that a “Liberal Arts Education” should promote citizenship.

I don’t mean to say that a “Technical Education” is a bad thing, but that it shouldn’t be the only thing.

I also ascribe to the theory that an Interdisciplinary approach to education is the most relevant form of pedagogy. I believe in context and the intertwining of disciplines just as life is an intertwining of values, events and consequences.

Now as one with a technical degree, i.e. a J.D., though from an Interdisciplinary school, I appreciate the fact that I received an excellent Liberal Arts Education as an undergraduate. Without that grounding I would have been less able to put my legal education into a coherent perspective and integrate it into my world view and actual life goals.

My Liberal Arts Education and subsequent Interdisciplinary Legal Education gave me a broad and unlimited view of citizenship. I believe that a purely Technical Education provides a narrow and, I believe in most cases, self-serving view of citizenship.

Now, maybe it is just me? I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.

So, I guess we have to ask those Money Changers on Wall Street and at the White Shoe Law firms what they think.

I don’t mean to sound self-congratulatory, after all I am Canadian and Harper was just elevated to the top. But, as a Canadian, Liberalism is in my blood.

Just read Andros, it is worth it.