Liberal Art & liberal arts (Myn in the Mirror);

The rebellious teacher, supported on the platform
platform, by two colleagues, was too drunk to speak
and made a hasty exit through the emergency exit,
where he could be heard vomiting. A rumor ran
round the hall that his condition was due to having
spent the previous night at a local brothel with his
students.
         ( Carole Seymour-Jones on Jean Paul Sartre)

        Local Fodder, Fruit, & Chaff
 
Liberal –the root meaning:  to mount up,  to grow
(Indo European – leudh² )
 
The heart of thinking & perception might be said to be
drawing distinctions. And then arguing them out, privileging
one side and rejecting the other on the basis of instrumental
utility, agenda, goal, aim. 
 
My ”damned” : moral sense” grows out of  this habit.
Divide and Conquer. Pragmatic. Practical. Living the
Purposeful Life.  

The soul selects her own society, Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority  Obtrude no more.
Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing
At her low gate; Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.  I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one; Then close the valves of her attention
Like stone. (Emily D. reformmated to fit my screed)

Say (always for the sake of argument”  & the “doing” of
academics) that  the aim  of Liberal Art is to grow persons.
 
And the aim of liberal arts: to study products (of Liberal Art).
 
With this distinction assumed: might we poll & assess
 
      1) .how many  are convinced  that a
          student who studies the left hand column
          will more likely grow into a better person
          & citizen, less likely to be among the mass
          leading lives of quiet desperation than them
          studying in the right hand column?   
 
      the liberal arts                    not
          math                       accounting
          physics                    air conditioning
          chemistry                automotive systems
          biology                    baking and pastries  
          anthropology           cosmetology
          sociology                carpentry
          psychology              cabinet making
          history                     bed & breakfast mgt
          literature                  computer sciences
          religion                    nursing
          philosophy…          welding …  
                             etc.
      2) poll and assess:  what the actual difference
          that makes a difference is in the “liberal” (growth)
          factor between students of liberal arts vocational-ism
         and those of the applied and instrumental arts?
 
From a measure-mental and assessment  standpoint, it’d
be good to know the relationship between perception and
actuality,  and what criteria and what procedures might
reveal the actual qualitative “personal growth ratios”  among 
practitioners devoted to  these separate columns—
acknowledging and factoring-in our shared ongoing bias:
the suburban  middle-class myth that surrounds  liberal
arts       
 
Zoomerang data might provide an operating  assumption and
basis for distinguishing our the core/gen-ed program from the
rest of the vocational, grad-school preparation that appropriately
characterizes our major-minor emphasis preparing them for
higher hire-education schooling and schooling..
 
Call it (gen-ed core) our Liberal Art (as opposed to  liberal arts)
program. Let it maybe  challenge  the assumptions we’ve been riding
on for ever;  work up language (and sound) so as to be controversial
AND Chronicle-Worthy

Just to put IT in play, is all:  the classic conversation. the value of
Liberal Arts as opposed to Not So. Re-invent these wheels, zero
based thinking up from old scratch. Local food for thought. The
process itself would be trans-disciplinary if not transformational,
don't you agree?

Well, we could at least argue IT.

xxxooo, Sam.
.