LIBERAL EDUCATION

Read Chapter 2 Only.

In Chapter 2, “A Brief History of Liberal Education,” Fareed Zakaria examines the historical developments and trends that led up to liberal education as it exists in the US today. According to the chapter, a key debate regarding the development of liberal education in the US occurred between Charles Eliot, who served as the president of Harvard from 1869-1909, and several of his peers from Yale, Princeton, and the University of Chicago.

Write an essay in which you:(1 and half page)

1) Discuss in detail Eliot’s ideas about how undergraduate college students should learn and how they differed from the ideas of his peers of that time at Yale, Princeton, and the University of Chicago.

2) Explain your position on this debate regarding how undergraduates should learn and support it fully, giving examples and details from the text, as well as from your personal observations and experience as an undergraduate student at an American university.

Answer preview

Liberal education was developed to support the newly adopted democratic government in Greek cities. The development led to disagreements across different divides. For example, Plato, a philosopher, said that education would help people to pursue knowledge, while Isocrates argued that the study of morality, language, and rhetoric arts were enough to make people live well (Zakaria, 2015). The development of liberal…

 

(450 words)