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- I think the Core Handbook does a really nice job covering all the aspects Scheuer and Ungar talk about in their articles. UNE gives a definition of what they believe Liberal Arts is, and what benefit it has on their students. They reiterate the importance of creating this core curriculum in order “…to serve the needs to students and enhance their education in the liberal arts (Introduction para. 2). I believe the handbook should put more emphasis on there being no true definition of liberal arts, more just these topics are apart of them and they are the most crucial for students to learn.
- I choose to evaluate English Composition and Drawing 101 for my two classes. I believe English comp has taught me what critical thinking is, and how it is important for use in my everyday life. Scheuer states “…ability to identify assumptions, draw inferences, distinguish facts from opinions, draw conclusions from data, and judge the authority of arguments and sources” are ways in which teachers recognize the skill of critical thinking. I believe in English, I am challenged to work on these skills, and pick apart the text. The handbook states in English Composition, “Students learn to read, to think, and to write in response to a variety of texts, to integrate their ideas with those of others, and to read writing as a recursive process” (English comp. pg 5). I believe this is exactly what English Comp. is teaching students, and developing these skills to be used in all other courses as well. Drawing 101 is a class that is required, but I am enjoying it and it gives me a break between all my major, core science classes. “…visual arts allows students to acquire a variety of separate but interrelated concepts and skills” (Creative Arts pg 7). The handbook gives a great description of the purpose of this class, and explains that it the skills learned in these classes, are skills needed for other courses and challenges in the workplace.
- (#4) The purpose of these courses within the handbook are stated numerous times. These are skills the university deems important and skills that need to be taught in order to most successful in future classes and careers. These classes also could spark an interest within a student they did not know they had. “In particular, students will be challenged to define complex problems in their major and solve them, taking into account a variety of approaches and awareness, deciding what they need to know and how to get to know it, and learn to collaborate with others” (Critical thinking pg. 14). This statement explains perfectly how these classes develop crucial skills in UNE students. These skills are most important, and other major based skills will only get students so far. “…the future demands of citizenship will require not narrow technical or job-focused training, but rather a subtle understanding of the complex influences that shape the world we live in” (misperception 1, para 1). Both the Core Handbook and Ungar understand the importance of these skills in the real world. They allow people to connect and perform their jobs well.
