In a research methodology class, my professor carried out a simple experiment that I’d like you to carry out. Take a pen and paper and draw a sunset. Take 15 seconds. Proceed only after you’re done.
Are there hills? Is the sun setting between them? Some may also have a stream and/or some ‘v’ shaped birds. How is it that so many people have this particular image in their minds for a sunset?
There are certain things that are set in our brains. It is important to unlearn these things to make space for newer things. In four years of my liberal arts education, I realised how this learning is reflected in every aspect of their educational system.
Liberal arts studies is an interdisciplinary education covering topics within humanities, social sciences, natural and formal sciences etc. The basic idea during its introduction in the western world was that this education is essential for a free independent person to take an active part in civic life. Therefore, liberal arts education, in today’s time provides with a broader spectrum of knowledge and skills of the world with compulsory subjects like statistics, literature, multicultural worldview, contemporary economics and business analysis, creative writing, logic, rhetoric writing among others and specialisation in subjects of your interest. It encourages exploration across disciplines, while providing a central academic experience by election of majors and minors. Students who elect to major in the natural sciences or engineering, for example, also take classes in history, languages, philosophy, the arts and a variety of other subjects. The first year of education is dedicated to exploring the subjects and figuring out which subjects interest you and you are passionate about. This is where I fell in love with learning. After years of hating school and studies, this place helped clear the dust on the basic instincts of humans to know, know and know more by giving students the freedom to learn and explore and doing away with the tremendous and unnecessary pressure that usually comes with education.
In my college, we unlearned the set way of carrying out assessments or examination. An examination with pen and paper with a set time-limit on a particular day is not the only or most efficient way of assessing if the student is learning. Here, the assessments are carried out in different ways like essays, presentations, teach-a-class, exhibitions, plays, performances and anything else you can think of as long as your understanding of the topic is conveyed. And none of these is to assess if you know the facts but to read your take, understanding, implications and applications of what was discussed in the class and the clarity of the facts is seen automatically. This makes one’s mind run to be creative, imaginative, explorative; to think, have fun and thus develop.
We unlearned the set way of academic learning. Instead of textbooks, it was based on research and discussion.
We unlearned the idea of respect. It wasn’t based on calling teachers ‘sir’ and ‘madam’. Having our professors and director on first-name basis contributed to the culture of the place, dissolved the barrier and led us to sit down and discuss anything and everything with them which ultimately helped create a better environment for us and them.
All in all, this education system opened a space for discussion and debate; inculcated in me values like questioning, critical thinking, creating cogent arguments, creative and academic writing and other forms of expression, love for exploration, a glimpse of western world’s education, use of words like ‘cogent’, 8 latin american and ballroom dance forms and a realisation that deep inside, everyone is a nerd as soon as they find their subject.