Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes

Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes states that a liberal education “…emancipates; it signifies freedom from the tyranny of ignorance, and from what is worse, the domination of folly.” In many regards, his words are very true. However, a liberal education accomplishes more than simply making students not ignorant; it also has to prepare them to enter the workforce. A college education has to train students to be critical thinkers as well as prepare them to enter the profession of their choice all while cultivating an omniscient body of students who work together to defeat the “domination of folly” through their knowledge in each person’s field of expertise.
A liberal education trains students to think for themselves, which, in doing so, relinquishes the rule of ignorance. In Ancient Rome, common people were not educated in any way, and, therefore, were never taught critical thinking skills and how to come to their own conclusions. For example, after the conspirators killed Caesar, they went to tell the people what they had done. The people were satisfied with their reasoning. Immediately after the conspirators departed, Antony arrived and spoke to the people, telling them how Caesar wanted to dedicate money to every citizen and how he only acted out of ambition. The people then became angry with …show more content…
If the goal of every university was to create intelligent students, then each student could take the same courses and learn the same things and they would all become intelligent and informed. However, this is not beneficial when the whole society is intelligent in the same fields of study. A liberal college must cater to the needs and interests of the individual student in order to make the learning experience