The Importance Of Being A Liberal Education

For our IS class we were given the opportunity to hold a workshop for a class of sixth graders. Our class was split into groups with another IS class and then assigned a topic for our workshop. This was a very fun and special experience to be able to work with these young kids and help them learn and understand new ideas in a different way. We were able to show them one part of what it is to be a liberal learner without them being directly aware of it. Bartlett Giamatti says, “If there is a single term to describe the education that can spark a lifelong love of learning, it is the term liberal education (Giamatti 20).” I can not say we sparked their love of learning but it was a start. Over the course of the day they learned about several …show more content…
That was one of our main goals and some of the characteristics they should came about without us prompting them at all and that was a extremely interesting thing to observe. In order to build their boats and make them the best that they could be they were forced to use characteristics of a liberally educated person. They had use critical thinking and communication. Not only did the students have to use these skills but we, as leaders of the workshop, had to use these skills too. Even though we were running the workshop we were still refining and developing our own characteristics of a liberal learner. The students showed critical thinking the most of any characteristic in this workshop. As they were building their boats, I would sit by a group and ask them questions to make them think deeper about it. I would ask questions like, “Are their any improvements to your boat that you could make to have it hold more pennies?” This would spark a conversation in the group and they would try to improve further on what they had already created. That leads into the next characteristic of a liberal learner they used. Communication was very important for each group and I saw that in both sessions, there would be one kid in each group that would stand up and communicate to the others in what they should do. Then the other kids would still voice up and give their own opinion. …show more content…
Liberally educated citizens should use their education as a service to others and they should use it to lead others. We accomplished both of those in this workshop. Leadership was shown within our own group as we tried to set up our workshop. One person took charge and lead our group and gave each of us different areas to focus on while still listening to all of our different ideas. This helped us come up with a solid lesson plan and made us well prepared for the workshop. The leadership also came into play when we had the sixth graders in front of us. We needed someone to take control and lead the opening of the workshop and we had that which kept everything running smoothly. I saw this workshop as a whole, a service. Us students, being educated citizens, used our knowledge to help teach and develop sixth graders in a new and fun was. The element of service is an important responsibility of an educated citizen so I am grateful that I was able to be involved in this workshop and do my part. This has made me want to do more and continue my responsibility of service and build on my responsibility of leadership. This workshop was a good start to that and a good way for me to learn how to fulfill my leadership