The New Liberal Arts Sanford Ungar Summary

Sanford Ungar argues the importance that a liberal arts degree holds today in America to those who are skeptic in his article, “The New Liberal Arts.” There are several points Ungar disproves. Ungar states that the job market was tough to crack into among all majors. Liberal arts have nothing to do with politics and can’t be related to democratic ideology according to Ungar. Several institutions that provide secondary education have liberal arts degrees which gives several opportunities for students to attain an education accessible to them. By using common misperceptions of others, Sanford Ungar turns those statements around and to prove his points with facts and surveys. In the article, Ungar begins stating the misconception of the poor job market for graduates with liberal-art degrees. He easily disproves this by referring to a survey conducted by the Association of American Colleges and University in 2009. “More than three-quarters of our nation’s employers recommended that college bound students pursue a ‘liberal education’” (GFC 658). This statistic is clearly showing how much jobs actually want students with a liberal arts degree. Not only this, but the article continues by stating …show more content…
Specifically, the article goes into depth on how an education in the liberal arts has nothing to do with democratic politics. “A liberal education, as properly defined above, has nothing to do with politics-except insofar as politics is one of the fields that students often pursue under its rubric” (GFC 660). Ungar continues by stating that “It promotes the idea of listening to all points of view and not relying on a single ideology” (GFC 660). Also, Ungar ends his point by saying that maybe only liberal education can get America back to having conversations instead of shouting matches when it comes to discussing politics. Obviously, democratic politics has no tie to liberal art