Education of Exploration

 I am someone who is passionate about music and the arts in general, but I feel somewhat unfulfilled by my music studies at Olaf.  I feel that my music major has only really prepared me to become a better musician… and nothing more. 

As frustrating as this was initially to reconcile with, I came to terms with the fact that the most important part of my liberal arts education wasn’t my specific major studies, but rather the “liberal arts-ness” as a whole.

Donald Kagan expressed his critical assessment of what a modern liberal arts education has become in his article “Ave atque vale”.  He says that in a modern day liberal arts institution there is a

“lack of any collection of works or even subjects studied in common, the absence of agreement on any particular method of training the mind, [and] the lack of a culminating examination testing the acquisition of a fixed body of knowledge… “

I agree with everything that Kagan says but rather than viewing this laundry list as something to critique, I view it as something to praise.

In my opinion a modern day liberal arts education is an education of exploration.  It makes me happy knowing that there is no standardized cannon of curriculum or methodology, no uniform means of assessing knowledge.  It is praiseworthy to know that within the liberal arts there not only exists a great academic diversity but also a great diversity amongst the different methodological and educational approaches to those very academics. 

All the more to explore.

I have learned more about myself and about the world around me by exploring outside the wall of my major.  My exploration has led me to new interests, new ways of learning, new passions and even to new life paths.  It is these experiences that have shaped who I am and what I want to do with my life, not my study of Music.  I feel that my education at St. Olaf has liberated and continues to liberate me through the liberal arts.