The Liberal Arts: Indoctrination or education?

According to Robert George writing in the American Spectator, the original purpose of a liberal arts education was to “convey the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that carry with them a certain profound form of freedom.” Read more  But now, at many American universities, liberal arts has morphed into liberationism–the view that “traditional norms and structures are irrational” and it is important to “free” students to be “authentic.” Translated this means that students are taught their highest aspiration can only be to be slaves to their own passions, provided of course that these desires are within the “norm of political correctness.”

In comparison, the classical liberal arts concept views people as “capable of self-transcendence and self-mastery” and seeks to help them in “considering arguments and counterarguments, and examining competing points of view.”

This is what AITSE advocates–presenting students and the public with a balanced view of the science, not influenced by political-correctness, financial considerations or ideological preconceptions. This is a real liberal arts education.