Frank Baxter Outside Reading 2 (entry 12)

Frank Baxter Outside Reading 2 (entry 12)

The author Bloom wrote a piece called “Liberal Education in Crisis” where he describes that an undergraduate degree is not giving students what they need to be free individuals.  Some of the main problems are that he identifies are specialization, that there are too many narrow topics that do not relate to each other, so students get a random assortment education. But his main critique is that undergraduates are not making students ask the right questions in life. What he means by this is the deep questions, what is life? Is there anything after? Is there a god? What is a human, and what does it mean to be alive?

Our class had a discussion on the usefulness of classes, many seemed to think that it was only for a job, but I think Bloom was on to something. Bloom know that in a democracy especially where individuals must make choices for themselves and are alone in their own paths, they must be able to think about these topics. Thankfully philosophy and especially classes like C.S.  Lewis enable the student to engage in this questions.