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For all the things I have to worry about today one of the things I have to be freed from in your education. Well I should say the chief thing and I'm going to spend my time entirely on this because you might as well drive one good point home. The chief thing we have to worry about is over specialization. All over specialization. That's what we have to be freed from more than ever today. And that's why the liberal education I think you can do for us. And I want to discuss that in three terms. First of all individual over specializations second group over specialization. Third National over specialization. First of all the individual. The great danger you're going to run into is that you will neglect this kind of education every chance you get. The faculty is trying to make sure you won't neglect it entirely. But I've been advising pression long enough in this university to realize that many of you perhaps most of you are chiefly interested in taking the courses that are going to prepare you as quickly
as possible for some useful and moneymaking occupation and any courses that don't seem to bear on that you look upon. At best with tolerance and at worst with disgust. I remember one instance a colleague of mine in the French Department had a student come to him one in one of his very best students in an advanced French cards and she said I'm sorry I'm going to drop this course. And he said I'm sorry too. What's the matter don't you feel it's helping you you are enjoying it. And she said why I am enjoying it more than any course I've taken in the university and I'm getting an awful lot out of it. And you'll notice this wasn't apple polishing for she was going to drop. And he said well why in the world are you dropping it. And she said I talked it over with my advisor and we agreed that it isn't of any use to me. It isn't of any use to me. What do you mean by that what you were going into occupational therapy and in occupational therapy why do you need any advanced work in French. Well obviously you don't.
Obviously you don't if you're looking at it from the standpoint of utility of getting into the field quickly getting a good job. It doesn't do you any good to take some of these subjects that have no immediate bearing on it for at least it doesn't do you any immediate good. Well that's the general attitude. You don't want to take courses that aren't of immediate value in terms of your job. You're looking ahead to. That's the most dangerous attitude in my opinion you can possibly take. And let me give you two illustrations of why it's dangerous. That was precisely the attitude in Germany before the war. They were training technicians on a tremendous scale and very effective way. In Germany they were turning out scientists engineers technicians in every field. No one can claim that they weren't giving efficient training but all they were doing was training technicians. You didn't find this kind of education I'm talking about the useless kind. The liberal kind. Informing the people of Germany so that you have a responsible
public opinion. Giving them the type of range of knowledge of human nature and human experience so they realized what they were drifting into or what they were being guided into by those technicians who were at the head of government and were likewise narrow technicians in political and military control. And then you have the tragedy that came about. Let me give you an instance today the same thing is true in Russia. No one can claim that in Russia you aren't giving people the training in technical mastery. In many fields. In fact you can say that Russia has become a nation of Engineers. But you do not have the other type of training so that those people are well informed about past human history about the world they're living in about human nature. All of that more general training that education has gone by the board in Russia and at the hand of the Russian government you have a group of
Collection
Wisconsin College of the Air
Series
Freshman forum
Episode
What is a liberal education?
Contributing Organization
Wisconsin Public Radio (Madison, Wisconsin)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/30-36tx9z2q
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Description
Description
No description available
Broadcast Date
2013-06-17
Topics
Education
Rights
Content provided from the media collection of Wisconsin Public Broadcasting, a service of the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board. All rights reserved by the particular owner of content provided. For more information, please contact 1-800-422-9707
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:21:03
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Credits
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Wisconsin Public Radio
Identifier: WPR1.13.37.T37 MA2 (Wisconsin Public Radio)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:21:44
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Citations
Chicago: “Wisconsin College of the Air; Freshman forum; What is a liberal education?,” 2013-06-17, Wisconsin Public Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-30-36tx9z2q.
MLA: “Wisconsin College of the Air; Freshman forum; What is a liberal education?.” 2013-06-17. Wisconsin Public Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-30-36tx9z2q>.
APA: Wisconsin College of the Air; Freshman forum; What is a liberal education?. Boston, MA: Wisconsin Public Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-30-36tx9z2q