LIBERAL ARTS 1

History has proved that through reading liberal arts, significant people brought change to politics, leadership, and science among other disciplines. Liberal arts have a positive influence in transforming our thinking and creativity and thus leading to development.

Isaac Newton has a personal history of entering the underachiever’s class after continuously staying a tail ender when he was at the primary school. The principal pitied him but saw great potential. He introduced Newton to liberal arts who read it extensively. As a result, Newton, previously treated like a mentally challenged person, transformed into a genius who discovered the law of universal gravitation and rewrote the history of science.

Winston Churchill entered the Harrow school at the age of twelve and held the last position consistently during the four years and six months of his schooling. The mother recommended liberal arts for him to read at the age of 22. He read the books four to five hours every day. Churchill’s reading of the liberal arts took a critical role in transforming his brain. He became the protagonist who led the Second World War to victory and won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1953.

Three months after his enrollment in primary school, Thomas Edison was expelled from school. The reason was that he had no intellectual ability to follow up with the classes in school. His father gave up claiming that he was naturally mentally challenged, but the mother, who was a teacher, having hope in him, made up a special curriculum and taught him herself. Edison, under the guidance of his mother, he read Richard Green Parker’s ‘A School Compendium of Natural and Experimental Philosophy’ at the age of nine.

Historical literature such as Edward Gibbon’s ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, David Hume’s ‘The History of England’, and novels from Shakespeare and Charles Dickens followed next. At the twenties, he almost lived in the library insisting that he will read all the books in the library. He holds a record of 1093 patents, making him the king of inventions. He established General Electric, one of the world’s best companies.

The developed countries are zealous of reading liberal arts. However, the third world countries are quite distanced from reading liberal arts.

How about Kenya?

Reading of liberal arts in the American universities is beyond our imagination.

The only educational curriculum for the St John’s University is reading 100 liberal arts pieces, debating about it and writing essays about them for four years. George Wythe University is named after George Wythe, who was the mentor of Thomas Jefferson, the founding father of United Stated of America. The main curriculum of the university is to read and debate about the liberal arts with a mentor, like Thomas Jefferson did, for four years, with George Wythe.

Yale University operates a ‘Directed study program’. Focusing on John Locke or Machiavelli’s liberal arts, the lecturer lectures once a week and students hold a seminar twice a week. The students are acknowledged to have completed six subjects when the students finish the program. Several Universities offer ‘100 pieces of liberal arts program’ or ‘curriculum which focuses on reading liberal arts’. These include; New York University, University of Wisconsin, Notre Dame University, Boston University, University of Chicago, Reed College, Colorado College, University of Kentucky, Mercer University, University of Maine, University of Missouri, University of South Carolina, University of Vermont, University of Wyoming and other 160 other universities.

We are obliged to ask ourselves, whether Kenya’s educational curriculum has its purpose on nurturing the people to possess the brain of a leader that centers on liberal arts, or to manufacture the people’s brains to be like machine parts through rote learning that encourages cramming.

Dr. Ha Tae Hyun, Ph.D.

Director

DOAN Education Institute (College)