Academic Skills for Arts: The Importance of Liberal Arts Education

This essay, titled "Academic Skills for Arts," delves into the ongoing debate surrounding the value of liberal arts and humanities education in comparison to STEM fields. The author argues that liberal arts and humanities facilitate professional development by fostering critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a broader understanding of various subjects. The essay discusses the historical context of this debate, highlighting the economic challenges that have influenced the perception of different educational paths. It also examines the importance of liberal arts in providing individuals with different ways of evaluating, observing, thinking, analyzing, and reasoning, using examples like Steve Jobs' approach to innovation. Ultimately, the essay concludes that a focus on integrating technology with humanities is crucial for success in the professional world, as leaders and entrepreneurs with diverse expertise are better equipped to achieve their career goals and navigate complex situations.

Running head: ACADEMIC SKILLS FOR ARTS
ACADEMIC SKILLS FOR ARTS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Introduction
Economic challenges over the past few years have led to reason the value of post-
secondary liberal arts and humanities education. While, many argue that learners must be
encouraged to follow practical or technical educations, others have been highlighting the
continual importance of humanities and liberal arts education (Wheelahan & Moodie, 2017).
With economic recession in 2008 along with job market demands towards science and
engineering degrees appeared to be obvious solution for successful and steady employment in
competitive market. The thesis statement of the essay is “Liberal Arts and Humanities Facilitates
Profession Development.”
Discussion
It is relatively common to hear in the era of big data and Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) that liberal arts and humanities degrees significantly lack
value in comparison to other technical subject domain. Many are of the perception that studying
humanities or liberal arts can only lead one to the domain of teaching. Private and public
institutions have been pushing students to avail stem education, which further elevated concerns
regarding the value of humanities, and liberal arts education (An, 2015). Such one-sided
determination towards STEM education has further given rise to arguments regarding the reason
why technology and science subjects have been perceived as significantly valuable especially to
people inclining towards stem fields. Reports have revealed that an insignificant number of
students have been obtained for humanities or liberal arts subjects in comparison to the
percentage which has been estimated a few decades ago (Pifer, Baker & Lunsford, 2015).
Furthermore, recent studies have claimed that the number of bachelor's degrees in the field of

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liberal arts and humanities which have been obtained in 2015 have dropped down nearly 10% in
recent times. Nevertheless, studies of An and Taylor (2015) have mentioned that the significance
of higher education degree has long been debited in the domain of academia. While many
questions that liberal education does not explicitly provide knowledge development opportunities
in a short skill, criticism in the field of humanities have noted that business organisations in
recent times have been seeking competences. These competencies are related to problem solving
skills and critical thinking abilities which would further provide significant revenues for students
to gain success in the vocational field (Wolff2017). Furthermore, there has been identified a
number of reasons for studying subjects within the domain of humanities for example religion
history philosophy language, art and music which most of the students in recent times have been
disregarding at their own liability (Macfarlane, 2015).
According to Kuh and Gonyea (2015), liberal education has been recognized as a
cohesive collection of events with each providing its own distinctive contribution to the
understanding of its practitioners. Moreover, liberal arts education has been principally involving
the study of natural sciences, which also include mathematics along with humanities and social
sciences. According to Nicholas (2017), natural sciences and mathematics have been usually
connected to the domain of stem education and has being very rarely perceived as a part of the
liberal education regardless of its linkage. On the other hand, the typical college curriculum
requires learners to sample fields in each subject. On the other hand, within the domain of
technology and science education students can obtain knowledge regarding what happens when
tiny particles tend to collide which can further open the window into the universe. However, on
the country within the domain of humanities, students can attain individuals and organisations
typically use knowledge regarding the resources, which can result in an improved understanding

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of the way economy might develop. show the more within the domain of humanities individuals
can learn another language which can give substantiation (An & Taylor, 2015).
In the view of authors although several other examples exist, however it is important to
note that thinking methods practiced in these domains which facilitates the exposure of
individuals especially students to various ways of evaluating, observing, thinking, analyzing as
well as reasoning (Wolff, 2017). Furthermore, the experiences obtained by gathering insights
from diverse fields tend to be qualitatively different. Nonetheless, all the subjects considered to
be imperative elements of the Tao of liberal arts and have been perceived to be equally crucial
for occupational success.
At this juncture it is important to take into consideration the case of Pixar in Steve Jobs
approach to innovation. As per reports, the launch of iPad 2 has revealed that technology alone
has not been involved in Steve jobs approach towards innovation. With the transformation of
Pixar from a simple machine used for generating complex graphic visuals to movie making
power house, it has been understood that computer scientists with their technical expertise must
collaborate with artists and designers in order to acquire the most appropriate ideas and create
something exceptional and unusual. With the combination of technology and liberal arts and
humanities, Steve Jobs was able to produce Pixar as an amalgamation of cultural patterns and
subject domains, which have long been disregarded (Kuh & Gonyea, 2015). The capacity to
process information and further handle critical situations has been viewed as considerable in
order to sustain occupational challenges. According to Nicholas (2017), it is highly imperative to
manage contemporary global issues at local National as well as global levels. Pifer, Baker and
Lunsford (2015) have argued that technology and sciences have been offering great prospects to
these domains, humanities and liberal arts has been offering another way of perceiving crises and

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enhanced decisions are usually produced when there are various judgements and outlooks taken
into consideration.
Conclusion
Hence, to conclude the focus on consilience at the cost of convenience has typically
being and explaining attribute for Steve Jobs who have emphasized on amalgamating technology
with humanities. Thus, leaders and entrepreneur competent enough to utilize brother and highly
diverse range of ideas and expertise will possibly exhibit a competence to successfully
accomplish their career goals and efficiently respond to critical situations as they develop and
arise. This is because liberal arts and humanities have been providing explicit perceiving issues
along with improved decisions, which can be gathered from different judgements outlooks and
opinions.

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References
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Wolff, R., 2017. ‘The ideal of the university.’ Routledge.