Friday, October 29, 2010

Liberal Arts Education.

Rabbi Daniel Gordis recently wrote about the paucity of liberal arts education in Israel. You can read his article here. He raises several interesting points, the most important, in my mind, being that rigorous intellectual education remains critical to learning how to think and to understanding and solving some of the world's most difficult problems.

Gordis notes that in Israel, the number of people who are forsaking advance study of the humanities--history, language, literature, art--is dropping in favor of technical professions, such business and management. While these disciplines are important, they cannot be the end all of any educational experience. As Gordis writes:

What does matter is whether we can produce a generation of students who, when they hear something about which they disagree, can debate the ideas at hand, rather than merely seeking to silence those with whom they disagree.
It is important, therefore, that we teach our kids how to think, and use the humanities in order to do so. Our future requires that our children learn about ideas and how to analyze them.

This is what we seek to do at Kadima; moreover, we do it in a way that is grounded in both Jewish and General Studies. Just as our students study American history analytically, they also analyze Jewish history analytically. The goal is to challenge our students, encourage them to think critically, and to provide them with the beginnings of an intellectual background--and a commitment to learning for its own sake--that will permit them to solve problems, imagine solutions, and create their own successful futures.