English 105
Journal Entry 17
I have always believed that students
should have a strong base in the liberal arts, whether or not I have admitted
it. All my friends, from both high
school and college, would tell you that I’ve always been rather quick to
complain about my history, English, philosophy, and psychology classes. However, if you let me talk about it long
enough, I’m also very quick to point out that I know it’s good for me to take
the classes and know the material being taught. Where the subject of history is concerned, an obvious reason for
learning about wars, famines, suppression, etc. is to avoid making the same
mistakes in our lifetime or to at least know a successful way to handle such situations. It is also important for one to be able to
think for himself. So often nowadays
people go along with what everyone else does or says. We see this in everything from fashion trends to popular T.V.
shows and music to politics. By
presenting students with different theories in politics, psychology,
philosophy, and the sciences, different styles of writing in English, and music
and art from other cultures, those students are able to discover what aspects
of all these arts they enjoy and agree or disagree with. If they don’t fully agree, they have the
ability to develop a theory or style of their own because of the knowledge
they’ve acquired.