20
“
As a technical education would strive to make one
master of a given skill or technique, a liberal education
strives to make one master of oneself.”
—
Grant Franks, Tutor
“
A liberal education enables a human being to ask
questions, to assess honestly the tradition that
nurtures him into adulthood, to live in the world that
he inherits with a real capacity to judge what is good
and worthwhile in it and what is frivolous. . . .”
—
George Russell, Tutor
“
A liberal education as we pursue
it at St. John’s forces us to consider
and reconsider our received opin-
ions. We find new ways to under-
stand the world through reading
and discussing the works of some
of our greatest thinkers. In a liberal
education—as I was taught particu-
larly by my colleague Eva Brann—a
cat may look at a king.”
—
Judith Seeger, Tutor
“
A liberal education literally means ‘to lead out to
freedom.’ It means you’ve been taken from a state of
ignorance, a state where you have to rely on others
to think and decide for you, to a state where you can
think and decide for yourself.”
—
Babak Zarin ’11
“
I view the liberal arts as the grounding—morally,
artistically, and otherwise—of our civilization.”
—
David Maher ’11
What is
a liberal
education?