Reflective Essay on Intellect: Understanding the Liberal Arts
Jasmine Hawkins
Freshman Personal Development Portfolio
September 24, 2012
Everyone has their own opinions on education and what aspect of education is the most
important to learn in depth. Earl Shorris and Plato have similar, but also different thoughts when
it comes to education and what is the most important. Plato uses analogies and an extended
metaphor to get his point across towards his thoughts about education. In “The Cave,” Plato uses
an extended metaphor which explains that human beings perceive imperfect reflections and/or
interpretations as reality. Plato describes when the prisoners were chained to the ground and they
were forced to look only at the front wall. Behind them there were puppeteers and the light from
the fire. The puppeteers would cast these shadows on the front wall of the cave where the
prisoners could see them. The prisoner would see the shadows and interpret them into their own
reality. “…will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the
shadows…that what he saw before was an illusion…” (Plato. 360 B.C.E, 1). Plato tells his
readers that he interpreted this as the cave being the world of sight and the light from the fire as
the sun. He continues by saying that the world of knowledge is a realm of ideas; and it is also a
realm of truth; and it is open to anyone who is open to new ideas and knowledge. Plato’s
analogies and extended metaphor tie into all this because if we think like everyone with a closed
mind, then we will not be able to see all the possibilities of knowledge and new ideas. In “As a
Weapon in the Hand of the Restless Poor,” Shorris takes the word weapon, which most would
think as a physical entity, and turns it around to have a positive connotation. The connotation is
the concept of teaching the poor people who lack a decent education, have the mental capacity of
the understanding and learning the humanities and politics, instead of teachers just educating
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Reflective Essay on Intellect: Understanding the Liberal Arts
them in occupational training or just assuming that they are incompetent of learning higher
thinking materials. Teaching people these concepts gives them a chance to get involved in
society and to learn to mirror the world, instead of just reacting to it. Shorris puts a trial class
together with a group of students who have not been given a chance to a higher learning
education. The result after taking philosophy, poetry, art, history, logic, rhetoric, and American
history is that these classes would make “poor” rich in terms of thinking because they taught
them to reflect on the past, so they can go further into the future. Shorris and Plato’s ideas on
education are similar because they both think that life experience is what really teaches one how
to interact in society.
When I was looking at schools to apply to, I did not look for liberal arts schools or general
education schools. My focus was to find a school in which I know I would do well at and could
graduate in four or less years. I never knew exactly what a liberal arts school was; I thought it
meant a school that focused on people with art majors. Even though I was not interested in a
liberal arts school because of what I thought a liberal arts school was, I still came to Bridgewater
College. Many might ask why I would come to Bridgewater. The reasoning behind my decision
was because this school gave me the most money than the other schools to which I applied.
Money was not the only reason; my cousin is a Bridgewater alum and she is doing fairly well for
herself, she is working with coaches from the NFL and NBA to get her a career as an athletic
trainer with a professional team. She had told me that taken the communications class at
Bridgewater helped her tremendously because she can articulate her thoughts in front of people
that most would be nervous to converse with. Also, I like the atmosphere here, rather than at a
bigger school like Old Dominion University, where the focus there is fun first, then education,
and here it is education while having fun. My thoughts; on liberal arts schools, now that I have
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Reflective Essay on Intellect: Understanding the Liberal Arts
an idea on what they are; I feel that they are preparing you more for society because students are
learning not just about your area of study, but also things that you would normally not think
about studying. I have never thought about studying nutrition and wellness, or criminal justice
for example. This is the best educational decision that I have made thus far, when it comes to
furthering my education.
Many of Shorris’s arguments were compelling, but I did find some weaknesses; for
instance, I found in the Shorris’s experiment he assumed that “poor” people only live in the high
poverty areas, but there are also some that live in middle class areas. Majority of middle class
people have had little to no higher learning education, so why were they not included in the
study? Shorris also took the words of Viniece Walker and interpreted them in the way that he
would have a good argument. When it comes to education I would have to agree with the
statement that Viniece Walker said “You’ve got to teach the moral life of downtown to the
children…” (Shorris.1997, 2). I can understand where she is coming from, because young adults
and children where I am from do not embrace education. This is due to the fact that schools are
teaching only information that comes out of the textbooks, instead of broadening the children
minds to other things; for example, trips outside of the classroom to art galleries or concerts. If
the mind of a child is not expanded by new things and ways of thinking they will then become
closed minded and fall into the ways of the environment around them. I do not fully agree with
his statement that numerous forces make people poor. “I had to come to….this was what kept the
poor from being political and the absence of politics in their lives was what kept them poor,”
(Shorris. 1997, 1). This implies that if you do educate “poor” people they will be able to live in
society with other people at every level. I feel that poor people could live in society with or
without the education of humanities. There are moments when people who are educated can also
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lack life experience and can be oblivious. For a person to live in society it will have to take both
common and book knowledge because you cannot survive in this world with just one or the
other. After you make this realization, then you can grow as a person. Studying areas that are not
in your focus may seem like a waste of time and or pointless, but it will help you in the long run.
Everyone should have some general education in some subject because if they do not, they will
not be considered well rounded citizens; for example, the Founding Fathers were educated
people in all subjects and had very good occupations.
There is a difference between coexisting in society and existing in society. Existing
would mean just living and taking up space on earth, and letting opportunities pass you by, while
coexisting means getting involved and taking everything life has to give. Many of us just exist
because we do not take all the advantages around us. While I am at Bridgewater College I am
going to take advantages in taking classes that I would normally not take, like art, psychology,
and other classes. I also would take a study abroad trip to an area exotic area. Going to a
different country is something that will always change the way you think and your perspective
on life. Before I went to Cape Town, South Africa, I thought that Africa was this big desert with
huts and tents; for food they killed their animals and ate anything that was around them. After
looking at pictures it was much more Americanized than I thought it would be and I felt
somewhat better about going, but I was still scared because of the fighting and government
issues that they were having over there. When I got there, I thought that I had gotten off in a city
within the United States. I was expecting something that was totally different because I saw
luxurious vehicles, beaches, malls that were three to four stories tall and they had expensive
name brand stores. Most would think that the people there were not as educated as the United
States children, but in reality they were more advanced than we are. They have learned up to ten
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different languages fluently and have studied areas that United States children would not study
until their second or third year in college, and they were only fifteen years old. They also had the
life experience; for example, they got to see Mandela’s cell.
When I first saw all the classes at Bridgewater that are mandatory I did not understand
why, but now I am happy because I will feel like I am getting a better education than someone at
Virginia Commonwealth University for example, because I will have the knowledge of many
subjects and they will only know a couple. With a closed mind you can only see what is right in
front of you, but with a broadened horizon you can go as far as the horizon will allow you.
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