Colleges like Carleton have distorted their course offerings far, far away from the classic "liberal arts".
A true liberal education included Latin, possibly Greek, English composition, and some "hard reasoning" courses - philosophy, history, literature. That taught one HOW to think and in the old days ("old" like Plato and the medieval Schoolmen) was preparation for the sciences - mathematics, astronomy, music (yep, music is a science).
For political reasons (and also because it was "too hard" to admit the general population and the slackers) this has been heavily watered down. The literature and history courses consist mostly of hard left grievance politics, and reasoning has disappeared from philosophy and history.
There are schools that are trying to keep up the old rigorous approach, but in an era of mass college education they will always be outliers.
AAM,
What you have described is practically a course catalog from Christendom College.
That school is at the very tippety-top of my oldest son’s college list. We expect him to be admitted there to begin his studies next fall.
He spent a week down in VA on campus this summer, and we went to their Open House last month. It is a perfect fit for him. I would advise all Catholic parents (the school is VERY Catholic — and VERY orthodox in its Catholicism) to consider it for their children. Sandra Fluke and her ilk would not be as happy there as she they clearly are at Georgetown.
Regards,
Yes, let’s not confuse the value of a liberal arts degree with what the progressives have done to it. Hillsdale College is a perfect example. A genuine liberal arts degree teaches students how to think, not what to think.