TED Talks
Liz Coleman's call to reinvent liberal arts education
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and is an annual conference featuring passionate speakers. We found this video to be inspiring and challenging and wanted to share it with you.
From the TED video description: "Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education -- one that dynamically combines all areas of study to address the great problems of our day."
Our students' comments:
Thank you for sending us this link, I found it to be very inspirational. By this I mean that over the past two years I have been experiencing what Liz is talking about - the broader learning and the culmination of the course thus far. Just today Rob and I were talking about the changes we have noticed in our approach to work and social engagements, for the better.
We commented on how we are able to articulate our points of view and interest, as well as gain deeper understanding on issues that may be around us. This transformation is not one that has happened over night. I am also confident that my learnings are no where near their end, rather they are only just beginning. My entry into the Liberal Arts Program is one of the most important decisions that I made, not only for my betterment; but for my family as well. My oldest has watched me over the past two years in my study habits and has formed his own - he is going to Grade 8 next year and I feel these habits will serve him well. He has even made his own word template for papers he is assigned to write - who would have ever thought.
I tell people on a regular basis that the decision to apply for the program was the easy part — the completion of the program will be the best part. The in between is the fun part. Thank you once again for the link.
Steven
________________________________________________________Thanks for sharing this with us. I am most happy with the LBS program. It is well balanced; and, I commend you and the rest of the faculty for your vision in developing the program.
Sincerely,
Mahmood________________________________________________________
The speech was spectacular and inspiring, thank you!
Paulo
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Thanks for sending this. As I watched, I was reminded that the reason that I applied to this program was to acquire critical thinking skills. I'm not finding it easy, as a matter of fact, I've been tempted to throw in the towel more than a couple of times in the last term. But eventually, I manage to get things done, even if they're not being done as well as I'd like to do them.
Lucille________________________________________________________
I watched the video and found it very uplifting. It reflected many of the views that I hold about education.
Melissa