Learning the Art of Creation
Written by: Farhad Anwarzai
After watching your acceptance speech in Chicago, Mr. President,
my father turned his eyes away from the television screen and told
me a person's words could create a person's world. What you said on
that fateful night created a world of unity. People from a variety
of ethnicities, classes, and educational backgrounds stood in the
snow, their heads held high and their eyes filled with tears. You
listened to them; you listened to my father and me. Our voices were
heard and echoed back to us over the television.
The liberal arts teach us to embrace and listen to new
perspectives through various disciplines, similar to the way you
listened and brought our nation's words to life. Your vision was
broad, not appealing to some but to all. Such a way of thinking has
not been so prevalent in this country. Our nation has only existed
for a few hundred years, and the majority of those years has been
spent perfecting industry and out competing other countries
economically. The nation has not had time to create its own unique
culture like other thousand-year-old societies. In a way, the
United States has grown anti-intellectual. Money has become more
important than our identities. We are isolating ourselves from the
world by not embracing other ways of thinking.
When students think of the liberal arts, a job is probably not
the first idea that pops up into their heads. In fact, one may view
the liberal arts as a set of prerequisites for graduation, a way to
"broaden one's horizons" before setting foot into the real world.
However, to say a liberal education merely provides general
knowledge to broaden horizons is an appalling understatement. The
liberal education is more than the giving of general information;
it is the never ending pursuit of wisdom, the advent of
intellectual curiosity.
The human mind, Mr. President, is the most sophisticated and
mysterious entity we know of. It allows us to compose music, paint
portraits, write novels, solve mathematical equations, cure
diseases, and create a history of our existence through poetic and
abstract ideas. To deprive someone of the arts is to deprive them
of their God-given capabilities. After all, art is more than
self-satisfaction-it is the universal language that unites the
human race, something that cannot merely be "learned" but only
inherited as our common gift. Music, art, poetry, mathematics,
science-these disciplines allow an American student to understand
Japanese culture through a haiku or a scientist from England and a
doctor from India to team up and use chemistry to produce better
medicine. Practical information is used for the benefit of the
individual to survive financially. The liberal arts contribute to
humanity by being critical of humanity, and embracing ideas as well
as questioning them. The arts grant us the freedom to choose how we
should think and learn.
If the liberal arts diminished, rigid would be the best word to
describe our thinking. Anything outside the realm of business and
economic virtue would be considered useless, a misconception that
many hold true today. The beautiful, staccato melody of Vivaldi's
Winter would go unappreciated to the untrained ear. The only
philosophy followed would be the philosophy of making more money.
Our children would forget that the words of poets who sought
freedom from the shackles of tyranny sparked the American
Revolutionary War. We mustn't allow ourselves to view the liberal
arts as "useless." If anything, the most useful aspects of life are
learned through a liberal education. The best example is the
ability to rule a government.
Implementing the best possible government for our people is
based on the ancient Greek principle of democracy, or a government
"held by the people." Our forefathers did not create this nation
based on practical or "useful" information like hunting, trading,
or selling merchandise. Our forefathers used theories from ancient
governments and philosophers, histories of kingdoms that had failed
throughout time and literature that depicted the thoughts of the
people. With these elements they were able to craft the
Constitution, perhaps the most important piece of art that scholars
to this day interpret.
Aristotle once said, "All who have meditated on the art of
governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires
depends on the education of youth." As president, I am sure you are
well aware that the future of this nation goes far beyond the
production of money-making conglomerates. Our country works
diligently to get its citizens into the work force; money, not
wisdom, has become the basis of what we stand for. Is this what our
children should grow up believing? Mr. President-the diminishing of
the liberal arts means the lowering of educational standards. If we
continue to think one dimensionally about the world as a place
where only practical information matters, we are also thinning any
chance we have of understanding our fellow man. The liberal arts
teach us to be flexible in our thinking, to understand an array of
ideas. One-dimensionality promotes ignorance and will only
deteriorate any relationships we have internationally, for it is
our children who will establish future relationships with other
countries. A president who knows nothing of China's culture could
in no way establish an alliance with China. Nor could the president
fight a war if he knows nothing of the history of war, the
philosophies behind a war. We are the most blessed country in the
world. But if we have no understanding of the arts, our words will
not create a world of progression and change.
Money is important, without a doubt. We must be aware, however,
that our words will always create the world of the future. That is
why we must listen before we speak. Money, for a person who makes a
difference like you, Mr. President, inevitably follows, a concept
that many of us forget.
An ancient Chinese proverb says, "A nation's treasure is in its
scholars." True knowledge is priceless because it does not merely
teach us-it inspires us.