7 Lessons from my Informal Liberal Arts Education

7 Lessons from my Informal Liberal Arts Education

 In Defense of a Liberal Education

I am a couple of days away from starting the actual writing of my book based on my journey toward an informal liberal arts education. the process involves reading through my course notes, reflecting on them, jotting down my reactions, and making note of the lessons. I have taken 12 courses so far (not including the MOOCs I took earlier in the year such as Social Media for Journalists, and Storytelling for Change), and most of them are not the initial courses that I started off with.

It is important to make plans, but not to plan the outcome because you will miss out on opportunities. When I started the journey toward my informal liberal arts education, there were two things going on with me at the time, and I did not realize that they were related. First, I wanted to test the comment that people with a liberal arts education are more flexible, resilient and change hardy. Second, I was feeling like a fraud, suffering from the imposter syndrome. I look great on paper, yet that was not enough for me.

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There was a trigger of discontent in my life that I had to address. As a deep thinker, and someone who is always reflecting on her life, after taking several courses, I started to focus on courses to fill a skills gap. To make me better at my craft. Because of all the benefits that I am reaping, and the lessons that I am learning from my informal liberal arts education, I have decided to continue with my studies. Here are some of the lessons from informal liberal arts education.

1. Be willing to take chances – open yourself up to a sense of play. I learned this lesson from taking Introduction to Visual Thinking and the History of Architecture. What this lesson tells me, is that when you open up yourself to the possibilities of life, and take chances, magic happens and you break new ground.
2. Make plans, but don’t plan the outcome so that you do not miss out on opportunities. This lesson is from the Introduction to Visual Thinking class. The course is an art history course and most of the students were young up-and-coming artists (the course I took wasn’t live, but a recording). What this lesson means to me, is before starting a project, you have to plan so that you have a road-map to follow. But while working on the project – creating a piece of art or writing a book, or whatever – issues arise that open you up to amazing opportunities. If you allow yourself to deviate from the plan, your outcome could be extraordinary.

3. When you get stuck, do not abandon the work. There are times when it is best to start over the work when you get stuck. But before you do something that’s so radical, take a time out and do something that’s very different from the project that you are working on. Taking a time out allows you to return to your work with a fresh outlook. When you abandon your work, you abandon what could have been. I learned this from the Introduction to Visual Thinking class.

4. After you have learned and understood the foundations of your field, knowing all the rules, take off and make your mark. When you know and understand the rules, you know how to break them. You give yourself the freedom to innovate. This is important, and enables you to go against the grain. It is often what it takes to break the mold and get ahead. I learned this lesson from my Introduction to Architecture course.
5. You can look anywhere for ideas – pick and choose from various styles and disciplines, then combine them. Pull ideas from various traditions. Use the possibilities of the age, and its technologies to gather ideas, or even to push the boundaries. What has meaning to society? I learned this lesson from Introduction to Architecture.
6. Learn how to bridge the past with the present or vice versa. Archaeologists never see the complete picture. Therefore, they often have to look at present cultures to surmise what happened in the past. George Santayana once said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” and there is truth in that adage. The Mayan civilization collapsed because of overpopulation. They couldn’t produce enough food for everyone so disease set in. There are certain areas where the same problem exists today. Therefore, we have to learn the lessons from the past, then bridge the past and the present. With new farming technologies, and better health care, we are better able to stave off disease. But we still need to be aware of the lessons from the past to take proactive action.

7. Build on the work of others. This is something that I already know. But Introduction to Archaeology and Out of the Past, reminded me of this lesson. The ideas also form the basis for the process to work on a project. Look at what has been done before. And do not reinvent the wheel. Build on the work of others, which could mean breaking things apart and putting them together again in a different way. Accessing the work of others is not enough. We need to spend time with the information, immersing ourselves into it, looking for hidden meaning, and expanding the information to get something new.

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In another post, I will share other lessons that I have learned from my information liberal arts education. I will share lessons that I view as universal, so that anyone can learn from them. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Liked this post? Share it and subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more! If you’re new to the blog, visit the Start Here page for my pillar posts.

 Why Choose the Liberal Arts? In Defense of a Liberal Education Beyond the University Not for Profit

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