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 Importance of a liberal arts education |
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Sorimachi As I understand your proposal, we should reorganize the law departments in four year colleges into more general and liberal arts oriented programs. What do you want accomplish by this reform
I feel that Japanese society today has become too technocratic, losing its humane elements. People are more mechanical and less warm hearted, and I see educational failure behind these changes. The education system today selects out a certain group of kids from high schools by deviation, then has them study law in four year colleges and then pass the bar exams. In the United States, eighteen year old kids go to four year colleges to acquire a broad general education in order to grow and develop as a well-balanced individuals. Then they go on to more specific areas of concentration, entering graduate schools - business administration, economics, engineering or law. They may even change their majors, should they find that their first selection is unsuitable for them for any reason. Japanese students jump into the study of law before even receiving a general education and training as a person. Are you suggesting that law schools should welcome students who have studied some other subject other than law at the undergraduate level?
Yes. This is much better than going into the study of law without learning any other subject comprehensively. Four years of college education will make any individual more mature, a prerequisite for a good lawyer. Contrary to your suggestion, the current trend in Japanese education is to let kids move into specific and professional subjects from their first year in college rather than after two years of general introductory studies.
That is a business choice. Unless colleges offer something specific or interesting, they can't attract students. Do you think that humanity and maturity as a person are things one can learn in the classroom, sittingin front of a blackboard?
Well, I am not education specialist. But may I say this: lawyers need to understand the nature of human beings and they need to be able to solve problems arising from within a person's mind rather than just mechanically applying laws to solve problems. Lawyers need to have deep insights re human beings and their relationships within society. How do you expect students acquire these abilities ? A former president of Harvard College, Henry Solovsky, enumerated six basic values he expected students to acquire: modesty, humanity, flexibility, a critical spirit, a broad view point and ethical standards, all of which would enable an individual to develop deep insights. Subsequently, educational specialists should offer a curriculum, through which students acquire these values. |
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