By Lisa Marsh Ryerson President of Wells College

I. Introduction

I am thrilled to be with you today for this event which is both a celebration and an exploration of Riverdale Country School's innovative Integrated Liberal Studies (ILS). A special thank you to Dr. Pahlka, director of studies, and Lisa Young, director of alumni affairs and Wells
Class of 1978.

When I was invited to give this keynote address, I did not hesitate to accept. I believe the work you do is distinctive, innovative, and vital. Itdeserves support and recognition from the higher education community. And I am deeply honored you invited me. Moreover, I believe MissMiriam D. Cooper, the first headmistress of Riverdale Country School for girls and Wells College alumna, Class of 1922, would be happy I am here.

For 20 years, ILS has served as a model for education of the highest quality. The success of your graduates is a testimony to the power of this program. The respect you have earned in the education community is reflected in the presence of the prominent educators with us today. The bright future of ILS can be seen in a new generation of students and family members who have also joined us for this occasion.

I feel very much at home here because the theory informing ILS is so similar to the theory which shapes the Wells curriculum. Like Riverdale Country School students, Wells women learn to think across disciplines in order to understand complex ideas and problems.

While we might debate the specialized meaning of words such as "integrated"and "interdisciplinary," I believe it is more important that we recognize we are gathered here today because we believe in the power of education in the liberal arts tradition to change lives.

In my view, the work being done to integrate disciplines helps compensate for academic over-specialization and returns us to the true path of the liberal arts. Specialized training only has meaning if it is built on the solid foundation of a broad-based education.

In this context, I will discuss the purpose of liberal education in a changing world using several historical and philosophical benchmarks. The examples I will use clearly illustrate that integrated knowledge is inherent in the idea of the liberal arts. And I will close by offering some observations on why this form of education is essential to those who will live most of their lives in the 21st century.

II. Liberal studies and the world

In "The Aims of Education," Alfred North Whitehead wrote:

"The only use of knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. No more deadly harm can be done to young minds than by depreciation of the present. The present contains all that there is. It is holy ground; for it is the past, and it is the future. At the same time it must be
observed that an age is no less past if it existed two hundred years ago than if it existed two thousand years ago. Do not be deceived by the pedantry of dates. The ages of Shakespeare and Moliere are no less past than are the ages of Sophocles and of Virgil. The communion of
saints is a great and inspiring assemblage, but it has only one possible hall of meeting, and that is the present." (p. 14-15)

In this passage, I find an eloquent expression of the essence of the liberal arts and of the importance of this form of education in our lives. Through ILS and other programs of study like it, we are privileged to enter a timeless meeting-place of great thinkers and their ideas.

While your program offers an important historical context, it also serves the invaluable function of enabling students to know themselves and understand what it is to be human. Without grasping the principles of morality, ethics, reason, and compassion found so abundantly in the works on the syllabus, we have little chance of contributing to a true civilization. Our journeys to this meeting-place enable us to live rich and rewarding lives in the present. Ironically - in this era when these ideas are so urgently needed - many members of our society distrust and disregard liberal education.

In a lecture on American higher education delivered in 1998, Duke University President Nannerl Keohane succinctly described the public perception of liberal studies today. She said, "The traditional liberal arts education is often regarded as unworldly and unlikely to prepare anybody to do anything that earns a salary. This view is exacerbated by the public perception that scholars of history, literature and the arts have become dabblers in arcane, politically radical nihilism. This perception is exaggerated and unfair, but in a world of deconstruction and post-everything, it is hard to explain to ordinary folks what the intellectual excitement is all about."

Keohane raises two pivotal issues about the purpose of liberal education:

First, careerism and liberal studies are opposed. One strain of common wisdom tells us that a student compelled to choose a course of study that will result in a good income should avoid, or breeze quickly through by any means necessary, liberal studies. However, as we enter a new century, the ability to communicate effectively, to understand diverse cultures, to think across disciplines, and to apply abstract theory for effective practice - skills gained from the liberal arts - are necessary tools in the workplace as well as in life.

Second, our curriculum is politically driven and dominated by radical scholarship. This is far from the truth. The ILS syllabus, for instance, attempts to include the best that has been thought and said in the Western tradition, regardless of ideology. Scholars in our colleges and universities, like the generations before them, are testing the ideas of the past and contributing new knowledge, which, in turn, is also being tested through vigorous debate. The need for free inquiry and exploration - wherever it might lead - is an essential element in any learning community.

When a student chooses to pursue the rigors of liberal studies, she or he is embarking on a journey with a great purpose. Students are not accumulating obscure facts or being force-fed political agendas. They are, instead, discovering the ideas that have shaped their lives in the
eternal present. They are learning to think independently and creatively. They are learning how to live, purposefully and with meaning. All of us who understand the transformative power of liberal education must work to communicate the true nature of the experience. Gatherings such as this one provide an ideal opportunity to clarify our beliefs and strengthen our resolve to share our knowledge in our communities.

In defining the benefits of liberal studies, I am reminded of a passage from St. Paul that is a favorite of President Jimmy Carter. The members of the early church in Corinth asked Paul, "What are the things in life that are permanent and important?" Paul responded in his second letter to the Corinthians by writing, "They are the things that you cannot see."

III. Liberal education and leadership

Far from being the recent invention of radical scholars, we know the great tradition of the liberal arts can be traced at least as far back as Greek and Roman civilization.

In ancient Rome, Cicero wrote that education must have a purpose. He also believed the best education should be used for the preparation of leaders. And he wrote that the ability to speak well and persuade others was of the greatest importance in professional and public life. In
order to be an effective speaker, the orator needed to have an understanding of many  ubjects. The subjects he believed should be studied were grammar (including literature), rhetoric, logic, geometry, astronomy, music, physics, history, civil law, and philosophy.

It is important to note that Cicero lists specific knowledge areas that, when mastered, make a well-rounded individual. This is what we think of as a curriculum. The liberal arts - based on classical learning - were developed into a structured curriculum in medieval universities. Originally, the seven liberal arts were grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the Trivium) and arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music (the Quadrivium). While disciplines have expanded and changed, the modern curriculum and campus is built on this solid foundation.

I also take note of the fact that Cicero suggests by integrating this knowledge the individual can better serve the common good. Thus, we have a broad-based, integrated model found in ancient civilization. Its purpose is to make excellent leaders. Given the amount of social
change that has occurred since that era, it remarkable how his ideas - and related concepts voiced by other classical thinkers - have remained intact.

I use the example of Cicero because - if we wish to identify a political purpose for liberal education - it has been and remains the training of leaders. And the notion that a liberal arts curriculum is the best education for leaders in a wide variety of fields is a time-tested truth.

In the era of mass, democratic societies, this purpose has led to claims that liberal education is not leftist but elitist. During the 1960s and 70s, some educators who worked to make our system of higher education more egalitarian called for radical reform or even the abolition of
traditional liberal studies - reflected in the elimination of general education courses at many college and universities during the 1970s. (A widespread movement to re-institute general studies followed in the 1980s.)

But the role of the liberal arts in leadership is just as relevant in modern democracies as it was in ancient Rome - perhaps more so - because in our complex globalized society, culture, and economy we need many more leaders from diverse backgrounds than we did in eras when theocracy and aristocracy prevailed.

IV. Liberal studies and the future

Before concluding, I want to address two pressing concerns in society now and in the years ahead. In order to face these challenges, we need students with a solid education in liberal studies.

The first is the incredible rise of information technology. The inflated rhetoric that has attached itself to this subject makes it difficult to present observations without conjuring apocalyptic or utopian visions. But I will try to keep my views as straightforward as possible:

Far from being yet another threat to the demise of liberal studies, computers and information technology have an important place in the liberal arts classroom. Educators must keep pace with change and provide students with access to technology. We must encourage students in
liberal studies courses to use technology for a wide array of purposes ranging from research to creative projects. We must be at the forefront of technology in liberal education - not a reaction against it.

Information technology is a part of our lives and will remain so in the future. We must identify and nurture liberally educated leaders in a wide variety of pursuits who will work collectively to ensure that this state of constant revolution serves the common good. Only those who understand the technological revolutions of the past - such as the emergence of printing - can fully comprehend and navigate these changes. Moral and ethical decisions must be made with great thought and care.

The Internet provides democratic access to a dizzying - sometimes overwhelming - mass of information and ideas. This material is often contradictory and varies greatly in terms of quality. There is and will be an increasing need for individuals with keen critical thinking and
analytical skills to interpret this information for organizations and communities. Indeed, all of us must apply sound judgement if we are to benefit from these vast resources. The alternative is manipulation by unscrupulous forces, paralysis, and confusion.

The second issue that I believe is of great importance to us is the emergence of a multi-cultural society:

First, if there is a flaw in traditional approaches to teaching liberal studies, it is the historical reluctance we find in the curriculum to include and make connections to traditions born outside Europe and the Mediterranean region. We must also be open to hearing the voices of those who have been marginalized within our tradition. This is a daunting and often controversial task. And I want to praise educators in a variety of settings who are working to improve the curriculum.

This said, I have no doubt that an understanding of Western civilization is essential for those who live in a multi-cultural society. As we move forward recognizing the wonders of our difference - through race, ethnicity, gender, and social class - it is the knowledge of our shared humanity that will form the basis of a new and brilliant civilization.

V. Education for the spirit

In conclusion, I share one more purpose of liberal studies: to sustain the spirit - a topic which is not discussed enough. A passage from Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Solitude of Self" contains one of the most compelling statements I have ever read affirming the value of education in our lives. She writes:

"I once asked Prince Krapotkin, the Russian philosopher, how he endured his long years in prison, deprived of books, pen, ink, and paper. 'Ah,' he said, 'I thought out many questions in which I had a deep interest. In the pursuit of an idea I took no note of time. When tired of
solving knotty problems I recited all the beautiful passages in prose or verse I have ever learned. I became acquainted with myself and my own resources. I had a world of my own, a vast empire, that no Russian jailer or Czar could invade.' Such is the value of liberal thought and broad culture when shut off from all human companionship, bringing comfort and sunshine within even the four walls of a prison cell."

Faced with solitude and oppression, Krapotkin kept his spirit alive through his ability to reason, his own cultural identity, and imagination. In the darkest moments of this eternal present, the education we have been fortunate to receive provides solace and strength against adversity. It is the great gift of our teachers to us.

For as long as we can claim to call ourselves a civilization where compassion and civility rank high above cruelty and brutality, the great tradition of the liberal arts must continue. The great tradition of Riverdale Country School's Integrated Liberal Studies must continue. Happy
20th anniversary.

Delivered on Saturday, October 23, 1999, at Riverdale Country School, Riverdale, N.Y. as the keynote address for the 20th anniversary celebration of Riverdale School's Integrated Liberal Studies program.