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Aims and Objectives
A liberal education requires breadth, depth and integration in learning. It
also requires
the cultivation of those habits of intellectual and moral self-discipline that
distinguish
a mature individual. To these ends, St. Lawrence seeks to provide an education
that
fosters in students an open, inquiring and disciplined mind, well informed
through
broad exposure to basic areas of knowledge; an enthusiasm for life-long learning;
selfconfidence
and self-knowledge; a respect for differing opinions and for free discussion
of those opinions; and an ability to use information logically and to evaluate
alternative
points of view.
A liberal education frees students from the confines of limited
personal experiences
and from limited knowledge of the physical, historical, social and cultural
world. In
return, this liberation gives an enlightened understanding of that which is
singular,
immediate and limited. Thus, a liberal education is always relevant to the
world in
which students must live at the same time that it attempts to maintain a certain
detachment from that world. A liberal education provides students with many
options
in the choice of their life’s work. Since the very nature of liberal
education lies in the
continuing exercise of a critical and informed intellect, liberally educated
persons
demonstrate ability in the pursuit of specific occupations and understand and
assume
the responsibilities of citizenship. These attributes, however, are the consequences,
not
the purposes, of a liberal education.
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