So often today, we see people on the news arguing and never getting anywhere. It doesn't really matter what it's about — gay marriage, health care reform, international relations, etc. People are fighting each other constantly, and no one is willing to compromise on their beliefs. Almost every citizen has chosen a side on every major issue that our country is facing. There are the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers, the "Confederate Heritage" people and those who see the battle flag as offensive and degrading, and on and on. The problem with this isn't the disagreement; it's the hatred that people display toward those who don't agree with them, even if they themselves have little to no knowledge about the issue at hand. I have to admit that I am guilty of this, too. It's difficult seeing someone picketing something you believe is a basic right, and not feel the urge to get out of the car and yell at them. But I've learned a lot in my past year at a small liberal arts college that has changed the way I see others and the way I process the state of our nation. This method of higher education could be the path to better America.
What has helped me come to appreciate a liberal arts education most is the diversity in coursework and ideas I am regularly exposed to. It seems at too many colleges today, education is treated as training rather than expanding your mind. At a place like Birmingham-Southern College, you have required classes that are designed to give you a fundamental understanding of almost every academic perspective. With graduation requirements ranging from "quantitative analysis" to "creative expression," every student learns to see life — at least for a semester or so — through the eyes of an artist, writer, scientist or psychologist. This way of educating young adults teaches them to understand that each person may have a radically different way of seeing the world, even with the same sets of facts, figures and laws of physics! The view of the world as a business major could be very different from the perspective they see in their required history class. Even if each course is only for a semester, four (or more) years of placing yourself in another's shoes is an invaluable experience that broadens your interests and stays with you much longer than the time you are in school.
Being able to take such a wide variety of courses also gives every single student a rudimentary knowledge of every faction of American life. As a science major, taking painting as my required art class has taught me to see the art in a museum in a whole other light. Art majors get the same experience if they take biology and get to learn the basics of how living things work and how your body regulates itself. If a political science major were to take the Abrahamic Religions class, they could better comprehend and evaluate issues like ISIS without condemning non-radical Islam. So many people today judge these conflicts without any knowledge of what's behind them; liberal arts educates students broadly, creating more educated and informed adults.
When you first enroll at any liberal arts school, you realize very quickly that the people around you come from massively different backgrounds. Some people are the "typical" private college students living off "Daddy's money" and not worried too much about maintaining their scholarships. Others come from broken homes that are putting all of their money into their child's education so that they can get ahead in life. And despite the stereotypes, there are people of almost every race here. All of these people are crammed into a campus that's less than two square miles, take classes, eat in the Caf, work in the library, and sometimes go Greek together. As a student, you're practically required to encounter people from every walk of life and befriend them. In the past year, I have met more people with conflicting opinions and lifestyles than I did in my first 18 years. This has forced me to listen to what they believe and, despite what my opinions are, remain (at the very least) friendly acquaintances with them. You absolutely cannot go around making enemies every time the subject of gun control comes up, so people have learned to accept that others are going to think differently and that's OK. America was built on a solid foundation of mutual cooperation and compromise, and the necessity of maintaining civility on a small campus fuels these values now and later in life.
This mix of backgrounds and identities, coupled with the broad range of challenging courses, creates citizens who have a basic understanding of almost every subject and perspective in the country. While this doesn't mean that everyone agrees with one another, this way of educating students fosters empathy and understanding across party, cause and religious lines. If the rest of America was taught in the same way that people are taught at small liberal arts colleges like Birmingham-Southern, then maybe we could learn to see everyone in our country as comrades rather than enemies and create a better nation.
