My Undergraduate Years (3)

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3. A Liberal Arts Education

Berea College is a typical liberal arts college which emphasizes a well-rounded education regardless of the student’s intended major.  The idea is that being able to think independently on a wide range of issues is at least as important as knowing in depth a particular subject (such as Chemistry, Biology or whatever).  Therefore each student is required to take a certain number of courses that are outside his/her major.  Some of these courses have strange sounding titles such as “Religious and Historical Perspectives” and “Issues and Values”.  Most students from Hong Kong hated these courses and considered them a waste of time.  I, on the other hand, found them most enjoyable and a welcome diversion from the hard-core science subjects that didn’t encourage a great deal of interpretation or self-expression.

The “Religious and Historical Perspectives I and II” were taught by an old professor who graduated from a seminary somewhere.  We covered works from ancient Greek philosophers and some “modern” but very dead philosophers and old classics such as “Dante’s Inferno” and the “Canterbury Tales”.  At the end of the course, we needed to write a term paper.  Students from Hong Kong all dreaded this.

 I wrote mine on “A comparison between Socrates and Confucius”.  It was a big hit with the professor.  He liked it not because I had done any important research on the subject but because no students in his memory had written a paper on this.  By the way, we didn’t cover Eastern philosophers in these courses, but there were lots of references on Confucius in the school library that I could get my hands on.

“Issues and Values” was really fun.  The professor would charter a bus that took us to a bigger town nearby to watch movies that were considered controversial at the time.  Then we would discuss the movies usually outside the classroom, like under a tree or something.  “Straw Dogs” (starring Dustin Hoffman) and “The Exorcist” (starring Linda Blair) were among the movies we watched.  We also discussed current political topics as a group, sitting or lying on the grass whenever possible. 

The Watergate break-in caught a lot of attention at that time.  Richard Nixon was in deep trouble but was still maintaining his innocence.  For the class, I wrote an essay titled “A Man of Integrity” lampooning the President.  The professor (Dr. Blair) seemed to like what I wrote.

“Bob Choi has written an essay about President Nixon.  I found it very interesting.  Bob, would you like to read your essay to the class?”  He held my essay in his hand.

“Dr. Blair, I wouldn’t mind sharing my essay with the class, but I don’t feel comfortable reading it out.” Whenever I read something it would sound rather stiff and not natural.

“Then may I read it for you?”

“Oh, yes…please!”

He read my essay (a very short one) to the class.  We were sitting on the grass, in a circle.  There was hardly any reaction from my classmates because my essay was boring and poorly constructed and few of them knew what I was trying to say.  There must be other essays that were much better than mine.  I believed Dr. Blair picked mine because I came from Hong Kong and I was a student in his Chemistry class.  Nonetheless, it made me feel happy and proud.  I was happy to know that if you expressed your views honestly, people would appreciate it even if you did it rather poorly; and I was proud because a couple of the girls in the class were looking at me with interest and were smiling as Dr. Blair read my essay…Viva!  Liberal arts education!

- To be continued -