Introducing the liberal arts to first-year writing students

What is it about?

In this article, I make a case for asking students formally, and in partial fulfillment of general education requirements, to confront the legacy of the liberal arts in the first-year writing classroom. I argue that liberal arts students need to learn about the liberal arts in substantive terms; otherwise they risk dismissing certain disciplinary and interdisciplinary principles as superfluous to their degrees. Reporting on my own experiences teaching liberal arts themes, and offering evaluative summaries of possible course readings, I argue that introducing themes of decline and renewal in the liberal arts into the first-year writing curriculum will positively influence our students to make more thoughtful decisions before and after graduating.

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