Reaction to the Preface Text

The relevancy of In Defense of a Liberal Education was evident as soon as I assessed the title.  My classmates and I are lucky to be able to read this type of book at this point in our educational careers.  We are getting ready to finish high school and enter the next chapter in our lives.  The book addresses the need to preserve liberal education.  We all need to consider whether we want to continue studying in the liberal style, or work towards a more skills based degree.  I was also surprised at just how much the liberal education style has declined.  Zakaria writes, “In 1971, for example, 7.6 percent of all bachelor’s degrees were awarded in English language and literature.  By 2012, that number had fallen to 3.0 percent” (Fareed 16).  These statistics made me want to do something to help preserve the type of education that I was so accustomed to.

Fareed Zakaria uses a personal writing style.  It is as if he is talking directly to the reader.  He tells the reader about his experiences with education in India.  Zakaria is also informative.  At the beginning of the text, he grabs the reader’s attention by giving statistics that help to back his argument.  He is persuasive.  Zakaria wrote this book with the purpose to inspire his readers to preserve liberal education.  He believes that liberal education is the best type of learning, and he hopes that his readers will feel the same way.  The flow of the text shifts.  He starts with cold hard facts then switches to writing about his own experiences.  He uses a combination of ethos, pathos, and logos to help him appeal to readers.

I strongly agree with Zakaria’s argument.  He says that liberal education is declining, which is true.  Gone are the days of pupils going to college to study majors such as literature.  “The greatest shift in liberal education over the past century has been the downgrading of subjects in science and technology” (Fareed 64).  Many people are forgetting about the arts.  Instead, they are majoring in fields that can help the get a job straight of college.  Therefore, they work to develop a skill that will help them find a career.  Liberal education needs to be preserved.  It helps a student become well rounded.  By studying various subjects, students are well prepared to pick a path they are interested in.