Search For a Vocational Direction in a Liberal Arts College Ellen Lagemann’s article, “The Challenge of Liberty” in response to W.J. Reeves’ article titled, “What and Who Is College For?” has a very nice perspective towards a liberal arts college education. She says that some graduates leave college lacking a clear sense of vocational direction or in other words, not knowing one’s calling within one’s society, however, she also explains the importance of having a sense of vocation, which means knowing who one is, what one believes, what one values and where one stands in the world. It’s not totally the students’ fault of being unsure with their vocation, some of it has to do with the actual college. For example, Lagemann views vocational exploration…show more content… A sense of vocation is basically knowing who you are, what you believe and what you care about. A college may give you an education for an occupation but an occupation is just a job. An occupation may have nothing to do with one’s vocation, meaning that they are not doing something they are passionate about. If one is passionate about what they do, they do it well and love to it. Personally, I’m not only going to college for an education but I want to find my purpose in life. I would like to do something in life that I don’t consider a job and still make a living doing what I love. Also, I would like to develop my own beliefs about things, instead of just following my parents. If a college would help its students with developing a vocational direction then that would change a student’s…show more content… Lagemann says that the college’s professors are the ones who are teaching the students by helping them to shape their mind. I agree with her that the teachers are the ones who help the students with knowing where they stand on ideas. However, Lagemann doesn’t expand on the idea of why professors are important in students’ vocational development, but personally throughout my high school/college experiences the teachers/professors are the ones who asked thought provoking questions and taught you how to form your own opinion through discussion and research. These thought provoking questions cause the students to think in a different way and possibly a different point of view, which allows for students to think about ideas in a different way. In the future when students are faced with similar problems, possibly discussed about in class, then they will know the thought process of making an opinion. Lagemann did mention that a liberal education should ready one to participate in defining issues of our time, so by listening to other classmates’ opinions in a discussion lead by a professor who knows and is teaching in a way that causes vocational development, a student will be able to form their own opinions on certain topics that pertain to issues of our
