General Education Summary

General Education Summary

In the essay “General Education”, Isaiah Berlin expresses that education should not narrow a student’s imagination and understanding of the world through stressed specialization, but instead should provide wider knowledge that includes concepts from fields to what the student may not intend to pursue. This approach of general education is viewed by Berlin to be deeply important because some uses of newfound knowledge throughout history have led to terrible consequences for mankind, thus the general masses possessing a lack of understanding of the applications of modern science and technology would be detrimental to society as no understanding very likely means no control. Furthermore, without control, people are left to depending on experts who have specialized in the field in which the people lack understanding of. Berlin explains that these experts are often not quite as skilled at their field as the people might think.

According to Berlin, the type of education which is most preferable is one that embodies itself based on the needs of human beings, which are based on the issues existing in present society. In terms of addressing general education, Berlin explains that a wider knowledge does not necessarily mean a bridging of two distinct fields in which for example students of literature trying to grasp concepts of physics or math. In fact, he simply says that such an approach would be utterly useless. Instead, he encourages an education which allows students to grasp distinct mental processes from different fields.

In this type of education, certain characteristics and capabilities are demanded of the student and teacher. For students it is simply that they are curious and have an acceptable degree of responsiveness to the topic being learned in order to learn. For the teacher however; much more seems to be demanded. Berlin explains that someone who truly has an understanding of something can communicate it to a student and...