I am currently taking statistics, which is apart of mathematics. Mathematics in general doesn’t meet the citizenship goals described by Scheuer. Scheuer states that a reason for taking liberal arts is to develop the three forms of citizenship and critical thinking skills. Although, I don’t think mathematics does a good job developing citizenship in students. As the handbook states, ‘the three primary themes of a mathematics course in the core are problem solving, decision-making, and mathematical communication.” These themes do not incorporate civic, economic or cultural citizenship well.

I am also currently taking Spanish, which is an explorations course. I would argue that the explorations courses incorporate both citizenship and critical thinking. The main goals of explorations courses are to “encourage active learning, students acquire knowledge, develop skillful thinking, expand their expressive capabilities, and connect this learning to their broader experience.” Explorations courses aren’t focused on teaching students according to a narrow focus on one specific job, but instead are trying to provide a well rounded education. An idea from Ungar as a reason we need more Liberal arts is “learning how to write and speak well, how to understand the nuances of literary texts and scientific concepts, how to collaborate with others on research.” The explorations teach communication skills, and to “employ active reading skills”.

The idea of citizenship is referenced in the handbook, but not as in depth as Scheuer’s idea of citizenship. I don’t there is any real coverage of cultural citizenship or economic citizenship. Scheuer says economic citizenship promotes “doing something useful for oneself and for others” and that cultural citizenship is “through participation in the various conversations that constitute a culture . . . The arts, religion, and sports are all potential venues for cultural conversations.” I don’t think there is much opportunity to really explore cultural citizenship much in the classroom, but I do think that there could be more emphasis on economic citizenship.

The Core claims that UNE fosters and strengthens critical thinking skills. In the first two years of study the final outcome after developing these critical thinking skills is that students “become aware of environmental, societal, and world problems and how people have attempted to deal with those problems.” These seem to include the basic ideas of critical thinking which include “the ability to identify assumptions, draw inferences, distinguish facts from opinions, draw conclusions from data, and judge the authority of arguments and sources,” (Scheuer). Although according to Scheuer there is a lot more included in critical thinking, and that it’s very complicated and nearly impossible to completely define.