Talk:Liberal arts college

The term "liberal" in "liberal arts" originally refered to "free men," eg those citizens of the republics of classical antiquity and a generalized education thought to be most proper for these social and political elites.

I've never heard that before. I have always heard that "liberal" in "liberal arts" means essentially "freeing the mind." Do you have some evidence for the above statement? --LMS

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That's the way I originally remembered hearing it "education for free men".

So my original reference is, I guess you could say, "oral tradition".

I might have gotten it in this form because Wabash College retains an

all-male student body, and so there has not yet been a need there to change

the definition so much (presumably) to fit gender-inclusive language

appropriate for institutions that switched to (or were founded to provide)

co-education.

For sources located after-the-fact of my entry, try these:

*http://www.google.com/search?q=%22liberal+arts%22+free+men&btnG=Google+Search

*http://www.realuofc.org/libed/adler/wle.html

*http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01760a.htm

*http://www.uca.edu/divisions/academic/libart/dean.htm

And so on.

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Well, I think it's still misleadingly worded. I'll explain in the article itself. --LMS