Chronological Snobbery: A reminder of the importance of a Liberal Arts Education

Over the course of my teaching career I have received my fair share of feedback and criticism from my students. Thankfully, most of it has been positive, however even the negative feedback is helpful for an educator. Regardless of the format of the feedback forms, I will say that the “comment section” is consistently the most revealing. I have found that affording teenage boys (in my specific instance) the opportunity to anonymously comment on one of their teachers, will supply you with a brutal form of honesty more helpful than any peer evaluation. One of the most recurring points mentioned within the open comment section was how genuinely surprised my students were to find that a Theology class could actually be relevant in their lives today. 
​
A common initial assumption from many students in my classes is that because subjects like Theology or Philosophy have been around for centuries, they are not as trustable as some of the more modern scientific disciplines.  The content is seen as irrelevant at best, or unprovable (and therefore untrue) at worst. Students have been so intellectually and culturally conditioned to believe that unless something can be scientifically “proven,” it likely cannot be “known” and certainly cannot be “true.” This is not just an issue for theological studies, but for the Liberal Arts as a whole. Anything that isn’t clearly labeled “contemporary” in their eyes is seen as antiquated, and consequently, unworthy of their attention. C. S. Lewis, arguably the most influential Christian writer in the 20th Century, called this bias “Chronological Snobbery.” In his autobiographical work, Surprised by Joy, Lewis goes on to define this prejudice as “the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited.”

If this all sounds a bit abstract, I assure you it is not. Think for a moment of the student who asks, “But what does learning this have to do with me now?” Sound familiar, fellow educators? Parents? This line of questioning is inevitable, but what I suppose I found most striking was hearing feedback from upperclassmen which seemed to show a gradual logical maturity was beginning to take root. I began to read more comments which indicated to me that this partiality in favor of the modern was not as widespread as I had perhaps assumed. Nevertheless, the adage “out with the old and in with the new,” is still very influential in certain educational circles and school administrations. While arguments can be made for this line of thinking in certain areas of education (such as the use of technology to communicate and engage students) it is most certainly untrue in many other areas – especially the realm of ideas and moral values; two of the bedrocks of a strong Liberal Arts education. 

We must remind our young people that although the modern sciences and new technologies have provided us with monumental breakthroughs and discoveries which have enhanced human civilization, there are many scientifically unprovable truths we can all reasonably hold to. Indeed, we should celebrate the Scientific Method and all that it has helped us to know and understand. However, we must also remind teens that although science can tell you the type of paint Michelangelo used on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, it cannot tell you why it is beautiful. Science can give you the breakdown of the elements of the parchment and the ink which was used to compose the Constitution, but it cannot tell you what freedom and liberty mean to the oppressed. By itself science cannot draw any ethical distinctions between consensual sex and rape. You can observe, hypothesize, test, and draw conclusions about the biological and socioemotional changes which occur whenever human beings interact, but you cannot explain (in strictly scientific terms) what it means to love someone. 

Plato taught us long ago that there is more to our reality than simply the empirical sciences and the physical world; there is a metaphysical reality which can be both understood and articulated through the Liberal Arts. To become Chronological Snobs in education would be to follow only the latest fads and favor only those subjects we are told are “on the cutting edge.” In so doing we would be severing our students from the richness of so many ancient disciplines, thinkers, and ideas (sometimes called a “Cut Flowers Culture”). Literature, art, music, theater, language, philosophy, history, and theology are legitimate paths to knowledge and we must let these paths to knowledge, paired with all that technology and the sciences have to offer, lead our students and children to wisdom and truth. 

​