Loras Reflection Paper

Joshua Arnold
Dr. Mary Johnson
Senior Seminar and Portfolio
11/16/14
3.

Reflect on your experience at Loras and respond to one of the following quotes. Discuss

how your Loras liberal arts experience (and your own efforts at Loras) have contributed to your
success in meeting the meaning of one of these statements.
b.

Liberal arts are the arts of freedom. Whose freedom? Your freedom. They are the

freeing arts. Thats the interesting thing, because you dont think of yourself as particularly
unfree. There are deeper levels of freedom than merely not being in bondage or debt. There are
kinds of bondage which go deeper than chains. The bondage of being ignorant. Ignorant of
what? The ignorance that keeps you in deepest bondage is the ignorance about yourself. Who
you are. What you can do. What are your capacities, what are your limitations? What are the
things that make you who and what you are? If you dont know, then you can be controlled by
ideas that are not yours. Herman Sinaiko. (Major theme: the value of a liberal arts education).
Nelson Mandela once said for to be free is not merely to cast off ones chains, but to live
in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. I believe that this quote perfectly
sums up what a liberal arts degree means. Liberal arts teaches us something about freedom. To
be able to keep the freedoms that we have in this country, we must step up as informed citizens
and vote in elections because we are the ones deciding the future. Liberal arts education gives

you the skills to educate yourself. Also, the ability to understand that you can shed the chains of
ignorance and keep yourself informed to make a better and more informed decision. The whole
point of any education is to not only better yourself, but make a better life for the ones around
you as well. The only way this can be achieved is by a person acquiring the knowledge or ability
to understand what is going in the world around them. By giving us the chance to inform
ourselves, liberal educations give us the ability to empower ourselves.
Liberal arts education, and more specifically the liberal arts education offered here at
Loras College, tells us to be ethical decision makers. This is very important when discussing
freedom. I say this because people should not want people voting for a president because he has
nice hair. As a citizen and someone who is supposed to make informed decisions, and shed
yourself of the chains of ignorance and make an ethical decision. This requires an individual to
know the facts and the policies that the particular candidate is making. If you know where the
candidate stands and what they wish to accomplish, then you vote if you agree with their
thinking. By a population not making informed and ethical decisions, it could lead to a
catastrophe that would demolish the country and the freedoms we hold so near and dear to our
hearts. As Abraham Lincoln said America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter
and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. This says that America will
only be destroyed when we allow it to be torn down from within. This is a very real possibility if
we are not able to make ethical decisions.
Loras has helped me become a better ethical decisions maker in many ways, but one
more so than the others. That one sole reason is research. The one thing I have learned
throughout my entire time here at Loras is the importance of research. This has been shown
many times throughout my entire career here at Loras. There have been numerous times in an

essay or assignment where I needed additional facts or data to help strengthen my argument. As
a future professional, I need others research to back up my own. One stick on its own can break
easily. However, numerous sticks together are more difficult to break. This logic holds true with
research. The more reliable sources you have, the stronger and more credible your argument can
be. When you have more research to back up your statements, not only does it show you how
wrong or right you were but also strengthens your arguments. By gaining this ability to look
through the smoke that some people like to place in front of you, there is a better chance that you
will make decisions that are best for you but also best for other that are around you as well.
Another part of freedom is being able to assess your limitations and strengths. Being able
to assess your own limitations as a person gives you the ability to know when you will need help
or when to seek outside assistance. Knowing your own limitations means that you are also able
to assess where your strengths come in handy for other people as well. In a country where
everyone is reliant on everyone else, whether you care to admit it or not, knowing where you fit
in is a crucial part. This is important because every person in this country plays a vital role in
how the government and systems function. Without a person knowing where they fit in or going
in to the wrong place the whole system could malfunction.
As a Psychology and Social Work major, my weaknesses were brought to the forefront
right away. These majors require you to know yourself very well, especially since you are
supposed to be teaching others about themselves. How is a person supposed to be able to
ethically tell someone else what their weaknesses are when a person does not know their own
weaknesses. Being a reflective thinker gives you the ability to look at things from an unbiased
view point and analyze them to the point of realizing how you can then best help the situation. A
social worker and psychologists job is to be a tool for people to use. Our clients are tourists lost

in a new city and we are the guides. Our sole purpose is to tell them what is around, where they
can go, and follow them to their destinations. On their journey, we are responsible for informing
them of their possible destination, and what other options are available so they can make their
own informed decision.
My time as a psychology student and social work major here at Loras has taught me that
valuable lesson. The lesson was that I need to be able to reflectively think about myself and my
work. I was taught how to be a reflective thinker through one particular teacher with one
particular project. It was in a social work elective and this professor made his students develop
all of the minor details of the project. The professor only told us the major detail of the project.
The rest and how we accomplished it was completely and utterly up to us. This has happened in
multiple classes of mine and this has taught me more about reflective thinking than anything
else. Projects like this make you more detailed oriented. Not paying attention to details can play
a major factor in a passing grade and failing grade. This is a valuable life skill because when in
your future career, no one is going to tell you what to do or how to do it. As a reflective thinker,
you are going to have to get it done right the first time. This also gives you the ability to not only
understand your own weaknesses but also understanding other peoples weaknesses and
predicting when your strengths could benefit. Doing this gives your project the best chance of
succeeding. When assessing the strengths of everyone in the group you must also assess your
strength from a group perspective. I say this because maybe you may not like doing something in
particular but you are really good at it. For the benefit of the group, you should go and do those
tasks, using your reflective thinking skills, you should be able to accept your role and do all in
your power to make the group and project the best it can be.

Loras College has taught me a lot through their use of a liberal arts education. The liberal
arts education is giving me the tools to shed ignorance. It is giving me the ability to understand
myself and how I fit into this society. The education I gained also gave me the skills to be able to
know when I am not comfortable or lacking the knowledge to be effective. Then being able to
take the knowledge of my weaknesses and then acquiring the knowledge to make me effective.
Loras gave me all of the tools to be able to keep my freedom and be the best citizen I can be.
Loras gave me this ability to understand my weaknesses and then being able to eliminate that as
a problem or turning it into a strength.