Rockbridge Academy Blog
Why Liberal Arts?
December 18, 2025
As the world grows increasingly more dependent on computers, AI, and STEM professions, the value of a well-rounded human has been forgotten by many. In STEM fields, college classes especially place the emphasis on cramming more math or science knowledge into the students’ brains, but they do not take the cultivation of the whole person into account. A liberal arts education, on the other hand, covers all fields: the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and arts. This form of learning equips the students with a diverse skillset. Historically, it has been composed of the trivium (grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music). They nurtured and cultivated the mind and spirit to understand and know. Despite many high schools and colleges discrediting the worth of a liberal arts education by not embracing them, it is still an important form of education for people in all professions. Even in my first semester in college, I’ve encountered students who are clearly brilliant, but lack the ability to interact with a historical text or carry on a deep discussion simply because they haven’t been taught that way. In any major, whether it be STEM or not, a well-rounded student needs a liberal arts education.
Even from a young age, a liberal arts education trains a student’s mind to question, interpret, and understand. By definition, it focuses on critical thinking, communication skills, and a well-rounded understanding of various fields. Once a student is equipped with tools of interpretation and critical thinking, it allows him to analyze and correctly judge the world around him more easily. If there’s a basis for how to think, it becomes easier to evaluate for ourselves what to think. It prepares a student for a life of learning and education. When applied correctly, these are skills that can be honed your entire life.
Not only does it train the mind how to think, but a liberal arts education also prepares a student for a STEM job better than a purely STEM education would. In the workforce, an employer does not just look at your GPA or your transcript, but also who you are. If you are a one-dimensional professional who only mainly understands math or science, you have a limited range of options in the workforce. However, if you can grasp the STEM concept, but also know how to communicate clearly and think on your feet, you are a much more valuable employee. Simply put, it opens a broader range of jobs. A typical science class at a non-liberal arts school gives you formulas, equations, and hands-on experience. The students greatly benefit from these classes, but schools often over emphasize the benefits of these classes, neglecting an important part of the education for what they believe is most important. Being well-spoken, articulate, and well-rounded are all benefits in a STEM field, and not necessarily something that a science class would teach.
Lastly, studying literature, rhetoric, and social sciences allows students to attain a holistic education. Every time you learn a new concept, it fits into the framework of knowledge that has already been created. This allows you to understand one subject in terms of another and make previously unseen connections, subsequently deepening your understanding of the world and God’s creation. A deeper understanding can in turn foster creativity and ingenuity in your chosen field, whether it be STEM or not. Further, if you feel like God is calling you to a different major or a different vocation than before, you don’t have to start from scratch because you already have a strong foundation and a broad education.
Liberal arts skills are basic, essential skills that everyone in every profession should learn, understand, and apply. Even in college, it is vital that you continue your liberal arts education. Learning about the humanities or how to express your thoughts concisely and clearly should not stop once you finish high school; rather, it becomes more important once you enter college or the workforce. In basic daily life, a well-rounded education allows individuals to meet the demands of a complex world, whether it be pitching a business idea, talking to a stranger, or solving a difficult engineering problem.
It is also important to recognize that a liberal arts education does not neglect the sciences. They are still an important part of the education system. Instead, it enhances the sciences. Math and science can provide us with scientific realities about the world, but they do not answer the metaphysical questions of why. Especially from a Christian perspective, studying philosophy, art, literature, and history allows us to ask and answer these questions. A liberal arts education provides an excellent, well-rounded framework that prepares you for life.
Julia Farr is a Rockbridge Academy Alumna, class of '25, studying Communications at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania.
Classical Education & the Military: How Rockbridge Prepared Me for Uncle Sam's Biggest Jobs Program
October 31, 2025
There I stood, bald, sweaty, and scared in the summer of 2017, reciting lines from a book of mandatory knowledge to my cadet squad leader at West Point. “The warrior ethos is: I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade,” I said, correctly. “Pretty good, new cadet, except for one thing. It’s pronounced EETH-OSE.” The poor benighted fellow, I thought. Roger, sergeant! I said, and continued staring straight forward at parade rest.
What have Jerusalem and Athens to do with a long day in the hot sun? Every year, Rockbridge graduates attend service academies or ROTC programs. Certainly, the broad, liberal arts education of which West Point and Annapolis boast can build on a classical foundation, but the joyride through academia must end. Mental energy once directed toward neutron transport equations is spent figuring out how to anchor a tent in a windstorm in the California desert. Instead of opining at length on heady moral controversy, the young officer must explain to his Soldier why he should not have tried to run from the cops when they pulled him over for driving drunk. In an age of relative peace, drone strikes, and Microsoft Office, the Homeric deeds of Joshua Chamberlain or James Doolittle seem utterly inaccessible, weak as men are nowadays.
I’m not writing to advertise the modern armed forces to Rockbridge students. Surely there are other fitting vocations for the young mind steeped in Aristotle and Augustine. Rather, I want to expound the value of classical Christian upbringing for those who are set on a military career.
First, the breadth and depth of classical education is excellent preparation for the wide variety of military duties. Regardless of his ever-changing official position title, a young Army officer must play the Renaissance man in a host of tasks: plan and evaluate tactical training, oversee maintenance on heavy machinery, sniff out and punish misconduct, keep track of millions of dollars’ worth of equipment, and far more. This is not to say that former public school students didn’t have to take a variety of subjects in high school. But classical education continuously integrates various disciplines, emphasizes the value of each discipline beyond making a paycheck, and applies critical thinking and writing skills to each, which better prepares an officer to tackle a variety of problems, all the while sharpening his ability to use present experience to tackle the unknown in the future. He also has many opportunities to apply the basics of grammar, logic, and rhetoric in such common obligations as writing reports, conducting investigations, and briefing superiors.
Second, classical education teaches a tale of culture and civilization that encourages the military officer to look beyond the frustrating mundanity of daily life. I will never break a barbarian stronghold by building a genius second siege-wall, but surely Caesar also spent mind-numbing hours thinking about how to keep his army’s equipment in good condition. The glorious victories of the West are bridged by long, boring periods of standing the watch at home, passing on martial skills to the next generation. Today may be a period of relative inaction, but without millions putting in effort to man the national defenses, they will not function when the action resumes. Where much of education ends with getting a job and doing a job, classical education brings greater purposes into perspective.
Finally, firmly Christian education is an excellent ally for a young man immersed in the sometimes boorish, bureaucratic world of the armed forces. All my friends were avid churchgoers during cadet basic training, when chapel had free cookies and nobody shouting at them. Few live a faithful life when work consumes weekends, success is the supreme moral virtue, equal protection is given to a variety of philosophies, and time off is spent easiest at a club. Yet I’ve also met many strong Christians, most of whom had faithful parents and firmly understood both the truth of Christ and the characteristics of Christian living. Because classical Christian education provides both theological and moral training – and does so earnestly -- it is excellent defense against the double temptation of anti-Christian thinking and coarse living.
Young men, if you want a life of bravery and danger, join an urban police department. If you want to save your country, raise Christian kids. If you want to live in polished luxury, join the Air Force. But if you are committed to serving in the military, you will do well, because you have been brought up well.