Much has been made recently of the idea of experiential learning. The proposed Justice Brandeis Semester, which, according to the Justice, the University hopes to make mandatory, will cement our increasing commitment to this concept. The temptation for the Justice Brandeis Semester to grant credit for internships and other more worldly pursuits is too great. This is my most obvious concern. The report from the Sept. 1 issue of the Justice ends most tellingly: The last sentence of the article quotes a student glad her work in one of these classes will now seem more appealing on a résumé. This particular student had signed up for the class before the change in policy, but one can see how this mentality of résumé-boosting is inevitable. This is particularly demeaning to any academic pursuit-the pursuit of career goals should be kept farther away from the classroom in order to maintain a high level of genuine academic discourse. Some would argue that people already pad their résumés anyway and that at least they will be doing some good for the society at large. I would largely agree with that, but I would hasten to add that neither of those objectives have anything to do with the liberal arts.

More generally, I'm concerned that mandatory experiential learning challenges the role of the liberal arts at Brandeis. In an e-mail, Academic Administrator for Experiential Learning Audra Grady said that "a liberal arts education . is truly enhanced because of the real world settings" in which the student may be placed. I'm skeptical of this division between the "real world" and the classroom. This type of thinking holds the value of pure knowledge as something inferior. I have no doubt that for some students in fields such as the life sciences, the union of knowledge and extracurricular experience could have tremendous benefits. I'm less certain, however, that this is valuable for all students, particularly humanities and fine arts students.

Experiential learning insists that learning must be useful; the liberal arts never claimed to be useful-and I mean that as a compliment. The quest for knowledge, truth and beauty need not have any obvious correlative with a set of skills or experiences. They are satisfying and enriching enough on their own. Grady says experiential learning "allows an individual to be prepared for a career" as "referencing a text or theory is rarely enough to complete a job." I cannot dispute either of those points, but I would argue that four years of college is too short; we have the rest of our lives to integrate our learning with experience. Many undergraduates, myself proudly included, are quite content to spend eight semesters cloistered in libraries and to spend our nights arguing in dormitories. A liberal arts education should keep the "real world" at bay for four years and let students luxuriate in the world of ideas.

This is not to say I have no contact with the outside world, but the things I choose to do are independent of my academic pursuits. Everything I learn informs who I am and how I see the world, but the process of converting that knowledge into practical know-how is quite subtle and one I do not wish to rush or be forced into.