Liberal education cannot be done to someone; certainly, not everyone who gets a degree at GVSU will actually be liberally educated. As Paulo Freire says in this volume, authentic liberation cannot be merely deposited into anyone’s life—it cannot even be given as a gift. Each of us must undertake to find it ourselves, in our separate ways. Likewise, no method of teaching can foster individual growth without our engagement in the process. In any course, unless we choose to be engaged in the learning experience, and unless we bring ourselves into the questioning process, the facts and methods learned will remain external to who we are, and much of the potential of a college education will be missed. This means that a liberal education is an individual responsibility.

Course learning becomes not just something to be learned, repeated in a test, but can be applied to our experiences, both profession-ally and personally.