Why Women Need The Liberal Arts

Some Christians might wonder: how will a Liberal Arts program benefit wives and mothers? It can be common to think that the Liberal Arts are for those seeking to go into the workforce or the business world but the Liberal Arts applies anywhere, including the home. The reality is the home is a pivotal institution in the culture and NSA is seeking to graduate leaders who shape culture. This means that NSA offers a robust education that will prepare women for this work in shaping culture.

I recently interviewed two NSA alumni who are both a wife and a mother. I asked them about their experience in this calling and how the Liberal Arts prepared them. 

“I know that not only my intellect but also my ethos and pathos shape the home, and the home shapes the husband and the son and anyone else who steps through our door or eats at our table.”

I reached out to Jen Carlson and asked her to write out some of her thoughts. She graduated from NSA in 2005. Jen is primarily a wife and mother but she has also worked in a variety of other callings: church secretary, owner of a baking business, and hostess for regular church events. She has also helped her husband, who is a pastor, renovate their house to be a mission to the community. She has also taught piano and played cello. 

When I asked about how she is shaping culture in her life and work, Jen wrote, “I see my home as a very powerful culture shaper!”

She said she understands that her work in the home shapes the people there. She explained, “I know that not only my intellect (which does need to be sharp!) but also my ethos and pathos shape the home, and the home shapes the husband and the son and anyone else who steps through our door or eats at our table.”

She also said that her son is part of her work in shaping the culture. She wrote, “And my son, in particular, he is a culture-shaper in seed form. My parenting, much informed by my education at NSA, is now preparing him to launch off into the world as a faithful man of God.”

I also got to sit down with Kathryn Church, who graduated from NSA in 2009, and I asked her about her work as a wife and mother. She has had other callings as well, including flower arranging, and most recently a real estate company that she and her husband own. In these callings, she has had to learn many skills including graphic design, video editing, QuickBooks, and Photoshop. 

Kathryn began by telling me about the quick transition she had to make from NSA to mothering. She explained that when she graduated her first child was a baby. She went from reading authors like Thucydides and Herodotus to reading Dr. Seuss.

She also talked about the hard work and sacrifices required in mothering. Speaking about caring for young children, she said, “There is an intensity that you have when you cannot just crash. When you are on all night long because somebody is sick, and they are waking up every two hours, and you need to be on. It’s a different level than finals week when you can finish and you can actually sleep now.”

Kathryn said that her children are at a local classical Christian school and they are now learning similar material that she had learned at NSA. She is drawing on her education at NSA to mentor her children through their own classes. She gave the example of her oldest son who is taking a Logic class. 

She is drawing on her education at NSA to mentor her children through their own classes.

She also said that her children are interested in discussing cultural issues that they see out in the world. She said, “Our culture is going crazy and they see it and so then they want to come home and discuss at dinner time: why is this a problem?” In this way, she is incorporating lessons from NSA’s rhetoric class into her family’s life. She said she wants to help “them to be rhetorically persuasive: how do you say that to convince somebody? to love a neighbor?” She wants her children to understand these tools of rhetoric and use them well. 

She said that the Liberal Arts have made an incredible impact on her work as a mother. She said, “All of this completely matters as we are raising our four kids.”

NSA understands the important work of a wife and mother in shaping the culture. The home is a complex and rigorous institution that requires a variety of skills and abilities. NSA offers a Liberal Arts education because it wants to equip women to do this calling well.