I wish to offer some thoughts on liberal studies as a core subject in the three-year senior secondary curriculum, in response to calls that liberal studies should be scrapped. As an academic teaching at a local university long enough to see the changes before and after the introduction of liberal studies, I realise the difference between those students who took the subject and those who did not. A general phenomenon is that students who took liberal studies in secondary school demonstrated a relatively higher level of awareness of current issues and debates than those who did not. These observations throw some light on the characteristic feature of young persons that our society must nurture. Education is aimed at producing graduates with the necessary academic and technical knowledge in different disciplines. We must, however, not forget that it should also be aimed at nurturing graduates with a reasonable sense of social responsibility, so that they can behave as responsible and rational citizens who are aware of the current problems, challenges, opportunities and alternatives to resolve conflicts in society. Liberal studies should assume this important task of providing students with a broad knowledge base and enhancing their social awareness through the study of a wide range of contemporary issues. The subject in the three-year senior secondary curriculum adopts an issue-inquiry approach which studies the issues related to different themes from multi-disciplinary perspectives. The essence of liberal studies is that every issue can be analysed from different perspectives, for example, political, economic, social, moral, technological and cultural. Students have to be aware of the values, causes, consequences and implications of issues from multi-disciplinary perspectives. For instance, the Occupy Central campaign has far-reaching implications for not just democratic progress in Hong Kong, but also economic and social development of the city, the personal development of Hong Kong adolescents, and also political development in China. Liberal studies shows that no issue has a single dimension. Only through such multi-disciplinary and cross-curricular thinking can our students develop objective, rational and critical thinking. As such, our young people can be nurtured as responsible, reasonable and informed adults. Dr Jermain Lam, associate professor, department of public policy, City University of Hong Kong
