Creating a National Society for the Enhancement of Indonesian Citizenry: Furthering the Liberal Arts in Higher Education

Three processes come to mind when we think about launching a national society for the enhancement of the Indonesian citizenry by furthering the study of Liberal Arts in higher education. The first is Excitement. People who work with the Liberal Arts experience a shared excitement. Students are genuinely excited to hone critical thinking, decision-making, leadership, and speaking skills engendered through classroom study of the Liberal Arts. Lecturers are genuinely interested in learning how to teach with a student-centered Liberal Arts focus. The second process is Cooperation. Humans in all occupations cooperate and learn interactively and collaboratively together. A committed group of people can change the course of Indonesian higher education for greater good. The third is process is Values and Vision. We must keep a clear focus on the value of education to hone democratic skills of constructive controversy, debate, logic, and problem solving. Our newly formed society must keep its vision of a highly educated Indonesian citizenry with skills to build a peaceful, ecological, cooperative, respectful, and economically fair and transparent, safe society. These skills are possible only with a rigorous study of student-centered learning with the Liberal Arts of Indonesia to educate an Indonesian citizenry with skills for moral and ethical reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making, and creativity