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Letter from the Director |
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"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." At Lingnan University, the General Education Programme takes the William Butler Yeats quote very seriously, and assumes the responsibility of providing the spark for that fire. Its emphasis is not on rules or on formulas that may last only a few years, but on principles and precepts that will last a lifetime. It is always asking enduring questions rather than merely producing modish and fashionable answers. Its object is to teach the student, not the subject; its objective is to take closed minds and open them. It offers, instead of training that will become quickly outmoded, a habit of discovery and of self-discovery that will sustain the student through the volatile and unpredictable future before us.
To that end, the Programme provides courses that will integrate the skills and the insights gained in other courses. The goal of the programme is to instil in students an unquenchable desire for learning, as well as to transmit the techniques by which they can continue their education themselves after the degree. Other courses may equip students with the means that will enable them to function effectively in a profession; General Education courses address the fundamental questions of life: what to live for, why one must constantly strive to improve, and how to find inner peace. At Lingnan University, General Education is not a specialized, separate concern: it is a preoccupation across the liberal arts curriculum.
Come, let us light your fire.
William Keng-mun, LEE
Associate Vice-President (Academic Affairs)
Professor of Sociology
Director of Core Curriculum and General Education
