In Cronan’s essay “Only Connect…”, Cronan discusses how liberal education has been described throughout history and goes on to define it himself. In the beginning of the essay, he explains how others have defined liberal education by creating lists of subjects which one must have knowledge in in order to be considered “liberally educated”. While he does create a list himself to define what a liberal education consists of, his list is more based upon characteristics of what a liberally educated person should be. For example, Cronan points out that a liberally educated person can be recognized through their abilities to empathize, gain insight, talk, persuade, problem-solve, learn, understand, nurture, empower, and above all, connect with everything around them. Throughout the whole essay, Cronan emphasizes that a liberal education is one where the person learns to connect, not only with people, but with situations, with experiences, and with the whole world ahead of them. He ultimately defines a liberal education as being able to “Only connect” (pg 6, Cronan) with the world by being empathetic and understanding of everything regardless of the situation.
In the essay, Cronan makes a list of attributes to describe a liberally educated person. The characteristics which he provides can also be seen as attributes which describe a good or effective leader. Many of the characteristics that he uses, although they are not identical, coincide with some of the characteristics which I used to identify an effective leader. One attribute which I had used to describe an effective leader is influence. I believe that every leader has some sort of influence over the people that they lead, whether it is good or bad. I also feel that the ability to influence others comes from the person’s ability to connect with the world around them, to be able to understand and empathize with the situation of others and then to act accordingly. Leaders have to understand and know how to act in order for then to influence others. This attribute of influence is also similar to Cronan’s attribute of “empower and nurture” (pg 4). Leaders try to “help that community flourish by making the success of others possible” (pg 4).
Growth is another attribute which relates to the attributes that Cronan had listed. Growth is needed in order to establish other attributes of an effective leader. In Cronan’s essay, he explains how in order to “connect”, a person must be able to empathize and understand others. As a child, everything may be centered around them, but as they grow older they come to realize other people’s feelings and situations. This change in mindset comes from their experiences from the world. As people get older they grow, but their mindset and their perspectives grow as well. They come to see the world as a place not only for them, but for others as well. While taking others into account, their perspective grows and they start to change the way that they do things and understand things. As Cronan wrote in his essay, as people grow and come to understand the world around them, they try to “leave the world a better place than they had found it.” (pg. 3).
Responsibility and honesty are two other attributes which I had listed that I believe relate to some of the characteristics that Cronan had stated. Responsibility is something which comes along with growth. As people grow and begin to understand more about the world around them, they begin to see that the they are responsible for the world that they live in, They are the ones that have to initiate change, and they can do that by understanding and empathizing with the situation of others.Without empathizing or being understanding in different situations, change will not occur.To be understanding and empathetic, one must also be honest. Not only honest to others, but honest to oneself as well. They must be willing to be open to new ideas, accept them, but they should never forget that they have to be honest about their opinions as well.
Although the attributes that I had listed as what makes an effective leader were not explicitly stated within Cronan’s essay, most of them related to many of the attributes that he had listed. The characteristics that I had were factors which played into the attributes which Cronan had listed of how to identify a liberally educated person. I believe that my list of characteristics played into Cronan’s list because how I define an effective leader is that they should be able to “connect” with their environment, other people and the world around them.
