John Henry Cardinal Newman, the leading figure of the Oxford movement believed that a liberal education was more important than technical training in itself. He believed that the broad knowledge of many disciplines would allow the individual to be more successful in every day life. With the complexities of today's world one cannot afford to not be equipped. Newman felt so strong about this concept that he wrote a book entitled, " The Idea of a University" in 1852.
             The Idea of a University stresses that a liberal education should encompass all disciplines such as reading, writing, math, science, technology, language, literature, social studies, physical education, public speaking, political science, anthropology, and so on. Studying these subject areas alone was not good enough in Newman's mind. He wanted us to be able to tie these concepts into real life applications. He also wanted us to use these subject areas inter-connectedly. Newman's focus is to create a world of thinkers who are self-sufficient. Newman believes that with a foundation in many disciplines allows the individual many options in becoming whatever he or she wants to. Newman explains; "Again, as health ought to precede labor of the body, and as a man in health can do what an unhealthy man cannot do, and as of this health the properties are strength, energy, agility, graceful carriage and action, manual dexterity, and endurance of fatigue, so in like manner general culture of mind is the best aid to professional and scientific study, and educated men can do what illiterate cannot; and the man who has learned to think and reason and to compare and to discriminate and to analyze, who has refined his tastes, and formed his judgments, and sharpened his mental vision, will not indeed at once be a lawyer, or a pleader, or an orator, or a statesmen, or a physician, or a good landlord, or a man of business, or a soldier, or an enginee...