This study examined the historical development of liberal education( LE) and the characteristics of the Korean language arts(Kla) as LE. Plato-originated philosophical LE evolved into Aristotle’s Schole, the Seven Liberal Arts, formal discipline, the “Great Books” of perennialism, and P. Hurst’s “forms of knowledge” theory. In this tradition, Kla could partially be confirmed as LE. However Isocrates-originated orators’ LE was more aligned with the nature of today’s Kla, and the problem of missing rhetoric in the “forms of knowledge” could be explained. Considering the nature of LE that puts emphasis on the immanent value of the subject, Kla should be referred to as a “formal subject” rather than a “tool subject”. To realize the ideal of LE, students’ interests and choices must be respected in the process of Kla.