What's a Liberal Arts Education Good For?

Papa_Chicken · December 1, 2008, 9:00pm

[Michael</a> Roth: What’s a Liberal Arts Education Good For?](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>What's a Liberal Arts Education Good For? | HuffPost Latest News)

excerpt:

…Although other sectors have diminished international roles, higher education in this country continues to inspire admiration around the globe. When politicians talk about this, they often emphasize the research output of large universities, but the focus should also be on American undergraduate liberal arts education. Liberal arts in the USA provide not only a pipeline of talented and prepared students to the great graduate schools, but also a model for life-long learning that other countries are beginning to emulate.

But in these challenging times, what’s an education in the liberal arts good for?

Rather than pursuing business, technical or vocational training, some students (and their families) opt for a well-rounded learning experience. Liberal learning introduces them to books and the music, the science and the philosophy that form disciplined yet creative habits of mind that are not reducible to the material circumstances of one’s life (though they may depend on those circumstances). There is a promise of freedom in the liberal arts education offered by America’s most distinctive, selective, and demanding institutions; and it is no surprise that their graduates can be found disproportionately in leadership positions in politics, culture and the economy. A quick look at several members of President-elect Obama’s leadership team can stand as an example of how those with a liberal arts education are shaping the future of our society. 

What does liberal learning have to do with the harsh realities that our graduates are going to face after college? The development of the capacities for critical inquiry associated with liberal learning can be enormously practical because they become resources on which to draw for continual learning, for making decisions in one’s life, and for making a difference in the world. Given the pace of technological and social change, it no longer makes sense to devote four years of higher education entirely to specific skills. Being ready on DAY ONE, may have sounded nice on the campaign trail, but being able to draw on one’s education over a lifetime is much more practical (and precious). Post secondary education should help students to discover what they love to do, to get better at it, and to develop the ability to continue learning so that they become agents of change – not victims of it. 

A successful liberal arts education develops the capacity for innovation and for judgment. Those who can image how best to reconfigure existing resources and project future results will be the shapers of our economy and culture. We seldom get to have all the information we would like, but still we must act. The habits of mind developed in a liberal arts context often result in combinations of focus and flexibility that make for intelligent, and sometimes courageous risk taking for critical assessment of those risks.

Papa_Chicken · December 1, 2008, 10:21pm

previous threads on this topic:

gadad · December 1, 2008, 10:51pm

The old dichotomy of a liberal arts education vs. a practical one no longer applies. A pre-professional education today isn’t the most “practical” choice since the lifespan of anything “state of the art” is measured in months.

mini · December 2, 2008, 12:21am

It was very practical when they spent six weeks teaching me to use a sliderule when I was in 7th grade.

At least I was prepared.

Dad_o_2 · December 2, 2008, 9:47am

A wonderful goal, but I wonder what fraction of liberal arts majors graduating today (at least from your average non-elite school) have received this “successful” liberal arts education. I see a lot of floundering kids bouncing around for years from art history to political science to psychology. It’s not clear to me that these kids have developed any particular “capacity for innovation” as a result of this five, six, or seven-year process or that they have demonstrated any “capacity for judgement” in their choices.

I am honestly interested to hear what kind of decent career options are available with a liberal arts BA, as the data points I have aren’t encouraging. I’m not disputing the value of a liberal arts education as preparation for graduate school or professional school, but perhaps it is not appropriate for all students, many of whom will not be pursuing post-graduate education.

Our society also needs engineers, nurses, accountants, pharmacists, early childhood educators, business managers, and other professions that can be pursued with a more specialized undergraduate eduation. I guarantee that our society would quickly implode if it were comprised exclusively of either engineers or liberal arts majors.

I learned how to use a slide rule in 9th grade Chemistry, and through the process I also developed an intuitive understanding of logarithms, scientific notation, mantissas and exponents, estimation, and error-checking. These “habits of the mind” developed by manipulating slide rules in high school chemistry and other “skills” I learned that I no longer directly use have served me well over the years, and I have even survived the demise of slide rules and vaccuum tubes. Using this development as the math/science/engineering analog of the liberal arts education, I see where the author is coming from, even if I wasn’t wired to follow that path myself.

Papa_Chicken · December 2, 2008, 9:55am

…well, at least learning the sliderule taught one that two decimal places is plenty most times…:)

a handful of other opinion pieces:
[Justifying</a> a Liberal Arts Education in Difficult Times - New York Times](<a href=“http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E4D7163DF93AA25751C0A9659C8B63]Justifying”>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E4D7163DF93AA25751C0A9659C8B63)
[Education</a>; Liberal Education’s Place in Profit-Driven World - New York Times](<a href=“http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4DA133FF934A35751C1A96E948260]Education”>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4DA133FF934A35751C1A96E948260)
[FOXNews.com</a> - Choosing a College: Liberal Arts vs. Professional Training - College Life | Guide | Universities](<a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208159,00.html]FOXNews.com”>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208159,00.html)
[St</a>. Petersburg Times - Google News Archive Search](<a href=“http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CQAOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iXwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4880,5334927&dq=liberal-arts+education]St”>http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CQAOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iXwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4880,5334927&dq=liberal-arts+education)
[The</a> New York Times > Education > New Course for Liberal Arts: Intro to Job Market](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/19/education/19PROF.final.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5007&en=1d62c7b3870fcef8&ex=1402977600&partner=USERLAND]The”>http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/19/education/19PROF.final.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5007&en=1d62c7b3870fcef8&ex=1402977600&partner=USERLAND)
[url=<a href=“http://www.djournal.com/pages/archive.asp?ID=210397]djournal.com[/url”>http://www.djournal.com/pages/archive.asp?ID=210397]djournal.com[/url</a>]

Dad_o_2 · December 2, 2008, 10:34am

Papa Chicken–Two significant digits is right! It kills me when I see presentations with calculations based on approximations but the results are carried out to six decimal places.

Thanks for your St Petersburg Times link! Never mind the liberal arts article, check out the rest of the paper!

First, it was dated Wednesday, February 29, 1984–Leap Day! 
There is an Ann Landers column discussing how cotton crotches in pantyhose cuts down on yeast infections.
And another article about Michael Jackson’s hair catching fire while making a Pepsi commercial. 
Also, Pat Benatar won the best rock female performance Grammy for the fourth straight year. 
Page 47 adverstises an Arby’s Early Bird Special: roast beef sandwich, cole slaw, and apple turnover for $1.50, but the electronics ad under it has an RCA “portable VCR” for $699 and a Sharp microwave oven for $388.

Absolutely priceless!

(It just occurred to me, I wonder what Ann Landers, Michael Jackson, and Pat Benatar majored in?)

mini · December 2, 2008, 10:37am

“I learned how to use a slide rule in 9th grade Chemistry, and through the process I also developed an intuitive understanding of logarithms, scientific notation, mantissas and exponents, estimation, and error-checking.”

They could have done all of this quite effectively without the slide rule. (what I learned was to watch for the decimal point. ;)) I will grant that I could also have learned much from spending several months making flint arrowheads so that I could eat.

Dad_o_2 · December 2, 2008, 10:42am

…or you could improve your English vocabulary by studying Latin for four years…

mini · December 2, 2008, 11:09am

At least with flint arrowheads, you could defend yourself. ;)

DougBetsy · December 2, 2008, 12:19pm

And can anyone explain why gas station signs display prices to 3 decimals?!?!

Dad_o_2 · December 2, 2008, 12:40pm

So how long until tuition will be $39,999.99? 
Alright, Andy Rooney hour is over…
Let’s get back to the incendiary topic at hand.

originaloog · December 2, 2008, 1:15pm

I have always questioned the proposition that a liberal arts education was the sole way to a life long learning and critical/analytical thinking. As an undergrad engineering major I was exposed to the arts, classical/jazz music, politics, history, urban sociology, economics, physical/bio sciences, math and applied physics(er, that would be engineering). The introduction to these diverse areas have made my adult life richer and more fulfilling even into my early retirement years.

Admittedly, achieving a well rounded education may be easier for a lac major however any intellecually curious student can develop a course of study which will expand the areas of learning to suit him or herself.

The one area of study which is absent from my resume is a foreign language which I do regret. Those three years of hs Latin have left me long ago.

Papa_Chicken · December 2, 2008, 7:54pm

here’s an interesting Carnegie report, circa 2000, “Liberal Arts Education
for a Global Society”:
<a href=“http://www.carnegie.org/sub/pubs/libarts.pdf[/url]”>http://www.carnegie.org/sub/pubs/libarts.pdf</a>

an excerpt of one section

DO WE REALLY NEED THE LIBERAL ARTS TODAY? 

Why, one participant at the meeting
asked, should we be grounding a curriculum in
enduring ideas and values when the corporate
ethos, as described by author Peter Drucker, is
abandon yesterday!? The simplest answer may be
the human need for connections. In a world of
constant change, humans need to make connections
between past and future, between their own
experiences and the world they live in; they need a
frame of reference. One participant cited Eastern
Europe today as an example of spiritual disorientation,
societies adrift between abandoned yesterdays
and unknown tomorrows, lacking any shared system
of values to provide direction. In the view of
meeting participants, higher education has a
responsibility to prevent such disorientation by
providing graduates with the capacity to manage
change and shape their own futures and that of
human society consistent with enduring and shared
values.

Todays graduates, over their lifetimes, will experience
change at an unprecedented pace. They will
have not one career but perhaps many. To cope
with this kind of change, they will need self-confidence
and a sense of purpose coupled with adaptability
and a capacity for continuous learning. A
familiarity with the body of knowledge and methods
of inquiry and discovery of the arts and sciences
and a capacity to integrate knowledge across
experience and discipline may have far more lasting
value in such a changing world than specialized
techniques and training, which can quickly become
outmoded.

The information revolution and economic liberalization
together have unleashed productivity and
spurred innovation, great benefits that create new
challenges for individuals. In an informationbased,
technology-driven economy, all workers are
expected to be problem-solvers and communicators;
they must be able to assess situations and
make judgments on the spot. In the world of the
Internet, anyone can be a publisher, and anything
can be published. Users, therefore, need to learn
to assess information critically; they must be able
to select, and to evaluate, skills a liberal education
is designed to develop.

A free market economy not only expands opportunity,
it also demands individual responsibility.
Individuals in the United States today are expected
to manage their own careers, their health care,
their retirement; they can no longer rely on lifetime
employment, social safety nets, and authoritative
expertise. They need to be able to acquire, assess
and make judgments based on complex information,
all competencies developed through liberal education.
U.S. campuses have been trying to create learning
and living environments for culturally and racially
diverse student populations for a generation. Today,
a global economy and information technology are
combining to create a world without borders. In
such a world, multicultural skills understanding
ones own culture and other cultures and being able
to communicate across differences of language, culture,
race, and religion will be critically important.
Understood in this context, liberal arts has
become the essential education for all people living
in a global, technology-driven society.

HOWEVER, albeit I am a liberal arts believer (appropriate for some but certainly not all), I must admit I do worry about where my sophomore son will get a job in two years with a LAC philosophy degree.

BunsenBurner · December 2, 2008, 8:58pm

“Professional” meets “fluff” (the term used by some of my friends to describe non-professional courses) and it turns out that the “fluff” might be very valuable to the development of some professional skills):

[Local</a> News | UW uses artwork to help sharpen visual skills of future doctors | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008453939_artmedicine30m.html]Local”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008453939_artmedicine30m.html)

What's a Liberal Arts Education Good For?

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