What's a Liberal Arts Education Good For?

Over the next few months, in homes across America, seventeen and eighteen-year-olds will be conferring with one another and with their parents about a life changing decision: What college to go to! After months of research, visits, and advice from "experts," these young men and women must now decide: Where will I be happy? Where will I make friends? Where will I get an education I can afford now, and an education that will remain valuable for years after graduation?

In this same time period, our government officials will be deciding where an investment in America's economic infrastructure will do the most good. Commentators from different political perspectives have often noted that one of the great advantages of America is its peerless higher education system. 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.

The possibilities for free study, experimentation and risk taking need protection and cultivation. Looking around the world, we find no shortage of thugs who desecrate or murder those who seek to produce a more meaningful culture. And here at home we can easily see how mindless indifference to the contemporary arts and sciences facilitates the destruction of cultural memory and creative potential.

America's great universities and colleges must continue to offer a rigorous and innovative liberal arts education. A liberal education remains a resource years after graduation because it helps us to address problems and potential in our lives with passion, commitment and a sense of possibility. A liberal education teaches freedom by example, through the experience of free research, thinking and expression; and ideally, it inspires us to carry this example, this experience of meaningful freedom, from campus to community.

The American model of liberal arts education emphasizes freedom and experimentation as tools for students to develop meaningful ways of working after graduation. Many liberal arts students become innovators and productive risk takers, translating liberal arts ideals into effective, productive work in the world. That is what a liberal education is good for.

We were surprised last week to hear reports from several liberal arts colleges and universities that they had seen significant increases in 'early decision' applications. At Wesleyan, we were up almost 40%, an increase none of us on the staff would have predicted. Early decision applicants have already decided that if they are accepted at the one school to which they apply in the fall, they will attend that school the following year. Many of the highly selective schools like Wesleyan have robust financial aid programs, accepting students regardless of their ability to pay. In my next post, I'll write more about issues of affordability even with financial aid.

In these turbulent economic times, it appears that students want to know as quickly as possible if they are going to be able to attend their first choice school. Many of our talented high school seniors are doubtless deciding that the significant investment of time and money in a liberal arts education will give them the capacity for a sustainable and creative future. Perhaps they have something to teach us!

Comments

[PATina]

This is a must read article... particularly for those who feel that a liberal arts education is worthless. While it validates your opinion... it speaks to why we should fight against that notion... instead of embracing it.

http://www.truthout.org/article/henry-giroux-rethinking-promise-critical-education

[newsreader64]

This is the same sort of garbage that got me where I am today, the poorhouse.
A liberal arts education is a hideous waste of time for nearly all those who get one. It prepares the graduate for absolutely nothing. If you emerge from 4 years of college with a degree and no one is recruiting you for a job, you just wasted 4 years of life, a lot of money and a whole lot of effort.
I know because I have a BA in English. The first job I got after college was as a carpet installer. It paid well but didn't make use of my knowledge of American Lit. Three years after college, I landed my first job which required a bachelor's degree. I became a reporter for the sum of $14,950 a year. It's a poverty wage now and was a poverty wage in 1990 too. It took me nearly 20 years in the newspaper business to earn barely over $40K a year, and I'm still starving. Literally.
I tell all my friends who have kids to do everything in their power to dissuade them from getting an English or other liberal arts degree. Study engineering, math, science, pharmacy, anything which will allow you to earn enough money to support a family, buy a house before you are 40 and to keep the fridge full. Women don't marry poor English majors, trust me. They marry engineers who have good jobs. Liberal Arts? Thanks for NOTHING!

[BobinPgh]

Well now, I have a question for you unhappy liberal arty people that is kind of mean: If you have such "thinking skills" they why, during the 4 years did you not change the major? Even if it took a little longer you would be much happier with a major that leads to a career. Was it just too hard to change over? Besides, newswreader would it have helped if you were in communications rather than English? But look at it this way: Maybe you could be a soap opera actor!

[BlackYowe]

Time to make education about making a well rounded citizen not a specialist!

[BobinPgh]

Why not be an actor on a soap opera if you have that kind of education? But you need to be a Shakesperean actor to be on the Bold and Beautiful too.

[BobinPgh]

I thought actors and opera singers had a liberal arts education, especially if you are a "Shakesperean actor", who is more dramatic than a regular actor. So why are you people not actors? Why not do some painting if you know so much about art?

If you want to know what I mean by a Shakesperean actor, just watch the Young and the Restless, which has Shakesperan actors, and then a soap opera like Guiding Light. The Y&R actors are much more dramatic!

[StephanieF24]

take the classes you love, intern at a job for the real world.

employers do not care about your GPA, what your major was or what school you went to (unless its Harvard, Yale, Berkley, Georgetown). They care what you've done with it!

[StephanieF24]

I cant believe all of these posts complaining about a strong liberal arts education. I went to a liberal arts school, and there is a wealth of opportunities available (Look at Biden's chief economic adviser... A social worker!!! and our president elect was a community organizer.. skills you learn in a liberal arts education, not business, etc).

Plus, i hate to break it to everyone, but you do not need a degree in business to work in business!!! You cannot teach critical skills like how to get along with co-workers and management, how to sell products or concepts, those you learn from direct on the job training!

Employers do not care about your major, they care about experience. I say when you go to college, take classes in the subjects you love, and just an internship in the summer for the real world. School will be a much more enjoyable when you study subjects you love, you will emerge from your college career much more well rounded, and look more competitive than others!

PS: A major in Japanese, Chinese, Spanish (another liberal arts program) is incredibly useful in the business world these days, esp considering we are 90% owned by Asia.

So everyone, relax a little about this article and dont be so bitter!!

[southeybrown]

Yes, the liberal arts degree is valuable. Our mistake in US education has been assuming that the liberal arts degree is equally valuable to every student. We continue to waste resources at the secondary and post secondary levels of education by mindlessly chanting the ill-founded philosophy that "every child should go to college". "College" being a euphemism for a liberal arts education. The best systems of education recognize that we will not all serve the same functions, nor do we all share the same interests. Until we provide stigma-free alternatives to a liberal arts education (DeVry, anyone?), countless people will invest in an education they don't want and will never use.

[hsweet]

There have been a lot of claims over the years about what disciplines produce intellectual curiosity and perhaps the claims should be investigated. ( Maybe they have.)

Let me suggest this off the cuff idea. Intellectual curiosity develops as a method of resolving personal shortcomings. It may or may not get channeled into a single discipline. My suspicion is that those whose early lives were smooth or successful had no motivation to question anything. On the other hand, many of those whose early lives were rough became motivated to learn more about themselves and the world about them in order to resolve and move ahead.

Any Master thesis candidates interested in following this one up?

[JaneSlater]

Hsweet I like your theory, great post.

[BobinPgh]

When I worked for a fashion department store, one requirement to be a store manager was to have a college degree, usually a liberal arts degree like art history. I do not understand why, or what parent would spend that kind of money. I can understand majoring in English if you want to be a writer or Shakespeare if you want to be an actor, music if you want to play in the symphony or history if you want to be like a civil war reenactor, but who needs that to manage a store? These people knew nothing about clothes or fashion at all. And to me, philosophy is a line of cosmetics on QVC do they even teach that anymore? Why not something with clothing and fashion and accounting to work in a department store?

[Hopeglory]

I have not only a bacheloriate degree, but two masters degrees, and an alternative rouote to education degree, and took some undergraduate courses at a community college. I only make $15/hour at a mental health center. Yeah, it's rewarding work, and I know I could probibly do better. I always wonder if I could have been better served becoming a plumber, or electrician. I think the resaon why our ecomony is in the tank is that we don't produce anything any more. Yeah, we produce "doctors, and lawyers, and enigeers," but the real products of a global economy are being produced by slave laborers in China with no college degrees. So in this new world order, it is not a "zero sum gain." It is more of a "multiple cascading loss." I have three degrees on my wall, tons of books in my apartment, and am in financial ruin...At least I am "educated."

[BobinPgh]

Well, I tried to be a plumber when I was young but my father would not hear of it because I would be "swearing and going to the bar all the time". But i majored in business and those classes were nasty. So i ended up with an HVAC certificate but now employers don't think I can handle the job becuase I am not swearing enough. Any hope for me?

[oncethere]

A liberal arts education promotes intellectual curiosity and gives you the tools to put ideas and events in context. We have seen how the abject absence of intellectual curiosity has affected the life of our country in the last 8 years. Marcuse refers to the concretizing (the lack of capacity for abstract thought) of the Western mind in one of his books. But, we also have seen what the prohibition against critical thought in radical Islamic groups has done. What a mix; fanatical religious beliefs and engineering degrees.

Our culture also contributes to the deadening and concretizing of the American mind. Mindless entertainment and political debates between spinmeisters. Right-wingers have been putting down liberal arts education for years, believing that profs were all communists. They would prefer a dumbe-down citizenry who viewed intellectual curiosity with disdain and who thought their religion taught them everything they needed to know.

[hsweet]

There have been a lot of claims over the years about what disciplines produce intellectual curiosity and perhaps the claims should be investigated. ( Maybe they have.)

Let me suggest this off the cuff idea. Intellectual curiosity develops as a method of resolving personal shortcomings. It may or may not get channeled into a single discipline. My suspicion is that those whose early lives were smooth or successful had no motivation to question anything. On the other hand, many of those whose early lives were rough became motivated to learn more about themselves and the world about them in order to resolve and move ahead.

Any Master thesis candidates interested in following this one up?

[HeevenSteven]

"College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/education/03college.html?_r=1&ref=education

We're going back to the days when only the elite get educated. Cost of college is up 436 percent from 1982 to 2007, while median family income is up only 142 percent.

Aim high, and hope your smart enough to get into a rich liberal arts college willing to fund you 100%. Everyone else can work at Walmart.

[SteveWeisert]

I'm all in favor of art, music and literature, and all students should have some exposure to these in high school and college. But after getting a liberal arts degree, WHERE DO YOU GO TO GET A JOB ?? Who would hire you, and what kind of jobs could you get ?

[lonesometx]

Agreed, Sir!

I have a niece with an undergrad degree in Sociology. Her father spent $100k to send her to university. She is working in a grocery store for $8/ hour. She has a donated car, can’t afford an apartment, groceries or an electric bill. She would be homeless, save for my generosity. (I am an Electrical Engineer. My wife has a business degree.)

Mr. Roth’s “critical thinking skills” don’t seem to be so well learned. Why not encourage kids to get viable degrees that can insure their success in our economy? Then, if they want a "well rounded education”, they can go back to school and study anything from brain surgery to basket weaving.

[StephanieF24]

plus there are plenty of jobs for people who majored in sociology- think tanks, policy institutes, (see Biden's economic adviser- a man with his masters in social work and PhD in Social Welfare. Finding a job takes effort and making connections- its not just handed to you, in any field!!!!

Sociology is a viable degree- but then again its what you else you do WHILE you are attaining your degree, and AFTER that counts (aka actually looking for a job- they're out there)

ps.. what is a viable degree anyway? and who are you to say any degree is more worthwhile or important to society than another. We need music and art and history and literature in our lives. We are not creatures who should solely slave all day from 8-7 to make other men rich while we get by.

[StephanieF24]

no offense, but you do not need to major in business to get a job. You get a job from experience- GPA, majors, these do not matter. Employers want to know what you can do for them they want "multitask-ers, with a wide variety of skills and talents"

Take the classes you love, intern in the real world. Thats how you get a job.

ps.. have you seen the differences in pay for a person who is fluent in a language like spanish, japanese, chinese, etc? That how you make more than the rest.

[AsianMan]

i have a History degree and i won't trade it for the world. first off, History and liberal arts like it are not corporate sponsored, which in my book is a big plus. if you take a walk in any college, you would notice that the Business dept. and the engineering dept. look like the Pentagon, with nice chairs, desks, and nice computers and the like. while all the liberal arts dept. looks like a military detention facility. a liberal arts eduaction fosters my critical thinking skills, which vocational training can not do for me.

[MinuteMan]

A Liberal Arts program should include all knowledge but the programs I've seen tend to be heavily weighted towards the Arts (those disciplines which residing in an Arts & Sciences College which are not classed as science) rather than math/science. Many LA degrees are earned by people who are extremely weak in math/science. At many schools there are math/science courses flagged as being for the humanities students; however, there are usually no "history for engineers/scientists" courses. A case could be made that these specialized courses are tailored to be relevant to humanists but in my experience they are merely diluted both in topic-coverage and class make-up.

It's worse when you consider the many weak universities that many students now attend. The achievement level is so low that humanities students aren't even learning the reasoning/research skills that are supposed to come from the humanities. The result is they end up with a little bit of rote knowledge having little market value. A recent article in the "Chronicle of Higher Education" reported that many people completing degrees end up working in the same jobs they could have taken right out of high school. The science/professional people coming out of those same schools, while alsoalso weak, usually have some marketable knowledge/skills to get them in the door for jobs requiring more than a high school degree. A college degree isn't what it used to be in many cases and employers know it.