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

[JNail]

Pres. Roth, I graduated from fellow Little 3 school - Williams - 33 years ago - 1975 - as an Art History major. Steve Case who founded AOL is a Williams Alum as well. He also is from Hawaii like Pres Obama. Your blog is spot on.

My first career in insurance sales and marketing/mgmt. was clearly unrelated to a course of study but the thinking, writing and relationship skills I learned made that a very successful 17 years.

At 42 I started a 2nd career - I became an Internet entrepreneur - not because I had learned to be a Geek/engineer - but because I had learned to explore new ideas, understand concepts, think outside the box and apply these ideas creatively.

That is the crux of the liberal arts ideal to me. I understood how ideas related across disciplines and when the Web evolved to allow easy ways to connect seemingly unrelated information it clicked for me. I took my 17 year career in employee benefits and tied it the web to create the first true "software as a service company" in 1995... all due to a liberal arts education.­...

Understanding the multiple levels of "interconn­ectedness" of today's world is critical to our future and the more a student is exposed to ideas, literature, people of different backgrounds and perspectives the better "Education" they will receive.

My daughter is a liberal arts grad and wouldn't trade it for the world....a­nd the world that beckons young people today requires

[BobinPgh]

But JNail, do you do any painting or anything like interior decorating or landscape design or something like that? If I had a degree in art history I would try to do something like that becuase selling insurance is soooooooo boring. In your internet does your web page have a lot of artwork?

[hsweet]

JNail -- I don't want to put you on the spot for what happened in school so long ago but can you think of anything specific that you believed lead you to conclude that the liberal arts education enabled you to "explore new ideas, understand concepts, think outside the box and apply these ideas creatively"?

[incrediblyclose]

A liberal arts education, to me, is immeasurably more valuable in life than technical, and what I call automatic, degrees. Liberal arts relies on the ability to think critically and self-sufficiently, values argument and opinion, and encompasses depth and breadth in general knowledge. Not saying that technical degrees are not valuable, because they are, but they're directed towards a predetermined faculty. A liberal arts education extends critical application to everything, which is what this country needs above all right now.

To note, Boston University's School of Communication actually reworked its curriculum several years ago and made half of the graduation requirements liberal arts classes. They were noticing that many of their students were not getting jobs due to the lack of this type of learning.

I fully understand, though, that liberal arts is not for everyone, and I think it's perfectly fine that some prefer technical ones for security, general interest, pragmatism, or whatever.

[BobinPgh]

But don't you want need liberals arts if you want to be an actor, especially a dramatic "Shakespearean actor"?

[hsweet]

Sure. If you want to be an actor, study acting. But first, either get a job with a salary as you're most likely not going to survive as an actor. My father was a self educated musician who actually made a living solely as a musician. He had no contemporaries.

[hsweet]

The liberal disciplines, in particular, history, religion, psychology, sociology and philosophy provide the information that we all need to understand ourselves and the human world around us. But how do they develop in a person a critical approach to knowledge, valuing argument and opinion and developing self-sufficiency?

IMHO, a math and science education is more likely to develop a critical approach to knowledge. Valuing arguments and opinions comes with maturity. Self-sufficiency, I suspect, is a personal psychological factor formed in childhood.

[MagisterLudi]

It is obviously easier to find a job with IT degree. No question.
The real question is do we want our universities become glorified DeVrys?
Hey lets cut the Postmodern Aesthetics 500, we need more money for the engineering dept.
Do we want to crank out narrowly educated specialists who are practically barbarian in other fields?

Well, we have Julliards and MITs and CalTechs for that ( only half-joking).

But the society also needs well-rounded and socially aware individuals with superior analytic skills. Ergo: liberal Arts. THIS should the tasks of most universities.

Cogito ergo sum, mmmm.... cogito.

[jamie461]

I got a B.A. in English from a small liberal arts college 25 years ago and have had a very successful career in marketing, without getting an MBA. My daughter will graduate next year with a degree in English as well.

The most important skills needed to succeed in business are the ability to analyze information and speak and write effectively -- all of which I received in pursuit of my degree. Creativity and critical thinking are fostered in the liberal arts environment and serve graduates well in the business world. And, as others have mentioned, it is also a great foundation for graduate school of any kind.

My advice to my daughter has always been to follow your passions in your studies and your work. I know too many miserable lawyers and engineers who got their degrees purely for the large salaries they were guaranteed. I have always found that if you are doing what you love, you will make a good living at it.

[lisakaz2]

As a history instructor, I'd like to see students learn to READ as in understand nuance, point of view, tone and the like and be able to WRITE an effective paper with a thesis, an argument and effective use of quotations.

That seems to be asking a lot. I don't see how we can have a lot of workers (e.g., lawyers or other "knowledge workers" as per the late Peter Drucker) without this.

[MagisterLudi]

Absolutely. And one could hope that such basic English skills would be mastered at the high school level. So the history profs can stretch a bit and go deeper into historical analysis, rather than dealing with English remediation issues. Hope is the thing with feathers..­.. Does your institution have the English Proficiency Exam as a graduation requirement?

[lisakaz2]

I don't think it does have such an exam. I wonder though what such an exam would look like, though. Would it be truly a measure of mastery or would it be so watered down as to be perfunctory? My guess is the latter.

[PATina]

Thank you !!! One of the things I most regret is not pursuing a liberal arts major in college. instead... I went for "job training".­.. I have B.S. in computer science... and when I graduated.­.. that's all I knew(not to mention this was in the COBOL/Fortran days). It didn't take me long to figure out I really didn't like programmin­g... but I was not 'trained' for anything else. After a couple of years... I got a job as a paralegal.

Above all... a liberal arts education teaches the indispensible skill of CRITICAL THINKING !!! Something that is truly missing in today's society as more and more opt for getting a job instead of getting an education.

[lisakaz2]

Exactly. Students who learn how to read well and/or write are excellent critical thinkers.

[hsweet]

I'm not too sure that 'critical thinking' can be taught other than by plane geometry, logic and the like. Isn't critical thinking more a function of a serious attempt to assemble facts into knowledge and tossing out the miscreants?

[MinuteMan]

How could you possibly have finished a degree in Computer Science without developing critical thinking skills? The thinking skills required in the sciences are typically more exacting than those developed from "liberal arts": it's often very easy to prove that a thesis is wrong whereas what passes for validity in the liberal arts is better termed "plausibility".

[huskers1]

Some of you people who think liberal arts majors are useless may not have tried hard enough in college. I went to the University of Nebraska and graduated with a BA in history and political science. Now I am getting an MBA. If you think that you cannot succeed with a liberal arts degree then you should have been a business major. I am so much better off with my liberal arts degree than most of my counterparts in graduate school who were business majors.

Best of luck.

[lisakaz2]

I'm not surprised. A guy I worked for (he ran a plant) told me he had a problem with a lot of MBA because they did not know how to "think outside the box." That sounds like your colleagues because they lack critical thinking skills. He had some sort of brain teaser as a test for these prospective employees that tried to measure if they had any smarts in this area.

[biichama]

What is an liberal arts degree good for outside of the warm bosom of university? Absolutely nothing practical. That is, unless you were able to afford to get your liberal arts degree at an expensive big name university where the very fact that you've got a diploma from said fancy college is worth more than the field you got it in.

If you get yours from the state school no one's ever heard of that was the only even semi-affordable option for you, then you're screwed. Completely and utterly. Congratulations, you're now qualified to be a receptionist or an office assistant!

Actually, a liberal arts degree is good for something. It gets you out of working retail. Also, it teaches you how to BS with the best of them, given that is the main skill you use to write your papers.

Still, if I'd known what I know now at age eighteen, I'd have gone into computer graphics.

Sincerely,
A Former English Major,
Who Had To Leave University Her Senior Year
And Wishes She'd Gone Into Computer Science

[thinkagain2]

a good education cannot provide the drive and intelligence to make it after graduation. that, sweetie, can only come from you. in order for the magic of a liberal education to work, you have to be thoroughly engaged in the process of learning to think critically. Simply doing the work to get a degree in English does not do the trick.

every person i've ever met (including my doofus brother) who thinks their education failed them do not see that, in fact, they failed to understand their responsibility in their own education.

If you were writing bs in your papers...w­ell...do you think perhaps you were missing the point?

[PATina]

Wow... I was going to write something similar.

[JustThisGuy]

If they were letting her write bs papers, they were not giving her a very good education in the first place, liberal arts or no liberal arts.

[lisakaz2]

Excellent. An overloaded instructor probably let these squeak by and yet no "transform­ation." Gee, you actually have to work for a degree. Whoooda thunk?

[biichama]

I don't think my education failed me. I screwed up too. I do think that liberal arts degrees are useless for getting anything relevant to what you actually studied.

I suspect that once upon a time they might have been good for something. However, my generation has been screwed over in that respect.

[PATina]

I was the opposite. I have a degree in Computer Science... but wish I had a liberal arts degree.. particularly a history discipline.

It also appears from your signature that you didnt' actually graduate or get your degree. Could that have something to do w/ you not being able to find a relevant job???

[biichama]

It has a lot to do with me not being able to find a job that pays more than peanuts.

As for a relevant job? Well, to quote Avenue Q, what do you do with a BA in English?

[lisakaz2]

I doubt you learned enough if that's all you got. Sounds like you coasted to a degree but wouldn't have survived the first year of grad school. (A number of ppl here with advanced degrees will know exactly the type of student I mean.)

BSJ Northwestern
MA Virginia
PhD Rutgers

[biichama]

Northwestern isn't exactly Podunk U.

I never finished. A lot of stuff was going on in my life with my family and my health and my lack of money, so I had to drop out senior year. After that things just got worse and I'm now halfway across the country from the college town I grew up in.

The truth is, I'd be grateful for a job as a receptionist or an office assistant. It's better than what I have now. The problem is that they only hire people with BAs for those positions these days.

[RightWingMarine]

how in demand is a person with a naval gazing degree such as philosophy? I somehow suspect that someone with a degree in business will find it easier to find a job compared to a person with a degree in history. And then based on the experience that early careet provides will have a greater chance of propelling the business student onward and upward compared to his more intellectual counterpart.

Just a hunch.

[Canubackthatup]

That's the point. We need to stop only valuing the quick fix technical education over the broader liberal arts one. Just because they can get a higher paying job doesn't mean they're better, only that our society may be valuing the wrong things.

[RightWingMarine]

what quick fix? Will a philosophy major learn how to build a bridge if we wait long enough? Will someone with a degree in English Lit figure out how to do a heart transplant if they listen to a symphony occasionally?

[thinkagain2]

many corporations and engineerin­g/producti­on firms are hiring those philosphy graduates. they think better and more creatively than business school drones.

in case you haven't read it, philosophy (etc., etc.) is the new business degree.

[lisakaz2]

Sorry, but you need to talk with some HR ppl who complain about the writing skills of their candidates and biz managers who complain biz ppl (including MBAs) cannot think creatively. Certainly, the coaster types of any degree can be useless but you're missing a big point here.

[escobar]

I got out of school and had no, "Connections" of any kind.
If I had a Do-over, I absolutely would have sudied anything else.
Anything. Something that would have put a roof over my head and money into my pocket.
I think it is a study for the well to do or connected.
It is for not people who will gradute in debt. needing to go look for a job with their hat in their hands, unable to buy a car without a co-signer.
I was told repeatedly that I had, "Nothing" to offer and asked, "What can you do for me that will make money ? It did open the door to jobs that couldn't provide me an apartment without several room mates.
I have a brother who became an electrician and always made at least twice what I do.
The best liberal arts option is to teach or go to some technical graduate program, hopefully law school. Hard to do when beyond broke. I supose one could try to sell insurance or cars at least that way they don't hand you a broom or have you clean tables.
Liberal arts do not translate to making any money so that had better not be a factor in the choice.
It is for rich people.

[Canubackthatup]

Sorry to hear about your tough situation after college, but perhaps the problem is with our society devaluing a liberal arts educated person and not with the liberal arts education itself.

[Danind]

Well certainly writing a blog about it isn't going to do a damn thing to change the way we do things. He's preaching to the choir, and it makes logical sense, but at the end of the day, we will never stop devaluing knowledge and overrating trade skills. Higher Ed Schools are a business; they teach you by example that knowledge is worthless compared to the piece of paper you get at the end if you play your cards right. You want to learn something? Read a book. Go to the theater to hear a Symphony. Go to a museum. Travel a little. For God's sake, don't go to school to learn something.

[elizaconnors]

With all due respect sir, the early decision numbers are up because last year was an impossible college admissions year by all standards. This is a function of a demographic bubble, not any long-term trend.

President-elect Obama's team may have liberal arts undergraduate degrees but their appointments are a reflection of their law and business degrees and hard work, not what they studied in their late teens and early twenties.

I agree, a liberal arts degree is useful and I have one myself. Graduate schools do use the liberal arts schools as feeders into their programs (except, notably, in science). But, you have to admit that the real value of a liberal arts degree is the college name recognition and connections.

A liberal arts degree for the majority of students in this country is a luxury that cannot be justified even if the resources were available for student loans.

[kpod]

Interesting. Recent personal events have led me to a rather different conclusion. I have a BA from a small liberal arts college, and an MA in a mushy semi-science (anthropology). For the past 6 months, I have been looking for a new job, one that will be satisfying and challenging. I have been working steadily since getting my BA in 1988, even through graduate school. I have excelled at a number of different types of jobs, always earning rave reviews.

Now, without a professional degree, I can't even get an interview for positions which I could do with ease. I suspect this has a lot to do with the sheer volume of job-seekers on the market and the handy shortcut that a professional degree offers the HR person tasked with reading hundreds of resumes. So, despite my fervent belief in liberal arts, I am contemplating a return to school to get a law degree.

[StephanieF24]

With an anthro degree, i assume you have a pretty good understanding how people and society and institutions works....i­magine, if you do go to law school... with all of your knowledge and life experience­.. you can be an excellent lawyer!!! Good luck! :)

[Canubackthatup]

Thanks for writing this. I've been saying for years that learning how to learn is one of the best things one can do to further not only their career life but there personal life as well. Critical thinking and analysis seem to be two areas that are sorely lacking in our society today, and perhaps a return to liberal education and all it offers will help correct this situation. There's nothing wrong with being well rounded.

[bachmantsk]

My thoughts exactly. A Liberal Arts education teaches us to be critical thinkers, to be able to see the big picture and give attention to detail at the same time. It is Obama's way of thinking that got my vote and I'm very encouraged to see that he is choosing to surround himself with others with the same strengths.

[Canubackthatup]

His way of thinking is the major reason why I voted for him and worked so hard to convince others to as well (not the oft made assumption that because I'm black and he's black I would automatically vote for him).

[davism97]

I have doubts that having a B.A. is a sign of possessing a liberal arts education. Education is something a person can get on their own as well. All you need is a genuine interest in knowledge and the discipline to learn it. Sarah Palin has a college degree but who can honestly say that woman is educated (let alone knows anything at all about the liberal arts)?

My point is I don't think it's accurate to correlate a person having a college degree with that person being cultured and enlightened. If a person doesn't have the natural disposition and talent for it, then the liberal arts will bounce off their intellects with no effect.

[JaneSlater]

A good liberal arts education teaches that there are not necessarily two legitimate and equally plausible answers to a question. As an example, carbon dating essentially proves that the fundamentalist viewpoint that human life is only a few thousand years old is plain wrong.

And, MagicMary, I agree that a good liberal arts education prepares one for the "working world" as well. Antioch College, which was shuttered by the Antioch University board of trustees earlier this year, had for many years sent students out into the working world throughout their years of study on co-ops where they gained understanding and expertise in a variety of areas, so that upon graduation they had greater knowledge of their passions and abilities, and also had a practical head start in finding employment via job experience and respectable resumes.

Non-Stop in Yellow Springs, Ohio is working in conjunction with College alumni to work out a deal with Antioch University to bring back Antioch College, the mother of the whole university. Funding by donors is essential, since undergraduate liberal arts programs are certainly not a profit-making endeavor.

Profit is not the goal!

Jane Slater