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

[Evelyn]

I agree with the premise of this article, and would have found it really important had the author included some examples of what the various new members of the Obama administration had studied and where.

[TrollDiddy]

I went to a hardcore engineer school for college (though I majored in Computer Science). I didn't have a lot of room for lib arts classes, but the ones I did expanded my mind in ways that wouldn't have occurred otherwise.

Anyhow... there was a joke we used to tell back at school:

An scientist asks, "Why does it work?"

An engineer asks, "How can I build it?"

A business major asks, "How much does it cost?"

A liberal arts major asks, "Would you like fries with that?"

:-)

[MagisterLudi]

Q:What is the difference between the "normal" vs. an assertive engineer?

A; When talking, the assertive engineer stares at your shoes instead of his own.

[TrollDiddy]

LOL!!! true story

[formerprosecutor]

Here is my nutshell experience with those with and without a liberal arts education (whether self taught or not)

"Aye, first we will kill all the lawyers"

The ones that think Shakespeare hated lawyers and that the line was anti-lawyer are the ones without a fundamental liberal arts education.

I have spent a noticable amount of time refuting the negative connatation. (we all have our pet peeves)

[Whitehouse]

I read Larry King's Future Talk about the (at the time) coming "new century" in 2000 and there was a quote from Maya Angelo about a liberal arts education. She said, and I'm paraphrasing, that liberal arts is the last kind of class a school board should cut because it allows a student to see the big picture and to be able to have conversations with people they normally wouldn't talk to.

[formerprosecutor]

...and perhaps even understand the "other" prespective.

[squander123]

It does seem ironic that this article contains sentiments which belie the principles and skills which ought to be instilled by a rigourous liberal arts education. Some of the benefits of such an education ought to be critical thinking, logical reasoning and accurate use of language. And yet the article contains the statement: "one of the great advantages of America is its peerless higher education system", which is clearly wrong. The US higher education system is typically good, sometimes excellent. But 'peerless'? Hardly.

This kind of thing may seem small and insignificant. But it's not. A refusal to acknowledge the benefits of other societies and systems (in education as in other things) will do Americans no favours in the long run.

[formerprosecutor]

"peerless" was tad overstated

[Canubackthatup]

I see that as his opinion, not evidence that belies the same principles and skills that he's espousing. A liberal arts education doesn't preclude you from having an opinion AFTER you've looked at the big picture with an open mind.

[JustThisGuy]

but it should leave you open minded enough to not write an article saying 'my way is the one true way for everyone', and as I read other comments, apparently offend a good number of engineers and people with techical educations.

It is easy to look from the outside and say: I can do that. Some smart and driven people do. The Professional Engineer from a prior comment from a liberal arts back ground is one example, but I good friend of my mom's from engineering school teaches Shakespear at a major Brittish Univercity. There is a difference between dabbling, learning the fundimentals, and learning a subject in depth.

[squander123]

The sentence was not grammatica­lly-constr­ucted to indicate that it was the author's personal opinion: indeed, much of the rest of the article is predicated upon accepting that statement as 'fact'.

And anyway, one of the most important results of a university education (in humanities or science) should be that you base your 'personal' opinions upon evidence and are always alert to the dangers of unquestioned assumptions, rather than expressing opinions which are unsubstantiated claims or just rants. And in the case of the US higher education system, good though it may be in the main, the claim that it is 'peerless' is quite clearly not supported by evidence. Dozens of other countries' university systems have valid claims to be the 'peers' of the US system.

No other free society that I know of seems so prone to assuming that its way in all things is 'the best'. Finland admires the British education system, the British admire the French health system, the French discuss whether German transport policies are better than theirs, etc etc. One of the (many) reasons for this, of course, are higher education systems which encourage critical thinking rather than unquestioned 'patriotism'. Which is precisely why those countries have education systems which are the 'peers' of the US system.

[Lionsden]

This ignores the near complete control of the left at liberal arts at colleges and universities. There, one is very often graded according to whether or not one adheres to leftist ideology. So many books have been written about this subject, it's hard to believe it wasn't mentioned. There is very little that is "liberal" in liberal arts if scholarship is reduced to ideology and intimidation.

This is why groups like Accuracy in Academia, and Students for Acadmic Freedom have sprung up. Thomas Sowell has written extensively about the corruption of "thought" at colleges and universites and their liberal arts departments.

A perfect example of the intolerance of the left at college is what happened to Larry Summers at Harvard. Differing opinions are punishable offenses by the left at colleges and universities as there is hardly anything "liberal' about them.

One knows exactly, ahead of time, what most students of the liberal arts think because they think basically the same way about a handful of issues. There is no moving them from their limited set of ideas.

Wisdom is very hard to teach and with the closed-mindedness of the left, almost impossible to achieve.

[formerprosecutor]

This "statement" is so flawed and inaccurate, it is almost impossible to address.

[Davwbaird]

wow falwell's school is a perfect example of bigot bias

[Paulo1]

Oh my, I tend to agree that this level of ignorance is almost beyond a reply, but there is always hope and I spent the morning sharpening my pen.

The sad truth sir is that the reason the so called Right claims that the Left has a hold on Liberal Arts schools is that the foundation of Liberalism is Reason and not dogma. As the student learns to think for themselves it is natural progression to abandoning the trite slogans, useless appeals to postcard values and petty prejudice that is the core of todays right wing. You will find plenty of old fashioned Rockefeller Republicans and Barry Goldwater Conservatives in Liberal Arts programs. What you won't find is a lot of Neo-con conservatives or Religious Right. The Religious Right tends to drop when confronted with a good Ethics class or a course in Philosophy. The Neo-Cons go even quicker when they take a Poli Sci class and are given the correct definition of Fascist.

[formerprosecutor]

My thanks for the effort responding to this comment; just reading it wore me out. In law school a student filed a complaint of a "liberal professor" after the student was "Socratically " challenged by the professor in contracts class, after the student stated that "poor people should have to pay higher interest because they don't pay their bills". Challenging the student to support his statement through argument was seen by the student as an attack against conservatives by a "liberal" professor. FYI that professor was and is a Republican, but evidently not right wing enough.

[GoCards1978]

Amen, Paul01. Heaven forbid confronting neocons with the truth attached to consequences (a grade). That has been their problem all along. We live in a society that becomes more diverse on a daily basis. Groupthink is incapable of producing the creativity required for the solutions necessary to dig us out of their mess. It eliminates the ability to see the big picture. I had professors who spanned the political spectrum during my four years at the University of Louisville and I graduated 30 years ago. Adults who lack critical thinking skills limit their own potential. Our kids deserve better from us.

[Lionsden]

Paulo1:

Leading lights of theNeoCon movement and their Liberal Arts Degrees:

Norman Podhoretz (father of Neoconservatism): BA from Columbia University, Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Cambridge University, England (as a Fulbright Scholar and a Kellett Fellow.) Bachelor’s degree, Hebrew Literature, Jewish Theological Seminary.

Bill Bennett: Williams College, University of Texas (Ph.D.) in Philosophy, law degree from Harvard.

Bill Kristol: magna cum laude, government, Harvard University, doctoral degree political science, Harvard University.

Michael Savage: 2BA's: Education and Sociology at Queens College, 2 Masters: Ethnobotony and Anthropology, U of Hawaii, Phd, Nutritional Ethnomedicine at U.of California Berkeley.

Laura Ingraham: BA Dartmouth, English and Russian, Law degree from University of Virginia School of Law.

BARRY GOLDWATER SR. : NO COLLEGE DEGREE


This is just a small sampling, of course.

If leftists, democrats, or progressives used more logic and rational thought in their daily lives and postings at websites, they might not make so many inaccurate statements about others.

It is good you write in pencil; it is easier to erase.

[BlackYowe]

My education means everything to me and I would not have the confidence I have without it. I studied liberal and fine arts.

[politis]

The "Liberal" in Liberal Arts comes from the root of freeman as opposed to slave's son. It was the education of the governing classes. Ethnography and comparative religion are not branches of the traditional Liberal Arts. In fact, it's very unclear what people and academic institutions mean when they talk about a Liberal Arts education today. I think they mean some kind of broad and vaguely humanistic education where a student learns to think for him/herself. That's an ideal but it's not a curriculum.

[dsrtdwler]

I spent a quarter of a million dollars (mostly in student loans) and got a degree in Contemporary Literature, Criticism and Politics. I still believe my work was worth a million, and I would do it again and again.

It’s sad that today American’s believe reading literature and learning history do not qualify as “real knowledge.­” Get back to me when this civilization is failing a bit more, and let us see if a few classics wouldn’t have helped.

Just because there isn’t a niche for me to enter fresh out of school, so I can climb that ladder of capital, doesn’t mean I don’t understand how the world works, or have no function in this society.

[rucognizant]

Profound!

[formerprosecutor]

I have seen "real education" (such as yours)so undervalued in the last ten years by employers, that it is shocking. I consistantly see people like yourself rejected and people with 2 year "technical degrees" placed in positions that require the ability to reason and problem solve that just don't come from their limited education. Dumb never likes Smart. We need to turn that around. Society might shift, now that we have a "really smart" President. Perhaps education will be in "fashion" again.

[Canubackthatup]

Interesting how the tendency for employers to bypass the liberally educated in whom they can't see the easy dollar for the, perhaps, cheaper to hire technically educated seems to correspond to the decline of our society, largely due to greed, that has led us to the mess we're in today. It would make a great topic for someone in a liberal arts college to tackle.

[booksnmore4you]

Digg it: http://digg.com/political_opinion/What_s_a_Liberal_Arts_Education_Good_For

[booksnmore4you]

In 1981 William G. Perry published his important book _Forms of Intellectual and Ethical development in the College Years_. In the work, Perry traces psychological and intellectual development from childhood to adulthood, highlighting five key phases.

I can't offer great detail, but suffice it to say that many who DO NOT undergo a rigorous liberal arts education never mature past phase two.

[formerprosecutor]

I totally agree; having gone through law school with people that had business degrees, I can tell you they had a very difficult time understanding the philosophy and the development of civilization from which society, law, and justice evolved. And forget critical reasoning. They just wanted to memorize statutes. The Socractic method made them defensive and resistant to any ideas they didn't already embrace. Sad,

[Mildmannered]

sorry, college education is better spent on earning an engineering degree -- we need more engineers and not more liberal arts graduates. plenty of critical thinking and decision making in an engineering education

[Mildmannered]

if an engineering education is not possible, I recommend majoring in Chinese or in Arabic

[ItsJen]

I would agree, except there isn't much room in an engineering degree for all of the liberal arts core. Plus, we really want people who want to excel at Engineering to be engineers. I don't want the C+ student building my bridge, you know?

[prudd]

Another thing a liberal arts degree does - perhaps its most powerful act - is to humanize us. When I think back on the past few years in America, I remember our lives were reduced to a very coarse, fearful level. We were told to believe and fear things and, like lemmings, we cowered and put our heads down and did what we were told. We grew powerless and frightened and helpless and mean. We were very quick to blame other people - people who are not American - and to trumpet our country and our lives.

Liberal arts, whether history, literature, philosophy, theology, are all by definition studies of comparitive cultures. They make us look at the 'other' - the other system of thought, the other race, the other class, the other sex, the other era, the other ideology, the other land, and to understand and appreciate it. When I am taken out of myself through study, I have a new context, my view softens, my life is enriched. Understanding of other people and cultures and ideas makes my own views more complex and intelligent and useful.

So many of these posts question the usefulness of the liberal arts. Consider this: had we a culture that understood the 'other' as the liberal arts teaches us to, would we have so readily demonized Iraq and gone to war eight years ago? I think not. And I think the usefulness of this is pretty obvious when you add up the lives

[rose3030]

Very compelling and thoughtful. Thanks for your insight.

[formerprosecutor]

"the other" is what all disciplines should include, in one form or another

[prudd]

the last sentence is ...

I think not. And I think the usefulness of this is pretty obvious when you add up the lives lost and the money spent.

[Unique71]

I think Liberal Arts Education is a great option for my 17 year old son. Thanks for this informative article.

[mariareads]

Thank you, Michael Roth, for your article.
I agree "our government officials will be deciding where an investment in American economic infrastructure will do the most good", and I will add that we must not let them forget our Public Libraries, "often noted one of the great advantages of America" - also inspiring "admiration around the globe." Public Libraries are "a model for life-long learning that other countries are beginning to emulate."
Everyone, please use your Public Library and brag about it!

[GoCards1978]

That's my favorite haunt in town and I always advertise their excellent service. Librarians were the first citizens to challenge the Bush administration (national security letters).