Defending a liberal arts education

The liberal arts face a perfect storm. The economy is struggling with obscenely high unemployment and is mired in massive federal and state deficits. Budget-cutting won't spare education.

The public is already angry over fraud, waste and incompetence in our schools and universities. And in these tough times, taxpayers rightly question everything about traditional education -- from teacher unions and faculty tenure to the secrecy of university admissions policies and which courses really need to be taught.

Opportunistic private trade schools have sprouted in every community, offering online certification in practical skills without the frills and costs of so-called liberal arts "electives."



Read more at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/26/105678/commentary-defending-a-liberal.html#ixzz19EDilE8v

a lot of things - today we are teaching specialists not citizens.

The concept of the liberal arts education and "humanitas" extends back to the Greeks and Romans. It was lost for a long period, then resurrected in the early renaissance to form the basic core of western ideas on what education is. Simply put, a well rounded education - including the arts, sciences and physical sports - makes for well rounded individuals: full members of humanity, with the ability and opportunity to live and think up to their best potential.

Its easy to see how the choices forced upon societies by limited resources affect good intentions - for the most part a liberal education has historically only been available to the wealthy and privileged. The notion of "elitism" is perhaps best understood if you take this into account. It is to the great credit of western societies that the past 80 years or so have been so effective at making a liberal arts education available to most, but clearly the pendulum has been swinging in the other direction for some time. As we are losing the battle, we can still be realistic about what is being lost.

In my own community every year for the past decade at least has seen cuts in education, which largely eliminate the arts, sports, and music. While education declines, my taxes nevertheless fund large increases in law enforcement and road building programs. Ignorance builds ignorance, and we slide down the slope...

But this seems like a good article that the left can agree with. I'm reading his history book Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power right now as someone else in one of my college classes was reading it too. That book is great stuff right there. I wouldn't approach Hanson's political books though, but I'm sure he's an expert on Greek history.

Further down the article though he attacks multiculturalism:



But the following paragraph right there is a smashing good point:

THAT is its primary value. You learn logical reasoning skills and can understand errors in logic, which make you a better citizen (certainly a more informed citizen).