In Defense of a Liberal Education

[dewisant]

The liberal arts are under attack. Politicians have taken the lead in questioning the worth of humanities degrees for the nation's workforce. Majors like English and history, once very popular and highly respected, are now in steep decline. But this heavy vocational focus is shortsighted and needlessly limiting. Manufacturing jobs get automated or outsourced, and specific vocational knowledge is often outdated within a few years. To succeed today, you need creativity, lateral thinking, communication skills, and more than anything, the ability to keep learning--precisely the gifts of a liberal education. And with technology opening up public access to courses worldwide, these gifts can now be shared with millions. We are actually at the dawn of the greatest expansion of Liberal education in human history. From back cover of book by Fareed Zakaria.