12B: Liberal Arts

What are the benefits of having a liberal arts education?

A liberal arts education is very important.  This type of education can help you get a job, create a new job, expand your knowledge, and prepare you for the changing world.  This statement is supported by several of this weeks reading assignments.  

According to Tony Wagner, the Harvard education specialist, “We can teach new hires the content, and we will have to because it continues to change, but we can’t teach them how to think — to ask the right questions — and to take initiative.”  Thomas L. Friedman quoted Wagner a lot, throughout his article, “Need a job? Invent one.”  All throughout, they discuss how difficult it is for recent college graduates to not only get a job but, to keep one.  Wagner feels that people with the ability to think critically and come up with new and creative ideas will be able to keep a job for longer or, be able to create a new type of job that allows them to excel.  By the time a student in a Liberal Arts education system graduates, they should be able to think critically and creatively.  That is the main goal of a Liberal Arts education.  

In the article, “Liberal Arts Education and the ‘know-nothing’ Bandwagon”, the author discusses a lecture she gave in China. They are very interested in this type of an education because, they mainly have a specialized education system that prepares students for jobs, “Yesterday's jobs, I tend to think.”  The author mentions that a specialized education system will only give you the traits to survive a specific job; “just the kinds of traits that will doom one to irrelevance in the contemporary culture and society.”   With this  statement, she expresses the complete uselessness of only mastering traits and skills that will only benefit you in only one aspect of your life.  It doesn’t allow you to grow with the changing jobs, or help you hold an informative, intellectual conversation.