In Defense Of A Liberal Education

The United States is the global home of liberal arts education. However, today many Americans value “skills-based learning” over the liberal arts (16). Many see subjects not tied directly to a specific profession as a waste of time.

Critics of the liberal arts appear across the political spectrum. Liberals consider it “elitist,” while conservatives consider it too “liberal,” even though the term “liberal arts” is unrelated to political liberalism (16). Parents of college students worry about the expense of a liberal education, while students are unsure of how such a degree correlates to a career. The number of liberal arts majors has declined over the last several decades, while enrollments have ballooned, reflecting these concerns. For example, one recent study shows that only one third of undergraduates earn degrees in the liberal arts.

Such concerns did not always exist in American society: “In the 1950s and 1960s, for instance, students saw college as more than a glorified trade school” (17). An education in the liberal arts provided college-educated individuals with social mobility, as society viewed their study as “a gateway to a career” and, for immigrants, “as a way to assimilate into American culture” (17).