“Don’t Waste Your Time on Liberal Arts”??

“Debates about the
nature of higher education are often framed by the question of whether
vocational elements or liberal arts elements should dominate in the
curriculum.  This is a mistake.”If you’re a business exec or even a parent thinking about
your kid’s college experience, what kind of recommendations do you have for
high schoolers? Surprisingly, human resource people in the best companies have
also been thinking about this issue–through the lens of the “talent wars”. One
of my long-term clients, a senior exec at General Mills, tells me that they’re engaging
high schoolers so they’ll be potential hires after college. They have to deal
with some heavy competition in the Twin Cities—Target, 3M, Best Buy,
Ameriprise, etc.—to get the best talent. So what recommendation really, really,
really makes for the best talent and best education? Until now, there’s been no
easy answer to that question.Of course, there’s
a lot of warring in the blogosphere about college majors. Which major makes the
most money? Which major is a death sentence? Should you waste your time in
liberal arts? What are labor suppliers recommending? Well, tongue in cheek,
there’s only one obvious conclusion: if the kid is devoting more time to sports
than to academics, there’s a 95% chance that his/her future is in jeopardy.Thinking about my
thinkingWhen there’s a lot of “‘tis, ‘taint” arguing over an
important problem, and if there are some strange “outliers” on the subject, be
very careful about drawing significant conclusions. The best way to make sense
of all that is to try to understand the “argument field,” those things the
various actors take for granted, their self-evident truths. Typically, I try to
identify all the possible approaches in the field, approaches that are all over
the map, check out the reasoning, the “knowables,” search, work on or wait for
a resolution of significance. That does not mean I’m just looking for balance
or a middle ground.The argument field for effective higher education is all
over the place. One crazy on the subject of education recommends that students
skip college and let the firm educate them. That notion is not worth dignifying
with a response. Another short-sighted approach comes out of the Florida community
colleges: create a curriculum in vocational specialties that labor demographers
identified as undersupplied in a given location. (Someone needs to remind
Florida that the shelf life for most jobs is only five years. After that,
what’s a student to do?) On top of all the outlying and conventional
recommendations within the argument filed, I want to learn what it is that I
don’t know that I don’t know. That’s tough and often takes a lot of time—and
sometimes it never happens.Lastly, I attempt, sometimes unsuccessfully, to check my bias
at the door before trying to resolve problems. IF you’ve read my blogging much,
you know my bias: the liberal arts. But that approach has a number of caveats. There’s
no direct line between a liberal arts major–except for engineering–and a job.
Liberal arts teachers as a rule don’t know how to prepare their arts majors for
the job market. UTexas, Austin provides a superb exception to the rule.Best Approach  Although the recent Georgetown University report, STEM, is an excellent start on the issue, the problem is now resolved
far, far better. In an absolutely brilliant, big-picture integration, Danielle
Allen resolved the issue for business, family, school counselors, potentially
bankrupt parents and students, and the media. With impeccable credentials, Allen
comes to us from Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, and serves on the
boards of the Mellon Foundation, Princeton University and Amherst College.  Allen’s recommendation, Helping students find their place
in the world, focuses on the big-picture problem of individual development. Her
conclusion is strategic, readily operationalized and in most institutions of
learning possible to a greater or lesser degree. Some of the better K – 12 schools,
colleges and universities make it possible. However, the intentionality which
her focus brings is often absent. But here in thumbnail is her approach. Human
beings, she argues, need to foster their development in four dimensions: Prepare themselves for bread-winning work. In
kindergarten through college years, smart people begin to understand how the
job-world works and what, typically, it takes to get ahead in any vocation. As
the STEM report suggests, that implies some background, perhaps a college
major, in science, technology, engineering or math. But, as Allen comments,
from a bird’s eye view it’s important to enhance people’s freedom to determine
what they’re going to do, not bowing to the market’s focus upon efficient
matching of human capital to the labor market.Prepare themselves for civic and political
engagement. I doubt that this is on the table nearly enough in today’s K
through 12 programs. But former Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Conner has
driven the development of a game-oriented civics program that is having great
success. Some history or political science ought to be a given.Prepare themselves for creative self-expression
and world-making. Just as schools emphasize how to prepare students for
vocation choices, understanding oneself and one’s creative desires to
contribute to the making and remaking of their world is part of being fully
human. And that emphasis has become even more significant as a result of the lengthening
life-span.  Prepare themselves for rewarding relationships
in spaces of intimacy and leisure. Self-knowledge married to relationships of
significance is of high importance for a sense of personal fulfillment—and vocational
choice. That emphasizes communication, psych and sociology competencies.Danielle Allen’s conclusion is spot on: Our contemporary situation demands that we
help our young people find their way by marrying the cultivation of
self-knowledge to a worldly capacity to see practical opportunities. This
requires a curriculum that unifies liberal arts and vocational elements at all
levels.Some references:Danielle Allen, Helping students find their place in the
world, Washington Post, September 23, 2012. This is the original article from
which I’ve copied extensively. Cal Newport, Follow a career passion? Let it follow you.
New York Times, September 29, 2012.Cal Newport, So good they can’t ignore you: why skills
trump passion in the quest for work you love. (New York: Business Plus), 2012.
A new book, terrifically readable, spot on with great advice by the Gen-Y blogger
of Study Hacks (easily the best recommendations for becoming successful
students).Anthony Carnevale, Nicole Smith & Michelle
Melton, Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM). Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University.Liam O’Dea, Liberal Arts and Business: A Power Tool for
Success. August 11, 2009, my Gen-Y protégé’s superb blog on the application of liberal
arts to vocation.Flickr photo: school lockers by hans s
Link to original post

Uncategorized

Leave a Reply