In Defense of a Liberal Education
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria argues for a renewed commitment to the world’s most valuable educational tradition. The liberal arts are under attack. The governors of Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have all pledged that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts, and they seem to have an unlikely ally in President Obama. While at a General Electric plant in early 2014, Obama remarked, "I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree." These messages are hitting home: majors like English and history, once very popular and highly respected, are in steep decline. "I get it," writes Fareed Zakaria, recalling the atmosphere in India where he grew up, which was even more obsessed with getting a skills-based education. However, the CNN host and best-selling author explains why this widely held view is mistaken and shortsighted. Zakaria eloquently expounds on the virtues of a liberal arts education—how to write clearly, how to express yourself convincingly, and how to think analytically. He turns our leaders' vocational argument on its head. American routine manufacturing jobs continue to get automated or outsourced, and specific vocational knowledge is often outdated within a few years. Engineering is a great profession, but key value-added skills you will also need are creativity, lateral thinking, design, communication, storytelling, and, more than anything, the ability to continually learn and enjoy learning—precisely the gifts of a liberal education. Zakaria argues that technology is transforming education, opening up access to the best courses and classes in a vast variety of subjects for millions around the world. We are at the dawn of the greatest expansion of the idea of a liberal education in human history.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is an excellent, very readable look at the purpose of education. Fareed Zakaria argues that higher education should be about helping students to think critically, that majors such as art history and anthropology don't only prepare students for the limited positions of art historian and anthropologist but rather open students up to a broad range of possibilities, accessible to them because they are able to use a wide variety of intelligences and look at ideas from multiple angles. This is in contrast to skills-based curriculum, in which students are taught specific skills that will likely be outdated five years after they graduate and prepare them for only a specific field. I certainly understand the importance of students learning technical skills, but what I appreciate about Zakaria's outline of a liberal education is his argument that much like athletes cross-train to become better in their chosen sports, students should cross-train in other fields to become even more prepared for their chosen careers. In addition, Zakaria's chapter on knowledge and power gave me hope in a time when I see power being used without knowledge in very scary ways.
The opening is interesting–how the author chose to study in America instead of India or England, and how the American idea of liberal education is superior to other systems. But then he reverses course and repeats the standard criticisms of American universities. While the book raises important questions, overall it is rather an incoherent jumble.
