What A Liberal Education Should Be

Peter Berkowitz made a cogent argument in the WSJ this weekend for restoring and reforming liberal education in our colleges and universities.  He hit the nail on the head by asserting that many students and professors do not understand the proper meaning of a liberal education or its virtues:

Meanwhile, confused faculty and incoherent university curricula encourage students to equate liberal education with studying whatever they please. Education for freedom requires more systematic training.

He then went on to pose a string of serious rhetorical questions defending liberal education, as properly defined:

How can one think independently about what kind of life to live without acquiring familiarity with the ideas about happiness and misery, exaltation and despair, nobility and baseness that study of literature, philosophy and religion bring to life? How can one pass reasoned judgment on public policy if one is ignorant of the principles of constitutional government, the operation of the market, the impact of society on perception and belief and, not least, the competing opinions about justice to which democracy in America is heir?

How can one properly evaluate America’s place in the international order without an appreciation of the history of the rise and fall of nations, and that familiarity with allies and adversaries that comes from serious study of their languages, cultures and beliefs?

There’s no doubt that one of higher education’s primary functions should be to prepare students for successful careers, where they can contribute to the nation’s growing wealth and innovation.  But students also need to be confronted with ideas that help them determine how best to be good citizens leading meaningful lives; these are the timeless ideas of justice, goodness, ethics, beauty, liberty, equality, and culture.  I agree with Berkowitz: Let’s reshape, re-articulate, and redesign liberal education so that society understands how it effectively complements career-based education.  It should be much more than an inchoate string of dull, parochial courses.

Tagged as: Career-Based Education, College Curriculum, Liberal Education, Peter Berkowitz