I *Heart* the Liberal Arts
From a discussion on the New York Times website as the value of a BA
To the Editor:
Charles Murray needs to recognize that the liberal arts degree, at its best, validates its holder as one who has skills needed for some of our biggest jobs.
A good half of the liberal arts curriculum is about thinking analogically. The degree says this person has studied “humane letters” and so knows his or her way around a metaphor: how it opens up vistas, alters viewpoints, both frees and constrains thought and affects decisions.
No one should try to motivate a work force, lead a corporation, plan military strategies or run a government who does not know how a metaphor works.
Math and science, the other half of the liberal arts curriculum, develop skills that are scarce, yet needed, in our society. They are all about knowing a fact from a factoid, reasoning from data to underlying patterns and practical implications, all while feeding careful observation through the strainer of valid logic.
The liberal arts degree says, or should say, here’s someone who has skills we deeply, powerfully, urgently need.
Jacques Jimenez
Stamford, Conn., Dec. 28, 2008
Confession: I love reading the NYTimes.
To the Editor:
Charles Murray needs to recognize that the liberal arts degree, at its best, validates its holder as one who has skills needed for some of our biggest jobs.
A good half of the liberal arts curriculum is about thinking analogically. The degree says this person has studied “humane letters” and so knows his or her way around a metaphor: how it opens up vistas, alters viewpoints, both frees and constrains thought and affects decisions.
No one should try to motivate a work force, lead a corporation, plan military strategies or run a government who does not know how a metaphor works.
Math and science, the other half of the liberal arts curriculum, develop skills that are scarce, yet needed, in our society. They are all about knowing a fact from a factoid, reasoning from data to underlying patterns and practical implications, all while feeding careful observation through the strainer of valid logic.
The liberal arts degree says, or should say, here’s someone who has skills we deeply, powerfully, urgently need.
Jacques Jimenez
Stamford, Conn., Dec. 28, 2008
Confession: I love reading the NYTimes.
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