Liberal Arts: Portal to Anywhere

President Michael T. Benson of Southern Utah University argues for the economic and civilizational necessity of training today’s youth in the liberal arts, and he does this in an economic and cultural climate increasingly hostile to the humanities and other disciplines whose immediate monetary value is not obvious.

Here are his key points:

“Difficult economic times such as we are in
certainly require job and skill training that can result in immediate
employment, to be sure. Nonetheless, to argue that Utah students
enrolled in more traditional liberal arts programs have nothing to offer
in terms of applicable job skills for the real world reveals an
alarming ignorance of the irreplaceable value of a liberal education.”

“At its core, LEAP (Liberal Education and America’s Promise) states and institutions are
committed to producing graduates with the portable skills necessary to
ensure success in today’s uber-competitive global environment: knowledge
of human cultures and the physical and natural world; intellectual and
practical skills; personal and social responsibility; and integrative
and applied learning.”

more here: http://www.sltrib.com/csp/cms/sites/sltrib/pages/printerfriendly.csp?id=51191320