It was my privilege as an undergraduate to attend an “elite liberal arts institution.” Although during college I largely took it for granted, I have many times since graduating had occasion to reflect on the gifts that education bestowed. There was little in my education that was “practical” in the sense of my learning how to do something that might lead directly to a job. It was unfocused, broad, and deep, ranging from calculus to Chinese pottery, from European history to religious ethics and existentialist philosophy. I took nearly as many literature courses as psychology, my chosen major. My professors eschewed textbooks for original sources; I probably read on average 20-25 books and wrote 80-100 pages a semester.

By contrast, my graduate education was focused and narrow, preparing me for a professional career as a clinical psychologist and researcher. It was in graduate school that I first reflected on the advantages of my broad liberal education: the ability to think critically, the ability to express ideas easily in written or oral communication, the ability to connect ideas to their deep cultural roots and evaluate them within a broad context that transcends discipline and genre, connecting, for example, common themes across literature, science, and religion to my own work in psychology. My only regret in these reflections is my limited education in the natural sciences; I wish my education had been even broader! These gifts I gained, and the gifts I missed out on because there is never enough time to study everything, are among the benefits of a liberal education.

Our society appears to affirm the value of the liberal education offered by “elite” institutions. While the children of the wealthy are competing to get into these schools, and top employers show up at graduation time to recruit their graduates, however, many state institutions are facing a rising challenge to the notion of a liberal education. Our country’s system of state-supported higher education has afforded the children of less advantaged citizens the opportunity to study the practical arts of agriculture, engineering, and business, certainly, but it has also provided rich environments where those same students can learn critical thinking and effective communication skills, develop an appreciation of the arts and the history of our own and other cultures, understand our world through the study of science and mathematics, and explore ethics and philosophical thought. These foundational skills are essential for individuals in all walks of life to succeed in our diverse and rapidly changing world. With these skills, they can become members of an engaged and creative citizenry that has the breadth and flexibility to steer our communities through the rest of this century.

I have taught at the University of Louisville for 29 years, and in those years I have been fortunate to get to know a broadly diverse group of students with interests as diverse as their backgrounds and talents, finding their way in majors as disparate as art and biology. Many did not have a ready plan for a career when they graduated, and perhaps lived at home or otherwise struggled a little for a year or two afterwards, because it takes a little time to figure out how to change the world. I hope that a narrow definition of “practical education” does not get in their way. By continuing to promote and nurture the liberal arts for all college students, we keep high quality public education available to everyone, and our community, our state, and our country will be the better for it.

More perspectives on Liberal Arts