Spring Break
If A&M wants to improve rankings it must strengthen liberal arts
By: Tim Aylsworth
Issue date: 4/21/05 Section: Opinion
Liberal arts play a vital role in the higher education system. All Ivy League universities have a strong foundation in liberal arts. The study of humanities played a great role in the earliest American institutions of higher education, such as Harvard and The College of William and Mary. Texas A&M President Robert M. Gates should take liberal arts into greater account with Vision 2020 if he really desires to make A&M a top-ranked University.
The attitude regarding higher education is one of immediate pragmatism. If a student wants to be an engineer, he studies engineering. If he wants to work in agriculture, he studies agriculture. Sociology and anthropology don't directly affect this student. There isn't anything fundamentally wrong with this idea; this type of study is an essential part of a successful society. Workers must be trained and knowledgeable in their fields. However, it should be noted that this is a complete departure from what is traditionally known as higher education.
This role in society was historically filled with systems such as apprenticeships. Trades were learned this way, and higher education usually dealt with the humanities. Society used to believe that an education in the humanities would lay an excellent foundation for any future positions. This attitude no longer holds true.
Woe to the student who goes home to tell his parents that he has made the change from nuclear engineering to liberal arts. After his parents' laughter subsides, he will likely take an enormous amount of flak. They will probably lecture him about his future. They will tell him that they don't want to pay for a worthless degree, and they will interrogate him about the possible job opportunities that a liberal arts degree entails.
John Newman claimed in his book "The Idea of a University" that a liberal arts degree opens the door to nearly any position. According to Newman, "General culture of mind is the best aid to professional and scientific study, and the man who has learned to think and to reason and to compare and to discriminate and to analyze will not indeed at once be a lawyer, or a statesman, or a physician, or a good landlord or a man of business - but he will be placed in that state of intellect in which he can take up any one of the sciences or callings."
The attitude regarding higher education is one of immediate pragmatism. If a student wants to be an engineer, he studies engineering. If he wants to work in agriculture, he studies agriculture. Sociology and anthropology don't directly affect this student. There isn't anything fundamentally wrong with this idea; this type of study is an essential part of a successful society. Workers must be trained and knowledgeable in their fields. However, it should be noted that this is a complete departure from what is traditionally known as higher education.
This role in society was historically filled with systems such as apprenticeships. Trades were learned this way, and higher education usually dealt with the humanities. Society used to believe that an education in the humanities would lay an excellent foundation for any future positions. This attitude no longer holds true.
Woe to the student who goes home to tell his parents that he has made the change from nuclear engineering to liberal arts. After his parents' laughter subsides, he will likely take an enormous amount of flak. They will probably lecture him about his future. They will tell him that they don't want to pay for a worthless degree, and they will interrogate him about the possible job opportunities that a liberal arts degree entails.
John Newman claimed in his book "The Idea of a University" that a liberal arts degree opens the door to nearly any position. According to Newman, "General culture of mind is the best aid to professional and scientific study, and the man who has learned to think and to reason and to compare and to discriminate and to analyze will not indeed at once be a lawyer, or a statesman, or a physician, or a good landlord or a man of business - but he will be placed in that state of intellect in which he can take up any one of the sciences or callings."
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