.png)
We need more engineers, the politicians tell us. How can our
French literature majors compete with the myriad of STEM majors from China,
India, and other emerging powers? The future of our economy depends on a
technically educated workforce, they contend.
 |
| Eric Bush - Class of 2020 |
This argument makes sense and a year ago I would have been
inclined to believe it. During my senior year of high school, I chose to major
in finance largely due to the subject’s practicality. But after a year of
college, while I enjoy my business courses, I’ve realized that my education
would be severely lacking without the liberal arts curriculum I study as a
McConnell Scholar.
The study of the liberal arts – exposing oneself to a wide
variety of disciplines and ideas – may not train students to perform specific
tasks. It does something much more important; it teaches students how to think
critically and how to solve problems. “Education is what’s left when the facts are
gone,” I heard someone say recently. A liberal arts education is versatile. It
develops an adaptable mind.
People in my generation are expected to change jobs 15 times
over the course of our careers. Moreover, artificial intelligence threatens to
radically reshape our workforce. It’s a bad idea to invest heavily in being
able to perform one skill. Rather, we should learn how to be adaptable, how to
improvise, how to learn on the fly. A liberal arts education can provide that.
Beyond practicality, studying liberal arts makes us more
thoughtful, empathetic, and civically engaged. In particular, the study of
great texts provides a unique perspective for how our time fits into a grand
cycle, how we are the culmination of everyone and everything that came before us.
We’re challenged to thoughtfully engage with ideas with which we may not agree,
allowing us to consider the other side and understand different perspectives.
We understand political triumphs and failures and the great statesmen of
history, whose experiences we can apply to our own civil society.
I don’t regret majoring in finance. Along the way I’ve also
picked up a double major in political science, and political science students
could certainly benefit from a business breadth just as business majors could
benefit from the perspective of great thinkers from another time. Technical
education is important for the success of our economy, but disparaging the
liberal arts will, in the fullness of time, prove to be shortsighted.
Eric Bush, of Louisville, Ky., is a sophomore McConnell Scholar studying political science and finance.