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In keeping abreast of my discipline, I read diverse materials, from magazines to newspapers, corporate reports, literature, Web pages and employment perspectives. I even read happily about math and statistics so I might better understand these disciplines.
Recently, I have been happy to read of the positive effect and importance of a liberal arts background as a feature of the best employees working for business, spanning technology-related industry to medicine and beyond.
What makes me happiest, I think, is that even people who do not share my philosophical perspectives also see that liberal arts are central and necessary to our culture and to business.
In fact, I was delighted to discover conservative George Will explaining, "The term 'liberal arts' connotes a certain elevation above utilitarian concerns. Yet liberal education is intensely useful."
These subjects of study are by definition "proper to free persons -- Latin art?s, pl. of Latin ars, art-, subject of study + l?ber?l?s, pl. of l?ber?lis, proper to free persons" (Wiki). Perusing the Clark University career pages, I likewise found that they cite influential business people who recognize the value of the liberal arts background: "Roger E. Herman, a strategic business futurist, in his article titled 'Liberal Arts: The Key to the Future,' found that employers recognize the importance of Liberal Arts Curriculum that places value in critical and creative writing, speaking and critical thought."
The Web site goes even further, including Herman's observation describing a central concern of employers: "Too many of their employees have serious difficulty constructing written sentences and producing quality memos, letters and reports."
Herman's article, "The Case for the Liberal Arts," instructs the reader that the value of liberal arts study provides the student, and later the successful employee experience in developing knowledge, skills, background and insight central to independent and critical judgments.
Minnesota-based Iseek, a Web gateway for career information, cites an AT&T survey that finds that liberal arts majors advance more quickly to middle and senior management positions than those who studied other disciplines in college.
AT&T is one of San Antonio's leading employers. Their survey reflects what employers already know: A liberal arts education equips graduates with skills they need to be successful, like critical thinking, understanding references to other fields of study, appreciation for unique ideas and innovations.
Joanne V. Creighton, in a 1999 column in the Sunday Republican, wrote, "If we are to navigate skillfully the turbulent changes of the 21st century, we must educate students not only to process information effectively, but to think wisely and well. To my mind, nothing fosters that end better than a liberal arts education."
Creighton goes on to assert that a liberal arts "education at its best is, in fact, revolutionary. It transforms students; it awakens them to a fuller life of the mind; it causes them to question their goals and values; it makes them better companions to themselves."
Creighton further cites what John Cardinal Newman defines as a "philosophical habit of mind, a skepticism, a confidence in the powers of one's own mind, a self-reliance, which are useful in all sorts of practical and pragmatic ways, and these qualities inform the best kind of democratic citizenry." My beloved office mate Carol Coffee Reposa discusses this perspective precisely, often citing Newman's perspective.
Even students who pursue careers in crime-scene analysis are encouraged to take liberal arts, in particular literature, which fosters research and analytical skills, along with analyses of influences, movements and philosophies which are reflected in the literatures of the world.
Donald Kagan defines one concern about liberal education that our colleges are subject to: "From Cicero's artes liberals to the trivium and quadrivium of the medieval schoolmen, to the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance humanists, to Cardinal Newman's definition in his Idea of a University, to the attempts at common curricula in the first half of this century, to the chaotic cafeteria that passes for a curriculum in most American universities today, the concept has suffered from vagueness, confusion and contradiction."
In Richard Hersh's essay, "Liberal Arts Colleges: Taking the Lead on Assessment and Accountability," he recognizes contradictions, noting that "appropriate and timely assessment of learning is a powerful force for teaching and learning. This is true at any level of learning - in schools, colleges and universities; large and small; public and private. Moreover, I suggest, because small liberal arts colleges claim to have the most powerful liberal education learning cultures, the richest heritage of critical inquiry, and superior curricular and pedagogical prowess, they should take the lead in assessing liberal learning. Such learning assessment can best meet head-on the cries of the vocational philistines now calling the relevance of liberal education into question."
The best and most appreciable institutions require their students to be challenged to read, think and write across the disciplines, and rely on liberal arts courses to deliver improvement in each approach.
Baruch College of Business requires each of its majors to successfully complete coursework in Great Works of Literature.
Apparently this institution is firm in its understanding that culture and values are best understood through the belief that literature is what can change or shape the world and our ideas about our place in it.
I am delighted each time I hear from a sophomore literature student that through our study - pick a literature course - the perspectives studied in political science, history and philosophy are put into perspective.
Even art students begin to make connections beyond the studies of art appreciation when they link the cultural approaches of art to the world through literature.
One of my students, who now has earned a master's degree in chemistry, noted that she found the magic in her beloved discipline through our study together in the first half of British literature.
I'm no Pollyanna.
I know that we need to prove and reprove what so many practitioners of the liberal arts already know.
As Hersh writes, "Each type of college and university - community colleges, comprehensive universities, research universities, online programs, and small liberal arts colleges - (must offer) a rationale for their ability to provide a superior liberal education."
In the ACC, perhaps we might best serve our students by continuing to embrace the complete multi-disciplinary focus of the liberal arts, all of them.
Jane Focht-Hansen is an English instructor at this college.
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