I feel very strongly about this article and the problem it highlights: mainly that our society has and continues to undervalue liberal arts educations. I personally would not be where I am at (as an academic) or even half the person I am today without the well-rounded liberal arts experience that I had at Furman University. Even with a very clear idea of what I wanted to study (international politics mainly), I was still able to experiment and experience what other areas of study had to offer. In the process, I learned an awful lot about myself and about how to converse and think about a wide-range of things. I can now appreciate music with more vigor and enthusiasm than before I studied music appreciation. I can now read journal articles about volcanoes and meteorology (two guilty pleasures) and see value in understanding the science and hard work behind the studies they produce. I was also fortunate to find a fairly large community of peers and mentors (primarily faculty) who helped shape who I am and whom I still count as friends and colleagues even today. Having experienced a different environment at UGA, where we have classes for over 300 students and one professor and where it is easy to be just another ‘face in the crowd,’ I can better appreciate how special it was to have classes with only 4 students and a professor and where I could sit and chat with a professor for 3 hours about nothing in particular without feeling like they wanted me to move on so they could get to the next 10 students.
I am completely on board with finding a better way to convey what a liberal arts education can offer to society and to the workforce. I think this is important not just for me personally, but for our society in general. The day our citizens begin to lose the ability to critically think and engage with each other over a variety of topics and problems is the day that our values of democracy and freedom might not matter anymore…
Matthew Q. Clary, PhD 