Education can stay balanced

By The Daily Progress

Published: October 1, 2008

No doubt about it: Virginia’s high school graduates must be more technologically competent than ever, if the U.S. workforce is to keep up with emerging nations such as India and China.

That’s the message that Robert Leber, chairman of the Virginia Workforce Council, delivered to the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce last week.
But we run huge risks, economically and educationally, if we achieve that goal by undercutting liberal arts learning.

After all, America doesn’t just want graduates who can run technology.
We want graduates who can create new technologies.
We want graduates who can dream up new products and services, who can think insightfully about problems and solutions.
And the ability to think is, ultimately, what a liberal arts education is all about.

Not that Mr. Leber was proposing that we jettison reading and writing from the curriculum. Indeed, he agrees that Virginia students need to be well-rounded.
And it must be noted that we are talking primarily about students in the K-12 system, not necessarily about the products of our colleges and universities.
Many students would be better served if schools better prepared them for well-paying jobs in the trades. Society would be better served if more good technicians — from plumbers to mechanics to computer repairers — were available.
Still, we must be careful in implying that these students don’t need to read “The Great Gatsby” or write “a well-structured paragraph.”
The purpose of reading isn’t just to pass a “Great Gatsby” test, but rather to learn to think deeply about profound subjects. The purpose of writing a sound paragraph isn’t just to pass a grammar test, but rather to learn to communicate clearly.

These are basic skills that everyone needs.

This very issue can, in fact, be cast in technical terms.
Every time we are compelled to learn a new fact, or are exposed to a new experience, or are required to process a new problem, new neural pathways are developed in the brain. This is like adding highway infrastructure; the more roadways in existence, the easier it is to find the right path to a particular destination.
To carry the metaphor further, sometimes even the detours are productive. Breakthroughs of invention and creativity result from trying something new. But the foundation has to be there; the ability to look at old problems in new ways has to have been nurtured.

Liberal arts education does that.

A second advantage to liberal arts education is this: It prepares students to be citizens. The value of programs such as history or civics is obvious. But simply the ability to think — and to read — is requisite for the citizenry of a democracy. Without being able to reason, to weigh competing policies, to judge politicians on their substance rather than their emotive style, voters cannot choose wisely. They will not even know what the choices are.
There’s no need to belabor the point: In a community that hosts the University of Virginia, surely we understand the need for liberal arts learning and, in this day and age, technical training.

Let’s just make sure we hit the right balance. Undercutting the liberal arts would be shortsighted and unsafe.