A reader, John Taylor, asked me what I thought about liberal arts education today. I sent him a quick response, to which he said, "Great answer," so I'm posting it here.
I am concerned about four things regarding a liberal
art education as dispensed today:
1. The absolute censorship of right-of-center
thinking
2. How bad a job that university professors do of
teaching. By talent, predilection, and reward, most faculty are about research,
scholarship, graduate students, and undergraduates, in that order.
3. The focus on theoretical models and creating liberal activists rather than on what should be the true purposes of a liberal arts education: actual critical thinking (not all wisdom resides left of center) and an exploration of life's universals: love, materialism, fear, work, beauty, the meaning of life, etc.
4. The near-open admission policy at the vast
majority of colleges and universities that forces professors to dumb-down instruction. A
college degree is now, in most institutions, evidence of very little.
