Business Education Lesson, La Education: Essential In Business World

Q: I know that a liberal arts base DOES serve well in companies...all kinds of large organizations. From the State Department to Microsoft , liberal arts majors do well. I completely believe this. The thing is...not everyone is cut out for a liberal arts degree. Most people probably SHOULD take a more technical approach to college...especially if they don't thrive on learning. But, the people who enjoy school and see it more as a process than a way to reach the 'goal' these people should definitely consider a liberal arts degree. They won't be sorry.

A:Right. I have witnessed use of the LA mantra that is just a cover up for mediocrity. Everybody knows that liberal arts shouldn't include all humanities. That is much too broad to superpurists. For example, they exclude American Lit (we don't have any) but must include Greek and Latin. Some of these LA fanatics also assume that all LA majors are equivalent in developing "critical thinking" (a euphemism in PC-speak for unstructured, lower-level analysis that avoids data analysis or formal theory). Students know differently. A major such as history consisting of courses with no prerequisites cannot approach the depth of sophisticated thought as an undergrad physics course with 24 prereqs. That's why even doctoral-level courses in some fields are at far lower level than some undergrad courses in science, engineering, econ, or math. As for MIT and Vest, I don't believe MIT provides top quality humanities courses. The offerings are slim and the quality does not appear to be there. OTOH, their engineering and business courses are top notch. An MIT student truly interested in humanities is better served by taking humanities courses at that other school in Cambridge. (My judgment of MIT's classes is based on personal observation on several Parent's Weekends. This was not influenced by Vest's positions on terrorism and Affirmative Discrimination.)

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