First off- MS Fowler - you DO sound like a liberal, Apply for a teaching position now =)

TehDon - No offense dude, but I could not disagree more, but no matter how many examples I pull out, you wouldn't buy it until you see it yourself. just find out who an "industrial designer" is and find a company without any of them =)



To directly address your point Kerry, I'd argue that the classes taught in college do not teach you as much as the time spent in college. Time spent broadening your horizons in a "broad-based curriculum". Time spent cleaning up after friends, time spent hurting peoples emotions and seeing the aftermath (college affords unique oppurtunities for this)

I was an engineering technology major who took all the accursed=) history and art classes and while I didn't enjoy them, I got through it because it was required- I now believe that there is learning in this. Beyond just the facts that you learn (about history or art) you learn that there is ***always*** more to your world than you think. And if you look around, you'll find that those outside worlds (art/music/history/human psychology) affect your current world more and more each day.
You can close your world in, forget art (a life without beauty or creative expression?) forget history (repeat the same mistakes!) and human psychology (not get along well with others...) but your life will be worse for it.

More to the point again...

Does it make you better prepared to live in a democratic society ? yes. It opens your world, and if you choose to keep your world open, then you can fully understand/appreciate the struggle/work to change the democratic society that you are in (because, presumably, in a non-democratic society, you dont have the freedom to work for changes) You can just as easily keep your mind closed, and have no more effect on the world than the non-college educated guy.
I guess that you could say that a broad-based college curriculum has a synergistic effect with people in democratic societies that when combined, produces a person more capable of effecting positive change than a non-college educated person. hmm....I think I like that definition. I'm open to rebuttal on that one since I just penned it.

College opens eyes. Keep the liberal artsy fartsy classes intact, our brains depend on it.

-John

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