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Steve Jobs touts Liberal Arts

In a down economy Apple somehow keeps beating Wall Street's expectations. How do they do it? According to Steve Jobs, the liberal arts play a big role. For example, concerning their new breakthrough iPad, Jobs says: "The reason that Apple is able to create products like iPad is because we always try to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both."  Read more here: 

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/01/live-from-apples-event-in-san-francisco/1

Employers want broader skill sets provided by the Liberal Arts

From today's Chronicle of Higher Education: "The employer survey, conducted by Hart Research Associates, asked 302 employers about specific emerging educational practices and their value in helping prepare college students for success." If you have a subscription, read about them here: http://chronicle.com/article/Narrow-Skills-Training-Wont/63665/

The gist of the article is that students need more of the skills provided by a liberal arts education, such as problem-solving, critical analysis, research and communication. The key, however, is to be able to demonstrate these skills through a significant senior project and/or an internship.

A Job or an Education? What are you paying for?

Given the costs of higher education, parents and students often think of college as a means to an end: the job. Students tend to choose (or are pushed into) majors promising immediate and tangible monetary rewards. Such choices obviously make sense, but they can lead to short-sightedness, especially when students look upon the liberal arts or general education courses skeptically as "fluff" or "obstacles" to graduation.

Research shows that vocational skills learned in job-oriented majors quickly become obsolete. In order to succeed over the long term, other, less tangibly marketable skills are required.

Career advising expert Sheila Curren argues that the humanities are best suited to transmit the lifelong career skills the market will be needing over the next few decades. She lists some of them here:

http://curranoncareers.com/careers-the-college-grad-whats-a-liberal-education-got-to-do-with-it/

U.S. business is run by CEOs with degrees in everything from atmospheric physics to French

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner double majored in English and theatre. With the benefit of hindsight, he also encouraged his 3 sons to study the liberal arts. Why? Listen to Eisner: "Literature is unbelievably helpful because no matter what business you are in, you are dealing with interpersonal relationships. . . . It gives you an appreciation of what makes people tick." Read here about other business leaders who claim that the humanities were the key to their long-term success: home.honolulu.hawaii.edu/~pine/libart/ceolibarts.html