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President Ruscio on the Liberal Arts and Job Preparation

In an opinion piece published on Wednesday (Sept. 19) in the Christian Science Monitor, Washington and Lee President Kenneth P. Ruscio writes that the liberal arts is the best preparation for a career.

The essay begins: “Questions about the value and future of an American liberal arts education are hardly a new phenomenon. But the Great Recession has led to a cottage industry in books and articles that pit the need to educate students for lives of virtue, which is the traditional focus of the liberal arts, against the increasing need to prepare students for careers and jobs.”

Adds President Ruscio: “If ever there was a time to emphasize a classic liberal arts education – more than distributing information or training for specific jobs – this is it. Students today can easily find information. The challenge is making sense of the whole, finding connections, dealing with complexity.”

The entire piece can be read on the Monitor’s website.