Marty reads this article and responds, "I don't believe it." The reason he doesn't believe 'it' -- that a liberal arts education can prepare you for a profession in business or health -- is probably that his conception of a liberal arts education doesn't involve the things on the list of what the article says a liberal arts education does:

• the theoretical knowledge to analyze information and solve problems in any discipline
• the flexibility to cope with change successfully
• the ability to communicate in today's culturally diverse workplace
• the skills to teach, lead, and serve others via highly developed insight, understanding, and tolerance.

In order to analyze information and solve problems you have to get practice in ... analyzing information and solving problems. A traditional liberal art, including the art history major whose story begins the article, may have some ability in that area. I believe you get more of that practice in economics as a liberal art -- more than economics as a business discipline, by the way, but let me just flag that for a future post -- than you do in most liberal arts, but traditional liberal arts programs in psychology or political science can do this, too. I think that's why our majors have a distinct advantage in the workplace.

Labels: economics, higher education