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Lawton praises liberal education
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Liberal education may be the key to keeping students competitive in the 21st century and revitalizing the U.S. economy, said Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton at a University of Wisconsin System conference Friday.
Lawton stressed the importance of promoting liberal education in preparing students to adapt to the rapidly changing economic environment.
“Educational slowdown is the greatest problem facing our nation,” Lawton said.
“For the first time, young workers will be less qualified than the older workers they are replacing.”
As a promoter of Wisconsin’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise campaign, Lawton said the American quality of education has declined not only relative to the rest of the world but also in absolute terms.
According to Clifton Conrad, professor of higher education and educational leadership at the University of Wisconsin, a changing economy both in Wisconsin and the United States requires a liberal arts education that promotes well-rounded thinking skills and experience.
“People will have to adapt to at least 10 to 15 jobs over the course of a lifetime,” Clifton said.
A liberal education will help students become “mentally agile” and qualified to handle the increasingly difficult economic landscape, according to Conrad.
“We need people who are not simply learned, but who are learners, meaning they have higher order thinking skill and creativity,” Conrad said. “These skills will help them identify and solve the ever-changing challenges and problems in this rapidly changing world.”
According to Conrad, empirical knowledge does not adequately prepare students for the unforeseen challenges of the changing environment of the 21st century.
Conrad proposed a more hands-on approach to instilling thinking skills, such as synthesis and analysis, cultivation of interpersonal communication and reasoning skills.
“Instead of sitting in class, have [students] engage actively in creative and discerning problem-solving and identifying meaningful problems.” Conrad said. “We need imagination instead of empirical knowledge acquisition.”
Conrad noted the term “liberal education” is ambiguous, and both students and the general population often don’t understand what this type of education consists of.
“The term liberal education is so general it doesn’t mean anything anymore,” Conrad said.
Students described their perceptions of a liberal education as more diverse, having greater depth and a broader reach than conventional, specifically-oriented education.
“I think of [liberal educations] as a more open and diverse education than the typical learning methods,” UW sophomore Julia Currie said.
In her speech, Lawton also noted the importance of both the quality of education and the quality of life in Wisconsin to curb the brain drain, which Lawton said is the exodus of Wisconsin-educated workers to Chicago and Minneapolis.
“The chair of the Higher Education Committee spoke about how budget constraints may force us now to cut down on certain UW campuses,” Lawton said. “And I just want to say — over my dead body.”
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Miss Lawton, whose leg are you trying to pull here? I realize that your political position requires you to say things that makes everyone happy, but the reality of our times (economically and workforce-wise) makes the liberal education initiative a dead initiative.
Example: A business firm is looking at two people to hire. One has a degree in economics, marketing, business, etc. Candidate two has “your” liberal education degree. Assuming that they are equal in all areas, guess what person is going to be hired? Teachers have teaching degrees, engineers have engineering degrees, and lawyers have law degrees. They all exist for a particular reason. Maybe our budget is so out of wack because you and Jimmy boy hired a person with a liberal education degree to run the state’s finances?
I have no problems with general education coursework that assists in the growth and development of traditional-aged college students. Keep jaming the liberal education initiative down our throats and you’ll have little chance at the gov. office yourself.
Next week’s political maneuver: “Lawton praises the work of technical colleges”
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I don’t think you read the article correctly. Lawton and the UW System are promoting a “liberal arts education that promotes well-rounded thinking skills and experience.”
This is not a degree in itself (i.e., a bachelor’s of liberal arts) but is achieved IN CONJUNCTION with a degree in economics, business, law, etc., to enhance that degree with critical thinking and problem-solving skills. A narrow scope of knowledge in one field is not enough: students need to be able to adapt in the workplace, and that’s what a liberal education helps one do.
Is that really political?
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Business leaders do not agree with Anonymous. Not long ago, the National Association of Colleges and Employers surveyed employers across the country to determine what they’re looking for as they hire new employees. The survey showed that employers tend to focus on finding graduates with the right skills – rather than the right major. Those skills, the employers said, are critical thinking and communication skills, problem-solving ability, adaptability to change, and being able to work with and among diverse groups of people.
Almost every employer will tell you, “We can always provide the technical training to whoever we hire.’’
The research is clear that the majority of employers now are looking for the higher-order skills that one acquires through a liberal education.
Mark Bradley President UW System Board of Regents
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Mr. Bradley,
You are needlessly bumping heads with anonymous 1. I can’t speak for him or her, but s/he may mean that a quality program in any field should prepare one with BOTH “technical skills” AND critical thinking, problem solving, etc…Is this asking to much of individual programs?
There has always been this broad assumption that general education/liberal education courses are doing so much in the areas of preparing 18-20 year olds to critically think, problem solve, communicate better, etc. Where is the cause-and-effect research to suggest this is actually occurring in today’s college classrooms? Can we always atribute student growth and development in higher education to general education/liberal education coursework? Having spent time in combat as a 20 year old, I can guarantee you the skills you are referring to (p-solving, adaptability to change, etc.) were learned at a much faster rate than a lecture room. I agree with general education coursework! I just think way to much credit is being given to it.
Anonymous 2: Do your research. UW-Oshkosh was in the process of creating a “new” liberal studies degree program.