I have a degree in Vocal Music Performance, and I paid for it myself. I also got a Masters degree in MIS and Database Management Systems, again on my own dime. I now manage a database development team for a major Internet company (one I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of). And you know what? While my technical Masters helps with the more mechanical and analytical aspects of my job, it’s the things I learned in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts that help me actually be effective at what I do.

If you want someone to just get a job, send them to a votech school or a community college. Nothing wrong with that, and they should be able to become plenty competent via a program of narrow, focused training. I’ve certainly trained a lot of people in programs like that myself.

But if you want people to lead, to innovate, to be exceptional, you have to teach them how to think holistically, and how to work organizationally. Not just how to solve analytical problems, but how to solve entire problems, with all their analytical, social, political, tactical, and strategic dimensions. Teach them how to think, how to understand, and how to influence. One of the ways people can learn this is through the challenge of a broad education that forces them to study areas outside of their comfort zone.

Long live the Liberal Arts.