“We don’t necessarily know how to teach you to be a better orthodontist or a better tax accountant,” Mr. Nelson tells the daily London Independent. “We innovate in teaching you how to think, how to be creative, how to communicate effectively — and how to lead.”
Teach them a trade. We’ve already got enough opinionated political science majors dumped on us.
Learning a trade is wonderful and more should probably go that route, but I believe there remains a place for a liberal arts education. So I say teach them not what to think, but how to think.
“Tax accountant” shouldn’t even be a profession, because tax law should be simple enough for anyone to understand and comply. Orthodontists, on the other hand, do something socially useful. So do HVAC technicians.
i disagree... i am not sending my kids to college to learn a trade... they can do that outside of college... in fact, instead of sending students to college to learn a trade, they ought to have more "trade schools" or apprenticeships... college should be for the deep thinkers, learners... like it was when Thomas Jefferson studied... and it should not be so easy for anybody and everybody to get in... from the beginning of our boys' academic lives, we have aimed to teach them how to think--not what to think... i want their college years to continue in that vain where they take what they think and begin to demonstrate it, communicate it through speaking and writing... continue to discover it in their science and logic studies...
some of the Founding Fathers were classically educated, and were also very hands-on, physical men who could farm and ranch... hunt and build... that is what i want for my boys... i want them to be men who can do constructive things with their hands (a trade), and who can not only read a law and understand it, but have the skill to write one... we want them to be what is considered the whole man... cultivating their hands, minds and spirits...
our hope is they are free thinkers and lifelong learners...
“We’ve already got enough opinionated political science majors dumped on us.”
Maybe, but most of them were never taught to think critically. If they can teach that, it’s more valuable than any professional training.