“The problem is not that some places that call themselves ‘liberal arts colleges’ really aren’t any more, but rather that the number of Americans who see the great value a liberal arts education provides is dwindling,” he said via e-mail. “Yes, students and their parents still want degrees from prestigious liberal arts colleges, but fewer and fewer value the liberal arts education the colleges provide. In today’s market, how is anyone going to get a job as an anthropologist or historian, let alone as a philosopher or expert in 19th-century English literature?”
Ferrall questioned whether liberal arts colleges are paying enough attention to these trends. “An increasing number of liberal arts colleges are attempting answer this question by presenting themselves as vocational, or by arguing that studying anthropology will actually lead to a good job, rather than by showing how the liberal arts curriculum as a whole leads to questioning, analytic, critical thinking that stands recipients in good stead wherever their lives may lead and on whatever career paths they follow,” he said. “The liberal arts wing of the academy needs to get busy making the case for the education they provide, before it is too late.”
