For both political and economic reasons, then, liberal education in general, and the humanities in particular, have drawn a great deal of criticism in recent years. My hope is to say something meaningful in their defense. In so doing, I also hope to avoid both exaggeration and polemic, which are vices common, even ubiquitous, in so many discussions of education today. Those searching for ammunition with which to engage the contemporary culture wars will likely find what follows disappointing. My intention is to take at least half a step back from these conflicts and reflect on what I take to be the fundamental commitments of liberal learning. Such reflection, I believe, is essential if liberal learning is to survive the political turmoil of our times.
What follows is an attempt to develop honest answers to questions about what we mean by, and might hope for from, a liberal education – both as individuals and as a society. That’s it. I don’t intend to argue about how we can afford liberal education, how to promote or market it, how to administratively organize higher education to do more of it, or any of these or related practical matters. There are excellent books (from which I have greatly benefited) on such problems, and on many more of the array of issues facing higher education, such as the corporatization of the academy and the growth of non-academic elements in universities. It will come as no surprise that I have opinions about these matters, and I will occasionally allow these opinions to be obvious to the reader (yes, I do believe a strong liberal education is a public good as well as a private right deserved by every citizen; no, I do not think it is honest or even necessary to emphasize only or even primarily the vocational payoffs of such an education when promoting it). Most importantly, however, my concern is prior to the practical; it is to understand the normative claims of liberal education as best I can. If I am right about the value of this form of education, and the benefits of its complex, difficult, and necessary relationship to liberal democracy, then working out the practical matters (such as making it available to all students, and not only the sons and daughters of the affluent) becomes much more compelling and worthwhile. Until we are confident about the experiences and values promoted by liberal learning, we will be equivocal in answering the attacks liberal colleges and universities are currently enduring. Until we are honest about what it is we are promoting, we will not be clear about how to practically achieve our goals.
Liberal education is currently under pressure in part because democracy is under pressure. Although liberal education and democratic politics are different activities which require a level of separation to maintain the integrity of each, the battle for one is nonetheless related to the battle for the other. Neither can survive alone.
The question haunting this book is a simple one: is there any reason to maintain faith in liberal education? Is this an enterprise that can continue to command our democratic support, or is it now clear that it represents a set of failed and bygone dreams, or perhaps a practice too weak to meet the challenges of our time? Is it worthwhile to continue to teach the arts and humanities in our present climate, or are such topics mere indulgences, the playthings of elites and aesthetes who set themselves apart from and beyond the real work of our society? Many people have come to think this way about the project of liberal educational. Conservative politicians attack liberal education as a political foe, as the source of a form of liberal intolerance toward their own political values, as a threat to what they view as traditional (and appropriate) political and religious values. Even liberal politicians, however, such as former President Barack Obama (himself, it should be noted, the beneficiary of an excellent liberal education) have implied that studying such humane topics as art history increasingly looks like a waste of time and resources compared to focused vocational training. Students, sadly, appear to agree more and more with those who question the utility of liberal studies, as they increasingly choose college programs to prepare themselves for careers in business, education, technology, and health care. This boon to professional preparation, pushed in large part by the growing private cost of higher education, has come at a significant cost to liberal studies, especially in the arts and humanities, and colleges and universities across the country find themselves frantically adjusting their offerings accordingly. What can we say to students and their families, to our colleges and universities, and to our fellow citizens, about the value of liberal education and the need to preserve and even extend our commitment to it?
(excerpted from introduction)
