“The Stories of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated…”

Picture 3Seen this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education? Give it a read and ask yourself why — if this is what the public actually thinks — we all seem to assume that there’s a crisis in the liberal arts?

That is, if the skills taught all across the liberal arts are so essential (read the results [PDF] of the study for yourself) then why do we all seem to agree so easily that they are so non-essential — i.e., that they deserve budget cuts, that they are not relevant, that you won’t get a job if you know how to use and apply them…?

Might the stories of the liberal arts’ irrelevance be greatly exaggerated and, perhaps, in the service of other fields or social forces…?