Academic Atrophy the Condition of the Liberal Arts in Americaã¢ââ¢s Public Schools

It'south not easy to balance the advantages of a college caste with the deficiencies of a liberal arts education. Simply at schools similar Babson College, entrepreneurship is a core part of the curriculum.

Reuters

When are Americans going to wake up and realize that the 60s and 70s-era nostalgia for the "value" of a college degree is just that -- nostalgia?

A degree does not guarantee yous or your children a good job anymore. In fact, it doesn't guarantee you a job: last year, 1 out of 2 bachelor's degree holders under 25 were jobless or unemployed. Since the recession, we've lost millions of loftier- and mid-wage jobs -- and replaced a handful of those with lower-wage ones. No wonder some immature people are giving up entirely -- a xvi.eight percent unemployment rate plus soaring student loan debt is more than a picayune discouraging. Withal old-guard academic leaders are all the same clinging to the status quo -- and loudly insisting that a four-year liberal arts degree is a worthy investment in every young American's future.

Case in point: I was recently invited to keynote during a briefing at the Lyles Middle for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Fresno, Cal. As someone who works every mean solar day to give more people access to entrepreneurship pedagogy, it's refreshing to talk to educators who are adapting their curricula in the interest of actually preparing students for a new economy. But one educator told me a story that fabricated my blood boil, about a higher president who recently terminated his institution'due south entrepreneurship instruction program.

Non because of budgetary constraints or poor enrollment, heed yous -- but because he "didn't understand the tangible value of such a plan."

Actually? In 2012, it's the "tangible value" of iv years of liberal arts that should be called into question.

We go along telling young Americans that a bachelor'due south degree in history is as valuable as, say, a chemical engineering degree -- but it'southward only non true anymore. All degrees are non created equal. And if we -- parents, educators, entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders -- maintain this narrow-minded arroyo, then we are not just failing young indebted Americans and their families. We are harming the long-term vitality of our economy.

Unfortunately, the college president in the story above represents the norm. According to research conducted by Buzz Marketing Group and the Young Entrepreneur Council, 56 percentage of students age 21-24 never had access to entrepreneurship classes at all; of those who did, 62 pct found them inadequate or poorly executed -- even though 92 percent agreed entrepreneurship pedagogy was vital to their success today. Talk well-nigh a disconnect.

At present, I realize this is new -- and often difficult -- territory for traditional academic institutions. How does a school validate entrepreneurship? And what parent wants to hear they are paying tens of thousands of dollars for their child to be an "entrepreneur"?

Look no further than institutions similar Babson College, consistently ranked #1 for entrepreneurship. Since current president Len Schlesigner signed on -- in the midst of the Cracking Recession, no less -- Babson'southward faculty has pioneered its own education method, applying entrepreneurial thinking and easily-on learning to every aspect of campus life. Dissimilar other collegiate leaders, Schlesinger saw the recession as an opportunity to aggrandize. With Babson faculty on board, he ambitiously coordinated stakeholders on and off campus, and formed departmental task forces to review curricula.

Today, every freshman who walks into Babson goes immediately to work with a team to create, develop, launch and manage a new business organization (and they donate their profits to nonprofits). Students spend just 14 hours a calendar week in grade -- the other 154 are spent elsewhere, in special interest housing or working on student-led initiatives. Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle, not a course.

Programs similar Babson's are worth emulating non only because they create the next generation of business owners and freelancers (independent workers are an especially fast-growing category). These programs enable students to think entrepreneurially -- to seize opportunity, take risks and create wealth. But put, entrepreneurship education gives young people a toolkit to use their bailiwick to the real world.

Information technology also makes them more employable. A contempo report from Junior Achievement Innovation Initiative and Gallup found that both employers and employees believe America'due south workforce must get more entrepreneurial if the U.S. is to remain competitive -- 95 and 96 percentage, respectively. But one in ten believed entrepreneurship was an innate skill.

Meanwhile, some xl percent of young Americans surveyed by Buzz Marketing Group and YEC started side businesses just to make ends come across. The question before us now is, why aren't we helping them succeed instead of watching them live paycheck to paycheck? Not all dental students dream of running their own do, but they might not have a choice. Let'southward set up them for that reality.

Chiefly, I'm non suggesting we get rid of liberal arts departments -- I'k suggesting we create more employable English and moving picture majors. "Well-rounded" and "self-sufficient" shouldn't be mutually exclusive concepts, and combining experiential learning with access to business role models and public/private partnerships can fundamentally transform the way we call up about workforce development.

Len Schlesinger describes himself equally an entrepreneur, and frankly, I think that's a function all higher presidents should adopt. Hither'due south a thought: let'southward fire every college president with the means and resources to embrace entrepreneurship who doesn't explore, support or start an entrepreneurship education program or partnership of some kind. Sure, that idea is bound to ruffle some feathers, but forgive me if I don't shed a tear for those leaders whose outdated policies (and our tacit willingness to accept them) helped create the situation we're in today.

Recession or no recession, if a CEO today were to send production to marketplace and some l percent of that product was inefficient, outdated or outright cleaved, that CEO would exist promptly shown the door.

Nostalgia for yesterday is overnice, but nosotros demand a new approach. As more and more "safe" jobs become automated, streamlined or downsized (recall when police force grads were virtually guaranteed half-dozen-figure jobs?), let's start putting our coin where our mouth is, and enquire the people educating our children to graduate a new generation of self-sufficient, "well-rounded" thinkers and doers. And since most of usa don't have a seat on a collegiate Board of Trustees, I suggest you vote with your checkbook.

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Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/how-liberal-arts-colleges-are-failing-america/262711/

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