A 'Big Picture' Education

No better time than Graduation Day to share this exit interview with outgoing president of the Association of American Colleges & Universities, Carol Geary Schneider. A prime advocate for the ideals of a liberal education and the skills today's graduates need most, Dr. Schneider is passionate about the value of a liberal education in the face skepticism in state houses and among policy makers:

I think the most important thing is that we actually have clarity about what we mean by liberal education. AAC&U's actual mission is advancing liberal education and inclusive excellence. Everybody loves the term "inclusive excellence." I hear policy leaders using it all the time. I wonder if they've thought hard about what it means.

I don't think you can have inclusive excellence unless you have some specificity about what you mean by the excellence, and are working hard to ensure that the curriculum is well-designed so that students with different interests, different backgrounds, different levels of preparation are being guided to the kind of learning they actually need. So an institution should have clear goals for the kind of big-picture learning students need – the broad learning in the liberal arts and sciences, clarity about intellectual skills, clarity about the kinds of practices that students ought to engage in, like research, like service, like project-based learning, collaborative learning. And they ought to have clarity that these things are well-designed into the curriculum.

And all of it ought to be explained to the students before they apply, when they arrive, as they are in their first-year programs, as they move forward in both general education and the major.

Just so. Much to be said on this and the whole video is worth your time - she is very effective without overstating the issue. And the liberal arts education needs defenders going forward. It's best advocates, perhaps, will be the students entering careers over the next few months who will need and hence realize the value of communications and interpersonal skills, critical thinking and creativity that flow from the heart of the liberal arts.

Get yours here.