Anthony Weihao Ke

Writers Journey
Mr. Coulombe
Jan 25, 2015

Liberal Arts or Specialized Education?

Tuajuanda C. Jordon, in the editorial Thinking Outside the Box (Jan 12, 2015)
argues that liberal arts education should be emphasized instead of the current trend of
specialized training to drive our tech-driven future. He supports his argument by saying
that liberal arts education allows you to be effective at your job no matter what your field is
because the system trains you to thrive in subjectivity and ambiguity. Jordon hopes to
arouse public interest in the liberal arts education in order for our future generation to have
a flexible mind and thrive well in all environments. His audience is the general public;
mainly the students who are deciding which kind of college to attend.
The author has a point when he argues that liberal arts education makes you more
resilient when the job market changes, but I feel that it should not be favored over the
traditional specialized training. The job market may change, but due to the enormous
research and development backing up the currently established fields, it is not likely that
the advancements in those fields will cease and its pursuers will run out of job. Thus, the
specialized training is every bit relevant and more effective than the liberal arts education
because it focuses your effort into one field instead of having to do everything. Jordon
points out that great scientists across history did not receive any special scientist training
but achieve great things as a result of their curiosity and critical thinking. However, they
achieve those great things with the culmination of experience and lot of time on their hand.
In the current day society, efficiency and rapid productivity is needed. The pace of living
has increased and people are expected to contribute at a young age. Only the intensive
training of specialized education program can provide them with the necessary skills they
need to thrive in their areas of interest and keep up with the pace of the fast moving world.
According to LinkedIn, 20 out of 25 most desirable career skills last year is technology and

Anthony Weihao Ke
Writers Journey
Mr. Coulombe
Jan 25, 2015

computer related. However, liberal arts education rarely emphasizes the technology and
computer related skills so it is not really in line with the current trend of development.
It is superfluous to be good at everything but great at nothing and a specialized
education system is much more desirable.
Source:
Jordon,TuajuandaC."ThinkingOutsidetheBox."USNews.U.S.News&WorldReport,12Jan.2015.
Web.25Jan.2015.