What is it that distinguishes a liberal arts education from vocational training? It’s not simply breadth of exposure to the arts, the humanities and the social and natural sciences. It’s that a liberal education is meant to be transformative.
The higher purpose of liberal education is to free its recipients to think in fresh and more analytical and informed ways, appreciate culture with sophisticated sensibilities, and bring historical, ethical, cross-cultural perspectives to current events.
The skills and knowledge a liberal education imparts include not only disciplinary methods and theoretical and conceptual frameworks, but something far greater: heightened powers of observation and communication, interpretive and research skills, and a capacity for critical self-reflection.