Every year, some of the most nervous graduates are liberal-arts majors, who have been told by too many people that they are unprepared for the future. This is wrong. If they have been diligent, they are prepared for a future in which many of tomorrow's jobs don't even exist yet.
At its core, a liberal-arts education develops the habits of head and heart needed to master any field. It also gives students the capacity to draw on many disciplines. We expect students to build from numerous fields as they seek to understand and address important questions in their lives and careers. We want them to acquire "the discipline and the furniture of the mind," to quote the famous Yale Report of 1828.
Although written nearly two centuries ago, in response to critics of that institution's educational approach, the Yale Report remains a strong defense of liberal arts in the 21st century. It is rooted in the belief that education must "throw the student upon the resources of his own mind."
In 2009, Susquehanna University put in place a curriculum that retains the key elements of a traditional liberal-arts education while providing students with opportunities for real-world application of the principles and practices they learn. It also requires students to complete and reflect on a study-away experience of two weeks or longer in a culture different from their own. I like to think we have been true to the spirit of the Yale Report, and that Steve Jobs would approve.
