When I was asked to write about the value of a liberal education, I knew I had to do that, even at this busy time in the semester, because my own liberal education has enriched my life, my thinking and my imagination in ways I never could have anticipated when I was grumbling about those d&!#!@ general education (read: Miami Plan) requirements during registration.
Here's why I say that: I've always been a decent writer. But if you ask, I can sing a couple of American Indian songs I learned in a college class called "Native American Music."
I know a little bit about psychology — enough that, as I watched my young nieces and nephews, I marveled their development mirrored what I'd learned in a class about Jean Piaget and early childhood development.
I also know about failure and the unexpected gifts it can bring. Yes, I failed a class in college — astronomy, taught by revered professor Karlis Kaufmanis, whose annual lecture explaining the star of Bethlehem as an astronomical phenomenon drew throngs of people to the University of Minnesota campus each December.
But, strange as it may seem, I LOVED that class. Couldn't have passed those tests if my life depended on it, but Kaufmanis was a brilliant teacher whose reverence for the beauty of the universe was contagious. And during one of his lectures, there was a moment — a flash of insight still vivid in my memory — when I came to my own personal (and, as it turned out, enduring) understanding of God, after years of searching.
I'm one of those people who majored in something that did not become my career — but led me there. I was a theater major who worked part-time doing publicity for a community theater group and processing payments for small publishing company when I wasn't involved in plays or waiting tables. Through a succession of post-college "Ineeda" jobs (the ones you take because you need them, not because they're what you planned to do), I found my way to journalism.
It didn't take long for me in that profession to realize how valuable it was to have learned a little about a lot of different subjects. When I was assigned to write stories about the arts, I could do that. When I covered the courts, those science classes helped me understand the testimony of expert witnesses. And when I was asked to cover a meeting of the California Horse Racing, I knew I could do that too if I just did a little research — and I thought it would be interesting in an odd sort of way.
My liberal education, then, made me much more curious and gave me enthusiasm for learning that continues even now, as I learn about the technological changes that are transforming journalism. It also taught me HOW to learn and gave me confidence in my ability to do that, so I can approach new experiences and challenges with a sense of adventure rather than trepidation.
It introduced me to subjects, theories and practices I never would have learned about on my own, which broadened my thinking and enhanced my creativity. I am surprised, even now, at how often I draw on some obscure piece of knowledge from my now long-ago college experience, or apply an idea from another discipline as I grapple with challenges associated with my own.
Now that I teach in a college setting, I know lots of sophisticated rhetoric about liberal education and how to achieve it. It's all stuff I believe in and incorporate in my classes, but I don't do that because the college requires it. I do it because my own experience has proven its worth.
I don't think I had even a glimmer of that as I was leaving the university. I felt like I knew more stuff than when I arrived there, but I honestly wondered what value some of that random knowledge would have.
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But you know what? I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. Because someday, what I know about Russian icons and William Blake will come in handy, I just know it. And won't it be cool when it does?
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