The magic word we need to start using is "soft skills." That is the industry buzzword that children will be faced with in the professional world of tomorrow.

"Soft skills are much more difficult to define and measure – they are the interpersonal or “people” skills that help you to successfully interact with others in the workplace. Regardless of the job, you have to interact effectively with supervisors and people above and below you on the work chart, as well as others possibly- such as customers, vendors, patients, students, etc."(https://www.thebalance.com/top-soft-skills-2063721)

Liberal arts are the foundation of almost all soft skills. It may sound very "cold" to contextualize arts as something that is important to business, but I think most people will agree that people who have that exposure are the ones who can cross the most barriers in the professional world. That is why we must fund them and must consider them in education. Visual art gives us ways to connect and look for meaning in things we don't imediately understand. Performance art gives us the ability to infer emotion from human action. Literature and history allows us to share our experience across generations. Foreign language allows us to share our experience across borders. Communication... ah.... the ability to understand that what you heard is not what was said and to look for understanding... that is what is most missing from the world....

I think education should be free, and self-directed.

Any textbook can be found for free online and most top universities give free online classes and degrees anyway.

I don't pit one kind of knowledge against another. All knowledge has its place, function, value.

I grew up in a family of engineers, musicians and artists. I have found utility between my computer science, radio physics and music background. All of them have enriched my life. I believe that art etc are just as important because they allow us to value the human condition as it relates to science and our understanding of the universe. The universe is awash in every conceivable frequency in the spectrum audio and visual. And they are really one and the same. We are pretty damn lucky as a species to have evolved to be able to translate this into the arts.

A well-rounded education serves most people best. Back in the Dark Ages, when I
was in school, we studied almost everything. All subjects were taught, including art
classes. Personally, I feel like I got a wonderful public school education, and I was ready for the work world when I finished high school. Actually, I started working when I was 14, but still kept my grades up and finished high school with straight As.
I didn't start college until I was in my 30s.

Art enriches life, social science enables us to understand and try to solve social problems, foreign languages and communications allow us to exchange ideas. They're all vitally important subjects.

My degree is in Liberal Studies, because I changed majors enough that I just needed to fill those buckets (music, humanities, art, etc). Later on, I found that I am just not the flavor of the month when it comes to learning, or career, or ... anything! Liberal Arts accidentally gave me my true path, which is ALL paths. I used to call myself a liberal artist, because I like everything!!! Then I found this TED talk, where we became "multipotentialites." I like "liberal artist" better, but see what you think:

Side story: I was singing for the inauguration of the new president of Rollins College (Winter Park, FL) a few years ago. This was before the 2016 election, and the inflammatory rhetoric was flying everywhere. Some candidate (cough Jeb Bush cough) made the statement that we don't need Liberal Arts graduates in our economy. Dr. Cornwell (new prez at Rollins) fired back during his speech defending Liberal Arts curriculum, and asked the attending faculty, PhDs mostly, what their undergrad degrees were in. PhD in Anthropology=Liberal Arts. PhD scientist that works for NASA=Liberal Arts. PhD in International Business=Liberal Arts. And so on.

It needs to start in elementary school and continue through adulthood. It helps make an individual a fully rounded human.

As important as any.

It really is dependent on the individual. I would not force mathematics on someone who may be more suited in social care.

I wouldn't make a politician out of someone who is shows more interest in the arts - unless they show some interest in politicking, of course.

Went toLiberal arts college with Sociology Major-totally makes you more rounded.

Liberal arts were once considered the basic preparation for participation in the democratic process. Our shift to practical vocational education before HS graduation is one of the reasons we have FOX News. Critical thinking skills are taught through liberal arts.

I would say that they are essential to the education process itself. To some degree guided by a person's goals and aspirations.

I'm doing a Modern Languages degree. I think that says it all. They're essential, you learn about the culture and history of other countries, as well as just the language. You need to know about other cultures... Ignorance is just infuriating.

Technology has gotten all the press in the past couple of generations and I'm certainly a technologist. But I'd be a dull boy indeed if I had no curiosity about sociology, psychology, language, communications, etc. My wife is a professional writer (mostly trade journalism these days) and I have nothing but respect for her abilities.

Sadly, at a professional level, it's far easier in general for me to get respect than it is for her. These days everyone thinks they can write; we aren't quite to the point that everyone thinks they can write software, even though it's less of a mystery than it used to be. I always feel bad for my wife, doing outstanding work and getting "meh" pay for it. One time I hooked her up with one of my clients and I wished I hadn't because their CEO wondered aloud in a meeting -- with my wife present! -- why they needed to hire her to do something that "our salespeople and other internal personnel could do themselves." That company really needed to get their shit together in terms of messaging, they come off as buffoons compared to their own clients who actively use professional writers, PR agencies and the like. But -- they didn't see the value proposition, and it's still to this day their weak point as a company. Due to the above-mentioned asshole the only thing they've used her for is ghost writing trade articles when they're too busy or intimidated to do it themselves.

So yeah I think liberal arts are great and necessary.

Engineering was the right choice for me, career-wise, but I got a lot out of my liberal arts courses in college and my background in languages and literature from high school, it did foster a sense of intellectual curiosity that keeps me motivated to go beyond what I get paid to do at the moment. Furthermore, a broader knowledge of different cultures and the development of communication skills that comes from the liberal arts is useful in presenting ideas and policies more clearly, so I see professional value from the liberal arts disciplines.

I am for well rounding, BUT did/do not find forcing non-major subjects run by awful teachers (possibly a quirk of the university that I attended) conducive to such. Combine that with the high cost for every credit required and I ask, "How ELSE might we accomplish this?"

FWIW, I am a huge fan of the arts, literature, history. The classes forced on me during my scientific undergrad did NOT instill this fascination. Life did.

Its under-rated. Increasingly our world is becoming more and more under human control. We eat when hungry, we sleep when tired, when hot we turn on the AC, when cold the heat.

All but a small percentage of our lives are spent inside cars and homes. Everything that we deal with is either something we made or other humans. Liberal arts lets us navigate the social world which our physical world continues to become.

I'm all for it..

The American mentality about learning other languages is a scary one. Many Americans think learning Spanish is lowering themselves because this language is spoken mostly by laborers ....while learning French is exactly the opposite. Whether kids learn Spanish, French, Ukrainian, Japanese, Hebrew, Tagalog..........or even sign language....the truth is all this learning goes to enrich their lives because it opens the mind to the understanding of other cultures.
To oppose the learning of foreing languages is xenophobic.

Unless one is going to teach Liberal Arts in High Scool or college, a Liberal Art degree is not much of a money maker and don't kid yourself money is what our society is all about.

It’s so important! It opens the entire world up for you on every level. People need to be exposed to it daily in some form from the very beginning.

I loved it and am still happy with my choice. That said, my daughter is getting a liberal arts degree and it scares the poop out of me that she will be unhirable. I ehar that is not the case, that companies want trainable people, but who knows.

This is an excerpt from one of my songs, my poem and a bit of my photo digital art. Just an example of why all of what I know has lent to what I do.

One day any kind of education will be valued