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This thread is now available as a blog post:
https://innig.net/teaching/liberal-arts-manifesto
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In college, I took a class called The Letters of Paul. I took it for two very good reasons:
1. I was (and am) named Paul.
2. The prof, Cal Roetzel, was (and is) cool.
I didn’t figure it was an especially practical course. It was for fun, for the challenge, for the cultural knowledge, for the pleasure of doing it.
WHAT LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION IS FOR: A THREAD
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@inthehands A lot of fine arts education is not much on the practicality scale, but it offers life lessons and historical perspective that provide a rationale for the practical aspects...
@toxtethogrady
This is 100% true, and equally true of most of what’s lately called STEM education. Honestly, my high school math and my high school choir were about equally practical for my software development career…though choir probably wins on the practicality scale, since it builds skills around maintaining healthy collegial relationships, remaining outcome-focused, and cutting scope.
@inthehands @toxtethogrady I attended 4-year music college (Berklee) and what you say here about high school choir is, in many ways, how it prepared me for a life as a software worker in the 21st C.
People regularly ask me how I went from music → software, and at this point, I have a very pat story that explains my journey & hopefully illuminates their own.
@jeffbyrnes @inthehands A lot of English majors found great success in the banking business. You never can tell...
@toxtethogrady @inthehands Yep. When I interview for positions I’m hiring, the one quality I look for above all else is “capacity to learn”. When I gently probe folks knowledge & skills, my biggest red flag is someone who’s unwilling to say “I don’t know, but here’s how I’d figure it out…” and then take me through a quickie version of their research process.