In Defense of a Liberal Education

CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria argues for a renewed commitment to the worlds most valuable educational tradition.The liberal arts are under attack. The governors of Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have all pledged that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts, and they seem to have an unlikely ally in President Obama. While at a General Electric plant in early 2014, Obama remarked, I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree. These messages are hitting home majors like English and history, once very popular and highly respected, are in steep decline.I get it, writes Fareed Zakaria, recalling the atmosphere in India where he grew up, which was even more obsessed with getting a skills-based education.