As college costs soar, many see a more vocational higher education as the best way to make the price tag worth it. Others, though, argue in favor of a broad-based education based on critical thinking and intellectual inquiry, rather than strict job preparation. We’re sitting down with Wesleyan University President Michael Roth about his new book "Beyond the University: Why A Liberal Education Matters."
GUEST:
- Michael Roth – president of Wesleyan University. He is also a historian, curator, and author, and his most recent book is “Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters.”
LINKS:
- NPR's interview with Michael Roth: "This tension between the useful and the wide-ranging, that tension goes all the way back to the founding of this country — because even though Jefferson and Emerson, let's say, were very much in favor of a wide-ranging and broad education, they also thought the proof was in the pudding."
- Michael Roth's piecefor the New York Times: "The skill at unmasking error, or simple intellectual one-upmanship, is not totally without value, but we should be wary of creating a class of self-satisfied debunkers — or, to use a currently fashionable word on campus, people who like to “trouble” ideas."
