Great piece.  Thought I’d pass along a couple of thoughts: #podcasts :  Where Budding Chefs Learn Philosophy, Too | American RadioWorks | <http://ow.ly/W779Y> #podcasts Interesting side note from the podcast is that two of the nation’s military academies are also among the United States top-rated Liberal Arts educations: Annapolis and West Point.  Even the hard sciences and engineering graduates of the military academies are well-schooled in the Liberal Arts (something I can attest to personally witnessing, although not an academy graduate myself when we spent 5 years stationed on "The Yard" in Annapolis during 90‘s .) The Chef’s school mentioned is the CIA, Culinary Institute of America. __________________________________ Second, I’d also like to recommend Fareed Zakaria’s  In Defense of a Liberal Education <http://ow.ly/W77Zp> as a companion reading to your essay.  It’s a short, lucid read that ties the liberal arts deep into the western traditions of what it means to be not only an educated person but a citizen of an enlightened, self-governing, republic. __________________________________ I made a living riding a 2-week, $5,000 course in SQL database language up through the ranks to a career in SIGINT (signals intelligence).  But I created a life worth living through my Liberal Arts education.  I’ve never regretted my choice. I witnessed the folly of children chasing the hot degrees through university.  Prodded by their parents to get something that "paid," only to see those same children 4-years later, burdened with debt, competing in the same over-crowded applicant scrum in a muddy and drying job pool.