There is a contest over using the business model to run institutions of higher education. In that contest, one question may be the polka-dotted elephant. What is the product? It is a logical question for a business.
Years ago, when I was the graduate student representative on a Presidential Search Committee at the Ohio State University, I had an opportunity to peruse a volume about the history of the Ohio State University. It seems that there was a concern in the middle of the nineteenth century that the proposed university would produce graduates educated in the mechanical arts such as science, engineering, etc. There was also much debate in the newspapers that the university should produce polished mechanics who know about the classics. Why?
At the time that I served on the committee, I was a non-traditional mother, divorced and raising three children. I added what I learned from that volume to what many of my mentors taught me. I produced a mantra for my children. I am sure that I am not the first to use a this phrase or a version of it.
“Smart is knowing how. Wise is knowing when.”
Yes, the grammar may not be perfect. It is easy to remember.
In this age of increasingly digitized education, it is easy to focus on mastery of the content of texts as measured by multiple choice questions. What is the right answer? Which is the right sentence to copy from the book into your homework? What is the missing word in the following sentence?
I want my doctors and engineers to know the answers to these questions.
When should this knowledge be deployed? What is the proper application of our knowledge to questions not yet asked as of the publication of the textbook? How can we advance science and the economy and political power while remaining human? Are humans only animals? Are we humane? Why does that silent E have so much power over our social engineering and civic decisions?
Humans are smart enough to produce clean solar and nuclear energy and biofuel. Humans are smart enough to house and feed all on the planet. Do we have the will to be humane enough to do so?
Liberal arts courses are the space where we polish our “mechanics.” Our products are what Durkheim called sacred and profane social facts. We produce humane homo sapiens, people who are wise enough to know when to apply their trade in a way that benefits all. We learned something from Ashoka’s enlightenment and from Plato’s concept of “souls of gold” who are pure enough in intent to not make decisions based solely on the bottom line of the quarterly statements.
Without the humanities, universities will produce rational, genocidal bipedal animals with lots of tools.
So, to those who are leaning toward a rational business model STEM education without ample humanities courses, I recommend advice I learned from some nineteenth century people in a state that was full of cornfields and forests. While you focus on making people smart about the What of STEM, be certain that your outputs are Wise enough to know When.
profmrobinson 