Commenter Abigail asks a very pertinent question regarding my contention that today’s university does not teach students the way that it should:

This is all well and true. I’m guilty of some of it myself. However, where do we even begin to fix this issue? Do away with general education requirements? Then what does a university become: a sort of trade school?

This is an excellent question, and I’m glad Abigail raised it.

There are several answers to this question, but first a clarification on what a university is, or at least what it should be.

The university is an institution of higher learning, which implies a few things.

First, it is an institution that teaches students things they can only learn, or at least best understand, at the institution. It teaches concepts that are too hard for the layman to understand on his own.

But, more importantly, it is an institution that teaches higher concepts, more important concepts. It trains students to have the best minds possible. It teaches students to become better citizens, better people.

It is a liberal education, in the truest sense of the word. It teaches what C.S. Lewis called the Tao, a set of precepts that our civilization has set as our standard of the good. Our students should learn in order to become knowledgable people in society, and not just knowledgable, but to become the movers and shakers of policies: the professors, the philosophers, the scientists, the makers of great art, the historians, the politicians, the judges.

If this is what the modern university should be, then how else do we account for the plethora of other careers, majors and options that are currently in front of students?

To an extent, the material in many of the majors currently available for students to study could easily be learned on the job.

However, the solution Abigail arrives at is absolutely correct. Trade schools should be a more prominent alternative to the university.

If the university is meant to provide a liberal education, a trade school is meant to provide training in the particular field in which the student wants a job.

Unfortunately, this is what the university has become ””­ a jobs factory. The liberal component of the education is a vague and unsatisfying “general education,” which falls deeply short of the university ideal.

The advent of more trade schools would solve this dilemma. If someone wants to be an accountant and could care less about what Plato meant by his image of the cave, that person can attend a trade school that was dedicated to churning out accountants. If someone wants to become a businessman, but doesn’t see how trying to understand how Shakespeare applies to his life, he can attend a business school.

And for those who actually want a liberal education, who want to read the great books, who want to think deeper about human life, the university will be there waiting for them.

If these changes are not made, I fear that the liberal education will be gone for good. If we aren’t taught the great theories, the great ideas or read the great books, how will we have the inspiration to do these things for ourselves?