This Week at Pioneer › Liberal Arts vs. Workforce Development

The New York Times is running an interesting debate on the relationship between college studies and employment. According to Bill Gates, students should enroll in courses "well-correlated to areas that actually produce jobs," while Steve Jobs insists that "technology alone is not enough," and must go hand-in-hand with liberal arts and the humanities. Click here to read Jim Stergios' Boston.com blog on the debate, in which he notes that the national standards Gates is pushing "lopped in half Massachusetts' emphasis on literature in K-12 grades." Should K-12 and college education focus on developing "marketable" workforce skills or on cultivating those qualities that define our humanity - reasoned deliberation, drama, tragedy, citizenship, tolerance - through appreciation of the great works of literature, history, philosophy, math and science? Would Bill Gates have us hit "ctrl+alt+delete" on Plato, Shakespeare, Newton and Lincoln?

On Tuesday, Pioneer hosts an event that promises a stimulating exchange of views on this very topic: "The Liberal Arts & Closing Achievement Gaps." Space is still available. Click the picture below for more details.

Virginia Secretary of Education, Gerard Robinson, will deliver the Keynote speech, following introductory remarks by Tom Birmingham, Senior Counsel, Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP, former President of the Massachusetts Senate, and co-author of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993. E.D. Hirsch, Chairman and Founder, Core Knowledge Foundation, will participate in a panel discussion along with Monty Neill, Interim Executive Director, Fair Test, and Tony Wagner, Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group, Harvard Graduate School of Education.