Why Choose the Liberal Arts?

By Mark William Roche ’78. University of Notre Dame, 2010. An argument for the essential importance of liberal arts education, citing the intrinsic value of learning for its own sake, the cultivation of intellectual virtues necessary for success beyond the academy and the formative influence of the liberal arts on character. The American Association of Colleges and Universities awarded it the 2012 Frederic W. Ness Award, given to a book that “best illuminates the goals and practices of a contemporary liberal education.”