Liberal Arts, Civic Life, and the Practicality Question

Hyperspecialization in the disciplines and the rewards for that combined with the growing mantra for first job preparation are double threats to liberal teaching and learning. Given that circumstance, the sorts of synthetic lecture classes in the humanities and social sciences that once provided the foundations of liberal learning have evaporated. Rather than lamenting what we can no longer do, we might rethink what we can do with our hyperspecialists and the desire for practicality in liberal education.