Duke President: The U.S. Edge In Education
Dick Brodhead has a recent op ed on Washington Post, in which he looked back at his 4 Asian country tour this past summer and forward to the future of US higher education. His point is clear — our (imagined) competitions know our strengths better than we do.
By Richard H. BrodheadMonday, September 4, 2006; Page A19
In particular, we need to promote everything in our system that breeds initiative, independence, resourcefulness and collaboration. One of these is the liberal arts model of education. The schooling that trains students in many different disciplines makes them more flexible at shifting among a range of challenges and approaches. It also equips them to bring different sets of tools to bear on complex problems, allowing them to improvise new solutions by making new connections.
At an even more basic level, we must build on a system whose founding values are very different from respect for authority. When we touch off real debate on serious, open questions and encourage students to have worthwhile thoughts of their own, we are developing an asset of the highest strategic as well as personal value: the habits of active, independent thought.